Tips to develop writing skills and work towards school readiness

Key points:

1. Developing motor skills is crucial for writing, especially between 36 and 48 months.
2. Engage in activities like A-B-C bingo and drawing games to enhance writing skills.
3. Encourage your child to notice and copy letters and shapes.
4. Provide ample opportunities to interact with writing tools correctly.

To learn how to write, a child has to develop fine and gross motor skills in a consistent and predictable pattern through infancy, and all the way to elementary school. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, between 36 and 48 months of age comes a critical moment for the development of skills needed for mastering writing.

Here are some of the things you can do to boost your child’s writing skills before starting  kindergarten:

• Play A-B-C bingo by either making your own or choosing from the ones available online.
• When your child draws a person, ask and notice different body parts like the hair, arms, and legs.
• Write a big and clearly traced letter on cardboard, put it inside a Ziploc bag and have your child trace over it with a dry erase marker that you can wipe afterwards.
• Notice letters in signs and texts your child sees every day.
• Play I Spy drawing games by asking them to draw something they are seeing.
• Make a game out of copying shapes and figures.
• When in the playground, invite your little one to make letter shapes in the sand using their finger.
• Have your child make strings of play-dough and then help them make the vowels. Spend some time making the sounds of each letter.
• Think of rhyming words and make funny sentences with them, noticing how they sound similar because they share some letters.
• Give them plenty of opportunities to interact with writing tools and hold them appropriately using their middle finger, index, and thumb.