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After practising on strengthening their palm grip, it is a good practise for children to have a proper pen control first before starting to learn how to write alphabets. This serves as a good activity to train the children to use their pincer grip to hold the marker.

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Children learn what written language looks like when they encounter signs, labels, posters, books and images on television. Children develop concepts of print as they learn the structure of print  and conventions of written language. When students master the mechanics of handwriting they can concentrate on higher level thinking and communicate on skills needed for success in school and in life. According to Fountas and Pinnell (1998), “Forming letters is an essential part of literacy instruction and thus, it is important for the child practice the necessary skills aid in writing”.

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Indicators that showcase children's writing difficulties

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Indicators that showcase children's writing difficulties

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How Various Learning and Attention Issues Can Cause Trouble With Writing

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Various learning and attention issues, like dysgraphia, cause trouble with writing in children. Kids may have trouble with handwriting, written expression or both. Learn more.

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These resources offers step-by-step activities with regards to the development stages of writing such as preliterate (ie. drawing and scribbling), early emergent (ie. letter-like forms) and emergent (ie. random letters or letter strings) stages (Hill, 2017). This relates to the focus area on mechanics of writing, which is supported by the English Language Syllabus for Primary & Secondary School (Express/ Normal (Academic)) (Ministry of Education, 2010). This can be pertinent to the theory of scaffolding by Vygotsky. He believes that in order for children to learn independently, teacher must first stage simple and manageable activities for them before slowly encouraging them to self-direct their learning (Christensen, Feeney, Moravcik & Nolte, 2010).

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These resources offers step-by-step activities, that can be done both at home and at school environment, with regards to the development stages of spellings such as pre-phonetic, semi-phonetic, phonetic, transitional and independent spellings (Hill, 2017). This relates to the focus area on mechanics of writing, which is supported by English Language Syllabus for Primary & Secondary School (Express/ Normal (Academic)) (Ministry of Education, 2008). This can be further supported by Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory. He believes that in order for children to have a positive experience as well as to perform well, it will concern both microsystems, such as parents and teachers, to work together to maximise the capacity of the children to be confident and involved learners thus stirring their development (Shaffer, 2009).

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Use of tweezers (Refining Fine Motor Skills)

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Use of tweezers (Refining Fine Motor Skills)

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In this activity, the child will practice in picking up small objects with the use of tweezers. This builds up the fine motor skills that is needed for a tripod grasp. It will develop a good control of radial fingers (thumb, index, and middle finger). The resistance of squeezing tweezers also develops the arches of the hands which are needed for a curved palm while holding a pencil. The child will also improve on their eye-hand coordination when they pick up and release objects with the tweezers.

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Functional and Didactic

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This Resource offers strategy in developing pincer grip and this relates to the focus area in Fine Motor Skills, which is supported by a research done by Mary Benbow ().

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In this activity, the child will play with the dough to work on their fine motor skills. Through dough play, the child is able to strengthen their fingers and build on their muscle tone as they pull, push and flatten the dough. This is essential for writing as it helps them to hold a pencil adequately.

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Authentic and Functional

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This Resource offers in strengthening the muscle tone that is vital for prewriting skills and this relates to the focus area in handwriting, which is supported by a research done by Dinehart & Manfra (2013).

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It is vital for children to develop good control of their hand muscles as it will aid them in their handwriting (Huffman & Fortenberry, 2011). When children are not provided with such activities, they would face challenges in holding a pencil and writing it with force. It is essential for the child to be able to develop the ability to hold and move a pencil fluently and effectively and therefore produce legible writing. When these skills are underdeveloped it can lead to frustration and resistance due to the child not being able to produce legible writing or to ‘keep up’ in class due to fatigue (Dinehart & Manfra, 2013). Thus, pre-writing skills are the fundamental skills in which the children need to develop before they are able to write.

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This table showcases the developmental sequence of the pre-writing lines that the child needs to learn. Children should be able to form these 9 pre-writing strokes before formal writing. These scribbles, lines, and shapes are the beginning of letter formations.

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Didactic and Functional

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This Resource offers the developmental sequence in mastering the pre-writing strokes and this relates to the focus area in forming symbols, which is supported by a research done by Puranik & Lonigan (2011).

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In this activity, children will be encouraged to draw on the paper with the use of a marker being held in a palm grip manner.

