activities to promote and practice handwriting skills

• fine motor skills and hand strength come first: work on fine motor activities first
• begin with pre-writing shapes they are: l  -  /  \  +  X O as well as a square and triange
• practice shapes in various media (i.e. play doh, shaving cream, finger paints, sand, salt) and on paper with crayons, markers, and colored pencils. Use a regular pencil last
• Begin with the upper case letters; the strokes in uppercase letters are developmentally easier than those in lower case letters
• Again practice letters in various media listed above; make it fun!
• You can also form letters with manipulatives (i.e. legos, toothpicks, beads, beans, your body, play doh, blocks etc)
• Work on a vertical surface on a regular basis; this promotes wrist extension (hand bent back towards forearm) which is necessary for good writing control
• Make sure your student/child holds their pencil in the tips of his thumb and pointer finger, resting the upper part of the pencil in the nook between the thumb and pointer finger