What can parents do to care their child’s handwriting?

As with all areas of child progress, parents, teachers and learning resources assist children to develop and refine these important skills over time. It is essential that children improve the correct ‘tripod’ grip (thumb and first two fingers) and learn the correct letter creations from the outset, as these are difficult to correct. In addition, raising your child’s fine motor skills is significant and can be achieved through simple, minor activities such as:

• Using pegs
• Playing with play-dough or Lego
• Implementation jig-saw puzzles
• Coloring in and completing dot-to-dots
• Clicking
• Threading pasta or beads on string
• Finger-painting
• Paper-folding activities
• Using finger-puppets
• Using their fingers to draw figures and letters in shaving cream on a flat surface

It is important that young children have a dominant hand by the time they are three years old. If your child does not have an ideal hand by this time, a Pediatric Professional Therapist may provide some further assistance. In addition, if your child displays any difficulties with fine motor development or handwriting, an evaluation by a Professional Therapist is recommended to identify if the child has poor muscle tone or any other issues hindering their development.