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Authentic and Functional

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This resource offers the initial writing stage of a child and this relates to eye-hand coordination and fine motor skills which is supported by Nurturing Early Learners Framework (MOE,2013). The purpose of choosing this activity is because this is what children would do at the prewriting stage. Thus, by encouraging children to have more practices with tools such as fat markers, they would be able to strengthen their fine motor grips as well as their writings.

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According to MOE’s focus area “Mechanics of Writing”, it is stated that cursive script and writing fluently in print as well as accurately are developed via penmanship and writing readiness (MOE, 2010). This can be linked to the Nurturing Early Learners(NEL) Framework on Language and Literacy whereby it is stated that the letters of the alphabets are formed through lines, whirls and patterns (MOE, 2013). Furthermore, as written in the book “Developing Early Literacy Assessment and Teaching” by Hill (2017), drawing(s) is an example of a symbolization of words that are explored by children who are at the stage of early-emergent writing.

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In this activity, the pattern lines aids the child in pre-writing skills. It provides the child the ability to use cognitive development, observations, hand-eye co-ordination and encourages the child to draw in a specific direction which is essential to development of learning to write letters.

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Didactic and Functional

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This Resource offers pre-writing line activities which is crucial for formal writing and this relates to the focus area in forming symbols, which is supported by a research done by SteMarie et, al (2004).

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Working on pre-writing patterns will the child to develop their fine motor skills and provide them with the well-rounded handwriting skills they need for letter formation, line orientation, spacing, and hand grasp. Once the child masters these lines and shapes they are often ready to begin more formal letter formation and handwriting learning (Puranik et. al. 2011).

1. Standing Lines and Sleeping Lines – helps your child to learn to write the following letters E, F, H, I, L and T.

2. Slanting Lines: Left to Right and Right to Left and Up and Down – helps your child to learn to write the following A, M, V and W.

3. Curves: Upwards, Downwards, To the Left and To the Right – helps your child to learn to write the following C, O, Q, U.

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This resource offers the early-emergent writing stage and this relates to eye-hand coordination and fine motor skills which is supported by Nurturing Early Learners Framework (MOE, 2013). This will serve as a platform to encourage the children to be ready for alphabets writings as all individual alphabet writings are points being joined together. This activity would first be an encouragement to the children to join from one point to another point with the help of the dots.

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The table shows the Pencil Grip Postures that are most common among children. Image J “Dynamic Tripod Grasp” is the correct and ideal grip for holding a pencil during writing.

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Functional

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Didactic and Functional

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This Resource offers the development stages of holding the pencil and this relates to the focus area of handwriting skills, which is supported by Nurturing Early Learners Framework (2013).

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According to Vygotsky’s theory on scaffolding, “What the child can do in cooperation today, he can do alone tomorrow” implies that by scaffolding the children from an easier concept to a much more challenging concept, it can help to support their learning (Christensen, Feeney, Moravcik & Nolte, 2010). Thus, this will aid in boosting and the reassurance of the children’s level of confidence when they are holding the pencils to write the alphabets in the future. Thus, this will aid in boosting and the reassurance of the children’s level of confidence when they are holding the pencils for writing and when they are forming the shapes of the alphabets.

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Children initially use immature grasps when they first hold pencils or crayons (Benbow, 2002), and then these transition into mature grasp patterns, which include, but are not limited to, the tripod grasp. It is also important for teachers to understand how children develop their handwriting grip. This is one of the most basic principles in developing the child’s pre-writing skills – holding a pencil correctly. The diagram shows how children develop their handwriting grip from the cylindrical grasp to the tripod grasp. The most commonly used pencil grasp is termed the (dynamic) tripod grasp (Wynn-Parry, 1966), which involves the thumb, index and middle fingers functioning as a tripod. This grasp allows small, well-coordinated movements of the involved fingers. This is also considered the correct grasp to use when writing. Pupils’ psycho-motor skills and hand-eye coordination are developed as they are taught to hold and write with a pencil, making the appropriate hand movements from left to write, and top to bottom of the page.

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Strategy in holding a pencil using a pom pom

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Strategy in holding a pencil using a pom pom

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This video explains how the teachers / parents can help their child with their pencil grip. This video shows a strategy on using a pom pom ball to aid the child in holding a pencil and writing with it. By placing the pom pom under the last two fingers of the child’s palm, the child will be forced to use the remaining fingers to hold the pencil to write.

