We are all aware that learning to write and handwriting in general, is an incredibly important skill for children to learn.
That said, for parents sometimes it can be hard to know how to help your children with their handwriting at home. We’ve collaborated with Uni-ball, who have put together their 5 top tips to help your children to improve their handwriting.
How Can I Improve My Child’s Handwriting?
Uni-ball are passionate about helping children to find joy in writing and believe that helping to improve children’s handwriting is the first step to enjoyment.
Their infographic highlights all the little things that can make a big difference when it comes to handwriting for kids and covers everything from what stationery they should use, to how quickly they should write.
There are five key areas on which to focus to help your child to improve their handwriting, these are:
- Choosing the right environment – by encouraging your child to sit at a desk or table you will help them to assume the correct writing position. The correct writing position will help your child to adopt good posture, which in turn will reduce unnecessary strain and improve stability.
- Getting the right grip on the pen or pencil – if your child struggles with handwriting, try looking at their grip on the pen or pencil. A good grip, which is correct, will make writing more comfortable and will make handwriting easier.
- Using the correct paper – using a school-style lined paper will give your child consistency between the learning environment at school and at home. It will also help your child to create letters which are the correct size and in proportion to one another.
- Slowing down – we all want our child to write quickly and effectively. However, when trying to improve your child’s handwriting getting them to slow down is key. Slower writing will help children to have more control over where they stop and start their letters and will also yield less mistakes. Once they have the letter formation under control, you can start to introduce speed to their writing.
- Making writing fun – learning handwriting and learning to write well can be boring for children, so trying to keep it fun and engaging is a must. Try playing games, tracing letters in different mediums. Even drawing and colouring will have a positive effect on their handwriting as it will provide extra practice for grip and improve fine motor skills.
The Importance of Handwriting
Teachers know that “handwriting is an important fine motor skill to develop. It encourages concentration and helps to build connections in the brain”.
In addition, research from the Institute of Education at UCL, has suggested that learning handwriting and learning to write well during primary education can have a direct impact on success in both secondary and higher education.
Handwriting is still important in this ever-growing digital age and still forms a core part of communication. The National Handwriting Association states that, “handwriting is part of our daily lives…[it] remains important in education, employment and in everyday life.”
Uni-ball are passionate about handwriting and are actively looking to help children to improve their handwriting providing practical advice and activities for parents and teachers alike.
How To Make Handwriting Fun For Kids
As aforementioned, the importance of handwriting shouldn’t take away from the fact that learning to write and improving their handwriting should be fun and engaging. Here are our top tips to keep learning to write fun!
- If your kids haven’t started writing yet, or are still learning we suggest allowing them to experiment by writing with shaving foam, paint, coloured sand, mud and hair gel
- Get kids to try writing with whiteboard pens on wipe-clean boards
- Try scribbling on a traditional chalkboard
- Use lots of colourful pens and gel pens
- Play writing games
- Drawing and scribbling can also help to improve fine motor skills, so let your kids have fun with pens and pencils!
For more information and tips about improving handwriting from Uni-ball, take a look here!
Thanks to Uniball, I have a fab handwriting pen and notepad set to giveaway to two lucky readers.
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