Learning to write is a hallmark in a child’s education journey. It empowers them to express themselves and their talents. Learn the basics of strong fine motor skills, how to hold a writing instrument and solving common handwriting issues. Be empowered with the strategies and tools to support your child’s learning.
Learn
What are “Fine Motor Skills”?
Fine motor skills refer to the ability to use the small muscles of the hands and fingers in coordination with the eyes. They are complex and essential for learning to write easily and neatly. However, there are several necessary components to fine motor skills that can make learning to write challenging for some children.
The Need for Core Strength
Fine motor skills develop from gross motor skills. Before expecting a child to have efficient handwriting and precision and control with writing utensils, they must first develop their core strength. A sturdy and stable body base allows one to isolate movement from their shoulder to their wrist, which then allows the finger muscles to do the work.
- Tip: Pay extra attention to how your child sits during tabletop work. Be aware that the following are compensatory strategies for poor core strength:
- Slumping over the table.
- Slouching back against the chair.
- Holding their head in their hand.
- Anchoring to the side of the chair with a free hand.
- Sitting on their feet or crisscross on the chair.
- If these are persistent, a child may need to spend more time stabilizing the trunk of their body before focusing on specific hand activities. (Try these simple core exercises for children.)
Handwriting Challenges
For some children, learning to write is hard. It doesn’t come easily and the output may be messy. Handwriting challenges can present in different ways. We broke down the most common issues into digestible and actionable articles. Target your child’s issues or be versed in all of the following:
Do
How to Hold a Writing Instrument
All young children can benefit from practicing fine motor skills in a targeted way. When children enter school and begin writing more formally, it’s important to pay closer attention to how they hold a writing instrument and if they are encountering any difficulties when writing.
By school age (ages 5 – 6), you should typically see a tripod or quadrupod grasp on a writing utensil. We call this an ‘efficient pencil grasp.’ (i.e., Not just a ‘pencil grasp’ or ‘pincer grasp’; any which way a child holds a pencil is technically a pencil grasp, just not all are efficient.) (Visuals here.)
- Tripod – The pencil is positioned between the thumb and index with the middle finger supporting the pencil from behind (ring and pinky tucked into palm).
- Quadrupod –The pencil will be placed between the thumb and the index and middle finger with the ring finger supporting from behind (pinky tucked into the palm).
- In both positions, the wrist should be stabilized on the table (with slight extension) and wrist movement should be isolated from any movement of finger muscles.
- The entire arm unit (i.e., forearm and upper arm) should not be moving as a whole to produce the pencil strokes.
Note: There are several appropriate adaptations you may see with your child’s hand position; many people do not use a classic tripod grasp. If the grasp your child is using causes pain / discomfort, fatigue with minimal writing time, or produces untidy and illegible work, then it is likely that the grasp they are using is dysfunctional and needs to be corrected.