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Functional

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Handwriting is an important functional skill for school-aged children. In primary school, children are required to write with pencil and paper for a large part of their schoolwork. If children are to develop a fluent and fast handwriting style, they must learn to hold a pencil with a grip that is relaxed but allows for efficient control of the pencil. If children grip a pencil too tightly, they won’t develop a free-flowing movement and they will tire very quickly. The dynamic tripod grasp has been promoted as the optimal pencil grasp for writing (Bonney, 1992; Tseng & Cermak, 1993). The dynamic tripod grasp is suggested to balance the forces involved in holding the pencil so as to limit the required amount of force used to manipulate the pencil to make letters (Soechting & Flanders, 2008).

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This Resource offers strategy in holding a pencil for writing and this relates to focus area of handwriting, which is supported by a research done by Bonney (1992).

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Print Awareness – Left to Right Progression

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Print Awareness – Left to Right Progression

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This video shows how teachers/parents can help children to develop left to right orientation of writing.

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This activity encourages children to recap the alphabets shapes by writing it down on the cornmeal.

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Authentic and Functional

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This resource offers the emergent writing stage and this relates to eye-hand coordination, fine motor skills and forming letters which is supported by Nurturing Early Learners Framework (MOE, 2013). As the children are gaining expertise on joining the dots together, this activity will serve as a concrete experience in supporting them with an informal practice of writing alphabets before taking it to the formal practice whereby pencils are used to write on the paper.

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By linking the penmanship as stated in the MOE’s focus area to the Language and Literacy Framework in NEL, it is stated that children’s writings begin to parallel alphabets which are randomly scattered among their scribbles as they are starting to recognise the the shapes, such as zigzags, loops and lines, that makes up the looks of the alphabets (MOE, 2013). According to David Kolb’s experiential theory, the four stages namely concrete experiences on new experiences followed by observation of and reflection on new experiences leading to the analysis of abstract concepts and conclusions which will then be used to apply to the world around them in future experiences are seen as an effective learning (Kolb, 2015). Thus, it is important for children to have concrete experiences when they are just starting to learn to write alphabets.

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Didactic and Functional

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This Resource offers print awareness on writing letters from left to right and this relates to the focus area in text structure, which is supported by Ministry of Education, Singapore (2010).

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A central goal during the preschool years is to enhance children's exposure to and concepts about print (Clay 1979). Children learn that English language is written from left to right in lines that go across the page. When teaching writing, it’s important to emphasize the direction on where a child should begin (from top to bottom and left to write).

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This activity allows children to be aware of the formation and the printing of the alphabets by replicating via pasting pastas on the alphabets itself.

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When children are learning to form a new letter, it is helpful to begin forming the letter using finger movements. This activity allows children to have a sensorial learning experience on forming letters. This initial practice helps to emphasize the leaning of correct formation of the letter before they begin to write it on paper.

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Didactic

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Didactic and Functional

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This resources offers early writing stage and this relates to eye-hand coordination, spelling, forming letters and fine motor skills which is supported by Nurturing Early Learners Framework (MOE, 2013). This activity offers a simple way to practice penmanship as stated in the focus area “Mechanics of Writing” by Ministry of Education(MOE) (2010). This will help to strengthen their fine motor skills such as pincer grip, create and invent spellings of their names.

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This can be supported by the article titled “Parental writing support and preschoolers’ early literacy, language, and fine motor skills” as written by Bindman, Skibbe, Hindman, Aram & Morrison (2014), it states that writing skills are found to be greatly identifiable with fine motor skills development. This means that only by strengthening their pincer grips and fine motor skills, they will then be able to hold pencils to write in the future. Thus, encouraging them to practice literacy which may be of help in both word reading and comprehension (Bindman, Skibbe, Hindman, Aram & Morrison, 2014).

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This Resource offers a sensorial learning experience in forming letters and this relates to the focus area in forming letters, which is supported by Maria Montessori (1965) who believes that sensorial education helps to develop a child’s intellect.

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Forming letters correctly from the very beginning can help reduce letter reversals (Medwell, et al, 2009). Once a child masters the lines and shapes they are often ready to begin more formal letter formation and handwriting learning. However, before they start writing the letters on paper, it is encouraged to engage the child's sense through many different mediums and sensory experiences for prewriting. Children enjoy experimenting with making patterns in salt or sand as they do not have to worry about size and neatness. Once children have had plenty of experience in drawing the letter shapes without constraints, they can then move on to using pencils. Based on the experience that they have received, children will be able to apply it on paper.

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In this activity, the children will identify the upper case and lower case letters and will learn to trace the letters using the correct direction of strokes. Before using the marker to trace the letters, the children will use their fingers to practice on forming the letters. Each letter has a directional arrow to guide the children in tracing the letter.

