Actually reading words is only part of reading itself. Learning to write is just as important for children to progress through language development stages. A lot of practice making small motions helps children learn about words in a different way. Certain writing activities for toddlers, preschoolers, and even babies, can encourage children to learn more about print.
In other words, reading and writing cannot be separated. Young children learn to read by writing and learn to write by reading.
Recent child development research shows that children have an easier time learning to read and spell if they can write first. There is also a link between the fine motor skills used for writing and higher learning.
It’s not vital for a young child to write before he or she enters kindergarten. But supporting children’s early efforts at any kind of writing will give your child a head start. And it’s important to remember that it takes a while for children to discover that writing and drawing are two different things.
You can nurture your budding writer if you provide plenty of family home activities to practice skills that precede writing letters.
Writing Activities for Babies
Purpose: To help build babies’ ability to use the index finger and thumb to grasp objects (called the “pincer grasp”), and to practice eye-hand coordination by grasping.
Play: Start by playing with brightly colored blocks. Encourage babies to reach for and hold them in their hands. Then prompt them to give you a block and give it back, playing this back and forth game for as long as your baby shows interest.
Show your child how to stack the blocks, then ask him to place one on top of another. Encourage your child by providing lots of praise as you describe what your baby has accomplished. For example: “Wow, you have stacked the red and yellow blocks. Good job!” Your young child will want to practice this again and again.
Plus: Long before a young child picks up a pencil, the stage is set for the development of writing. This hands-on activity will strengthen the muscles and skill needed to eventually hold a pencil in a mature writing position.
Writing Activity for Toddlers
Purpose: To support young children’s curiosity and exploration with scribbling, strengthening the muscles and control needed for writing letters.
Play: Provide lots of different writing instruments, such as thick pencils and chunky crayons, and large sheets of paper. When your toddler is relaxed, sit and write together. It is likely your child will imitate what you are doing.
By making these random marks through scribbling, children learn how to hold writing instruments. Provide encouragement as they experiment and describe what they are doing. “Good job!” “I see you are using the color blue to draw lines.”
Plus: When you introduce something new to children, they are more interested if you roll your sleeves up and do it too. Drawing and writing with youngsters helps them associate writing with enjoyment.
They will progress to the next stage of writing with more confidence. By scribbling, they’ll delight in the movement of the crayon on paper and develop the control needed to write letters. These scribbles have meaning to your child and will also promote language skills that lead to reading.
Writing Activities for Preschoolers
Purpose: To learn about letters through tactical (touching) experiences, increasing the odds they will be able to identify the letters of their name.
Play: Take a large stencil of uppercase letters and turn it backwards, helping your preschooler trace it onto the smooth side of a piece of sandpaper. Cut out the letters, and then have your child glue the sandpaper letters to cardboard.
Repeat the process for each letter of his name. Have your child trace the shape of each sandpaper letter, feeling the letter and also saying the name of the letter aloud. Offer your help only if asked. Later, very lightly in pencil, write his name and have him trace over it.
Plus: It’s critical that written language, beginning with his name, have purpose and meaning to your child. Your encouragement will motivate him to progress to writing his name and other letters of the alphabet all on his own. Learning to write his name places your child on the road to learning how printing works — about letters, the sounds they make and that letters make up words.
Dawn Marie Barhyte is a freelance writer from Warwick, New York.