What Can I do if My Child Can’t Write Letters or Numbers Yet?
Hi friends,
Is your child not writing recognizable letters or numbers, drawing recognizable shapes, or coloring inside the lines yet? Are you wondering what you can do to help your child improve in these areas, especially if your child isn’t interested in writing at the moment? You are not alone. So, today, I am going to give you some activity ideas that will do just that. Hand Strengthening and Coordination Practice
If your child is having trouble drawing or writing recognizable letters, numbers, and shapes, or coloring inside the lines, likely he or she needs to have more hand strength and more coordination. That is okay. Each child develops at his or her own pace. The good news is that there are a variety of fun, safe, and valuable activities to help with hand strengthening and coordination practice.
Remember to have patience and give grace to your child. His or her efforts might lead to some pretty messy results at first. Yet, after practice, barring any unique health issues, he or she should make great progress and find more and more success. Almost any activity that involves using your hands could be helpful in this situation. Some of them are good daily living skills and some of them are activities just for fun. Daily Living Activities that Promote Hand Strengthening and Coordination
*Getting dressed is a great way to strengthen hands and practice coordination skills. As much as possible, and with limited help, let your child dress his or herself. *Setting the table can include practicing many preschool activity skills. Gathering and placing plates, bowls, cups, and silverware on the table for everyone will help strengthen hands and help with coordination. However, you can also introduce counting and even introductory adding or subtracting skills as you go in gentle conversation. Determine how many people are going to be eating and ask the child how many plates will be needed, how many cups will be needed, etc. Then, help him or her count out each item in the place setting to make sure there is enough. Later, as skills progress, maybe discuss how many place settings would be needed if grandma and grandpa also came to eat and things like that. *Folding clothes is another activity that can help with strengthening hands and coordination skills. Start off with something simple, like a washcloth. Washcloths are small, square, and only require one or two folds. As your child gets the hang of it, slowly add a few more items to fold. Most children enjoy helping out and being independent, so likely these will be fun for your child. They are also activities that are daily living skills. Once your child reaches a certain amount of success, these activities can also be your child’s chores, giving him or her responsibility, independence, and pride within the family. Other Activities and Games that Promote Hand Strength and Coordination Skills
*Emptying and filling things can be a fun way to work on coordination skills and hand strengthening. There are also many ways to do it. Pouring sand, water, flour, sugar, or even little pompoms from one container to another are great activities for this. Another idea is to get tweezers or spaghetti tongs and have your child try to pick up a pile of pompoms and put them in a bowl.
*Cutting and pasting is another great activity for preschoolers. The cutting can be with scissors or with cookie cutters. It can be cutting specific shapes or just plain cutting. When cutting out shapes from paper, ensure that the shapes are big enough and simple enough to help lead to success. Pasting can be the same way. Similarly, gluing can have a purpose or just plain pasting. The idea is to make it as fun as possible and let your child practice grasping things. *Stacking and building things is a wonderful way to practice coordination and build hand strength as well. Let your child build with blocks, bricks, or any toy that connects and builds things. He or she can create actual things with the building or just make a tower. *Threading beads or macaroni on a shoestring is another idea. It is especially good for coordination practice, but it also is good for hand strengthening as well. I say a shoestring, because it is stiffer and usually has a more solid end than string or yarn. However sewing or stringing with yarn or string is also good, if you child is ready to do so. *Playing with hand puppets and creating shadow puppets can be a fun way to strengthen hands and work on coordination skills as well. *Another great activity is playing with dough, slime, or clay. Please, make sure that it is healthy and age appropriate. Kneading, molding, and rolling out these things are fun and helpful in helping little hands get stronger. It is also a creative outlet for your little artist. *Coloring, drawing, painting, or tracing are other ways to practice. If your child enjoys it, these are all helpful activities to practice for later academic writing. Try to give your child safe materials and larger crayons, pencils, chalk, or paint brushes. A larger utensil (not overly large) is easier for smaller hands to grip. This is not an all-inclusive list. The list of things that can help your child build hand strength and coordination is extensive. I am sure you can think of other ideas. Please, feel free to share them in the comments below. If you enjoyed this post, you may also like the following...
*DUO Inspirations Offers a Word Rich Environment Idea for Younger Children and Students
*Fact Families *Education Blog by DUO Inspirations Introduces Clarinda Cloud as a Teaching Tool *Counting Petals Poster is a Great Art and Counting Activity
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