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Didactic

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This Resource offers a hands-on learning experience for children to trace the letters in the correct direction and this relates to focus area in handwriting, which is supported by a research done by Bilodeau (2012).

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Letters differ in the number and combination of individual strokes. The number of strokes in a letter could be a potential factor that might affect letter-writing skills, especially when children are first learning to write. According to Olsen (2003), upper case letters were easier to master than lower case, which supports that these letters are easier and should be taught first. Teaching the easier letters first allows the students to practice handwriting and it builds up the foundation skills before moving onto more complex letters. Teaching students a specific sequence for forming each letter increases automaticity as the student masters this sequence and it becomes more automatic. This activity allows children to understand to differentiate the letters and as well as size of the upper and lower case letters.

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By having a writing centre, children will be able to explore and experiment with their writing skills. They will be able to put their mechanics of writing into practice. This learning centre will be provided with print rich environment which allows children to recall what they have learnt and put it into practice.

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Functional and Critical

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This Resource offers opportunities in supporting the children’s writing development and this relates to the focus area in handwriting, which is supported by Nurturing Early Learners Framework (2013).

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Dewey (1916) points out that all children by doing. Through learning centres, the children will be provided with nurturing and stimulating environment that involves them to be active in their learning. In preschool, children show interest in writing when literacy resources are made available to them. Thus, purposeful writing skills can be established through a print rich environment. In this learning centre, the children will be able to practice on their pencil grip, letter formation, writing of words, and applying print awareness while writing sentences such starting to write letters from left to right (Juel 1991).

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This will be a good activity that acts as further support for children to practise copying and writing their own name on the paper with the use of a proper writing tool such as pencil/pen after they are done mastering the skills of holding markers with their pincer grip as well as practising writing alphabets.

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Didactic and Functional

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This resource offers early writing stage and this relates to fine motor skills, eye-hand coordination and spelling, which is supported by  Nurturing Early Learners Framework (MOE, 2013). This is important as it helps them to identify themselves, to be aware of phonetics sounds as well as it will prepares them for spelling in the near future.

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In accordance to the emergent stage of writing, it is known that children starts to write more alphabet-like shapes, they tend to leave spaces between the letters as well as they are starting to learn to write their own names (Hill, 2017). Lev Vygotsky noted 3 points about writing which includes that it should be purposeful towards the children, it should be a basic need that should be roused in them and lastly, it should be integrated into a task of importance and significance in life (1978, p.118 as cited in Hill, 2017).

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This video serves as an encouragement to children who are just starting to learn phonetic sounds of the individual alphabets as it caters to different types of learners such as auditory, visual, verbal and reading learners.

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Authentic and Functional

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This resource offers semi-phonetic spelling and this relates to  phonological recoding, forming letters and spelling which is supported by English Language Syllabus for Primary & Secondary School (Express/ Normal (Academic)) (Ministry of Education, 2010). Only by learning the phonetic sounds of the individual alphabets first, it will help them in the future when they start learning to read and write (Hill, 2017).

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In accordance to different learning styles, visual and reading learners prefer to use their eyes to learn, auditory learners prefer to use their ears to learn while verbal learners prefer to use their mouths to learn a particular subject (Pritchard, 2014). According to Howard Gardner, he believes that no child will learn through a specific method as he believes that every child has a unique way of learning and grasping of concepts (Pritchard, 2014). Thus, when these concepts are applied to Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory, it is noted that verbal and auditory learners are known as linguistic learners. This is due to the reason being, they like to and would learn best through reading, hearing and seeing words. To add on, visual learners are also known as spatial learners as they love to and would learn best when they are looking at pictures or watching videos (Pritchard, 2014).

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After being introduced to the phonetic sounds of the individual alphabets, the above photo can be the next activity that the children can be introduced to. In this activity, the children will be encouraged to jump into the boxes with the alphabets written in it when their sounds are made.

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Didactic and Functional

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This resource offers semi-phonetic spelling and this relates to phonological recoding and forming letters which is supported by English Language Syllabus for Primary & Secondary School (Express/ Normal (Academic)) (Ministry of Education, 2010). This can be considered as an interactive and fun activity that will serve as a recap and a reflection to the children on the alphabets and the phonetic sounds that they have learnt.

