How to Improve Your Child’s Handwriting
By Lindsey Biel
How to Improve Your Child’s Handwriting
How to Improve Your Child’s Handwriting
Messy handwriting is one of the most common reasons children are referred to occupational therapists like me.
Here are some strategies that can help →
How to Improve Your Child’s Handwriting
First, set up your child for success.
Make sure the table and chair fit your child’s proportions. Provide a seat cushion and footrest if needed.
If your child is wired, or tired, try a quick game of Simon Says or catch before trying to get her to focus.
For some kids, handwriting just requires extra practice. Remind your child that practice doesn’t make perfect — it just makes it easier.
How to Improve Your Child’s Handwriting
Is your child’s wrist bending in?
Place paper on a slant board, looseleaf binder or easel. Or tape the paper to a wall or under a table. By doing so, you’ll reposition your child’s wrist, making it easier for the finger muscles to make the tiny motions needed to form letters.
How to Improve Your Child’s Handwriting
Is your child struggling to hold a pencil comfortably?
Try a molded grip that helps position her fingers on the pencil. Colorful tape wrapped half an inch above the point can work too.
Make sure that the pencil rests in the “web space” between her thumb and index finger, and that her wrist can rest on the tabletop.
How to Improve Your Child’s Handwriting
Connecting dots, solving mazes and tracing using a fat crayon or a vibrating pen can help increase pencil control.
How to Improve Your Child’s Handwriting
Does your child press too hard or too softly?
If she tears through the paper, play a game to see who can write the lightest. Or try a mechanical pencil, which will break easily.
If she writes too lightly, give her a heavier lead pencil. You can also increase hand strength with art projects that call for squeeze glue or clay, or play with building toys that require physical effort to put together.
How to Improve Your Child’s Handwriting
Does your child have trouble with spacing or alignment of letters?
Use paper that provides clear top and bottom lines.
The bottom line (the baseline) is the most important anchor for writing.
If you do nothing else, try darkening that line and tell your child to make sure the letters sit on the line.
How to Improve Your Child’s Handwriting
Teach tall vs. small. Letters like b, d, f, h and i are tall going up (climbers), while the letters g, j, p, q and y are tall going down (divers). Letters like a, c, e, m and w are small letters. Have your child put the tall letters in rectangles and the small letters in squares.
How to Improve Your Child’s Handwriting
Have your child use a finger or other spacer in between words. She could also draw a dot between each word until she gets the hang of it.