How important are handwriting skills? Parents have expressed concerns that their children are falling behind on their handwriting skills. How important is this? The picture here shows an x-ray of a preschoolers hand vs a 7 year olds hand. Aren’t the structural differences striking?!

There is a reason I am not forcing my 2 older children (4 & 6) to practice handwriting. Most children are not physically capable of properly gripping a pencil until ~age 7. The motor cortex is not yet developed for this intricate and high level fine motor skill. I have seen so many children need OT bc they aren’t working on the foundational skills needed to develop proper pencil grip. .

Activities to build a foundation for handwriting:

1) Playing with playdough.
2) Beeswax : using their hands to warm up the beeswax takes a lot of manipulation to form various shapes (I use #stockmar).
3) Painting with a thicker size paint brush.
4) Cutting paper with scissors. Even if it’s not straight. Kids can cut them up & use them in their play (pretend money, tickets etc).
5) Stringing beads. This is a skill I look for when testing preschoolers. If your child is struggling, start with a thick shoe lace and large beads, then move to pipe cleaners & 9mm beads.
6) Glue –You want to use small bottles of glue (I like the ones from @challengeandfun) so they are using hand & forearm strength to force the glue to come out.

If your preschooler is struggling with developmentally expected skills such as feeding themselves with utensils, fastening buttons & zippers, or manipulating small objects, then you may want to consider an OT evaluation. Otherwise, worry not, handwriting will soon be on its way!

Co-written with my colleague & friend from graduate school @_doctorani

X-ray photo by @steinerschoolny

Handwriting Skills