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In accordance to the NEL Framework, it is noted that iTeach curriculum encourages the children to learn through integrated approach, quality interactions and purposeful play (MOE, 2013). In addition, this can be supported by the learning dispositions that are taken from the NEL Framework. Reflectiveness is one of the learning dispositions that encourages children to reflect on what they have learnt and done in their daily experiences. Through this reflection, they will then be able to acquire and create new knowledge in them (MOE, 2013).

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In this activity, children will learn to explore with the alphabet blocks by mixing and matching the letters together to form a word. Thereafter, they will sound out the individual letters and try to read by blending these sounds together.

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Authentic and Functional

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This resource offers phonetic spelling and this relates to phonological recoding, vocabulary and spelling which is supported by English Language Syllabus for Primary & Secondary School (Express/ Normal (Academic)) (Ministry of Education, 2010). As the children are now familiar with the phonetic sounds of the alphabets, it is important to introduce them to blending and segmenting with the use of concrete materials.This will serve as further support towards children when they come across unfamiliar words that they might find challenging to read.

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With reference to Trehearne, 2003 & Hall, 2006 (as cited in MOE, 2013), they state that phonological awareness is about the comprehension of the oral and auditory of the spoken language. To add on, it is written that in order for children to be able to read, they will need to be able to blend the individual letter sounds to form a word and likewise segment the word back into its individual sounds. Therefore, it will help children to read longer words in the future (Hill, 2017).

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Upon completion of the above few activities, the children will now be able to master sounding the individual alphabets, blending, segmenting and reading. The next step will be to encourage children to name the pictures and to to use phonetic sounds to help them to spell and to pencil the words down.

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Authentic and Functional

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This resource offers transitional spelling and this relates to phonological recoding, spelling and vocabulary which is supported by Nurturing Early Learners Framework (MOE, 2013). By sounding the sounds of the individual alphabets, it helps to put the alphabets together to form a word. This process is important when spelling is concerned (Campbell, 2016).

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Spelling is needed to pencil/pen down ideas and information for others to read (Hill, 2017). By knowing how to spell simple 3-alphabets words, the children are prepared to spell longer words in the near future.

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This activity encourages them to blend, read and spell longer words as well as sentences

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Authentic and Functional

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This resource offers independent spelling and this relates to phonological recoding, spelling and vocabulary which is supported by Nurturing Early Learners Framework (MOE, 2013). As the children have already mastered in blending, reading and spelling 3-alphabets words, they can be encouraged to blend, read and spell longer words. To add on, this activity encourages children to check dictionary for the words that they are unsure of when they are filling in the blanks.

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This can be linked to Vygotsky’s theory on scaffolding as it is noted that this method can help to support their learning (Christensen, Feeney, Moravcik & Nolte, 2010). By scaffolding them from spelling to recognising the meaning of the words that they are unsure of, it will help them to register the words better so that they will be able to make meaning of these words thus allowing them to know when to use it (Nesi, 2014).

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Attached here is a copy of our references

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Our Understanding Of The Writing Mode That We Have Chosen

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Our Understanding Of The Writing Mode That We Have Chosen

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Our Understanding Of The Writing Mode That We Have Chosen

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Teachers can use these assessments as benchmarks of literacy development to plan future learning. The first step is to observe and identify where the child stands in terms of writing development.  Assessment helps the teacher to understand what the child has learnt to plan the next step (Owocki & Goodman, 2002).

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A major component of pre-writing skills are the pre-writing shapes. Feder and Mainemer (2007), defined ‘writing readiness’ when children are able to master and copy the pre-writing strokes. These are the pencil strokes that most letters, numbers and early drawings are comprised of. They

are typically mastered in sequential order, and to an age specific level. These strokes include the following strokes: |, —, O, +, /, square, \, X, and Δ. Pattern writing is specific stokes that comprise in all letters and numbers. As a child practices pattern writing through copying and tracing this will give them the confidence and ability to write letters correctly.

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Writing involves children being able to use print to construct a message that conveys meaning to others. Before they learn to write conventionally, they need to develop their fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination so as to hold and use writing tools. They should be given opportunities to engage in activities that strengthen their hand and finger muscles as well as develop their dexterity. In order for the child to maintain the correct grip for holding a pencil, their fine motor skills will need to be improved. By developing your child’s fine motor skills, it will enable their finger and muscles to become stronger and provide them with the ability to control the way they hold a pencil. According to Case-Smith (1993), fine motor and visual motor skills have an important relationship with writing and the lack of dexterity skills will affect the child’s ability to write.