How to Help Preschoolers Develop Pre-Writing Skills

KW: how can you help preschool children develop pre-writing skills

Along with early reading concepts, one of the most important skills a child learns in preschool is early writing. Pre-writing skills are the set of abilities a child first needs to begin the process of learning how to write. These skills involve fine motor skills, sensorimotor skills, and visual processing, among other important abilities children typically develop in their early years.

Pre-writing skills are essential for children and can even solidify their reading skills. Because handwriting is so important in school, learning these basic skills early acts as a stepping stone for your child’s future academic success.

As a parent or educator, it’s important to understand how writing develops so that you can identify milestones as well as spot any developmental delays early on. So, how can you help preschool children develop pre-writing skills? Keep reading to learn more.

The Skills That Help Children Learn How to Write

While learning how to write might seem like a simple and straightforward process, there are actually several developmental skills that go into it. Learning to hold a writing utensil properly is a challenge for many children!

Pre-writing skills are the skills kids need before they begin successfully learning how to write. Examples of these foundational skills include:

Hand-eye coordination
Motor control
Motor planning
Wrist stability
Visual perception
Drawing
Copying
Posture
Grip

It’s important to remember that writing—just like reading—is a rather sophisticated skill. It’s nearly impossible for humans to pick up on these skills naturally or with ease. We must be directly taught, beginning with the most basic skills and working our way up. Therefore, forcing a child to transition into writing can crush their drive in literacy development. Every child learns at their own pace, so take it slow and allow them to get familiar with writing.

Developing Fine Motor Skills

Fine motor skills are a person’s ability to coordinate and use smaller muscles and joints in their fingers, hands, and wrists to perform controlled tasks. These skills begin to develop early in a child’s life and then strengthen gradually over time. During the pre-writing phase, children need fine motor skills to begin holding a pencil correctly and navigating their wrists and hands smoothly.

By three years old, many kids can use fine motor skills to:

Copy basic shapes with fingers or markers
Use eating utensils to feed themselves
Stack items with precision
Put together puzzles on their own
Dress themselves with little help
Scribble and color in coloring books with ease

To help a child develop fine motor skills for writing, start by identifying their hand preference. Children typically show signs of a dominant hand around age two or three, so pay attention to which hand they use to reach for toys, eat with a spoon or fork, throw a ball, or do other daily activities. Their dominant hand is likely the hand they’ll begin writing with.

Pencil Grasp Development

Children need to learn how to hold a writing utensil correctly. This is one of the most important parts of tying in fine motor skills with writing development. Therefore, when your child begins practicing pre-writing skills, it’s advisable to start them off with regular-sized utensils so they can play around with gripping and grasping in order to write.

While some educators used to start young children off with thicker pencils, this can make it more difficult to learn proper pencil grasp. Imagine how hard it would be to write with a large carrot! Focus on showing your child how to use the dynamic tripod grasp, which is ideal for preventing pain and discomfort once they learn how to write. If a child still has difficulty after kindergarten, pencil grips or help from an occupational therapist can help.

Supporting Visual Processing and Memory

Pre-writing involves sight and memory, as well. Many children develop visual processing skills through play and natural development. Kids need to be able to see, interpret, process, remember, and coordinate the letters and shapes they are presented with. This is true not only for writing and reading but for about 75% of all learning!

It is important to have your child’s eyes checked regularly to ensure they can see well. You can also support kids’ visual processing and hand-eye coordination by playing games and engaging them in physical activities that require sight. For example, playing a game of “catch” is a common option. You can also play games that “cross the midline,” which means being aware of the invisible line that runs between the two halves and hemispheres of the body—so reaching across the body right and left.

Encouraging Letter Recognition and Letter Formation

Letter recognition is the ability to identify alphabetical letters by their shape and name. Before being able to write, children need to know how to recognize, copy, and remember the shapes of letters. This is a fundamental skill for not only writing but also reading.

Hands-on shapes and modeling clay can be used to create or build letters and play with their general shapes. When it comes to printing, explicitly teach children how to form letters properly. Check and make sure that you’re familiar with proper letter formation advised by occupational therapists and commonly used by most educators. Proper letter formation should eventually become automatic so your child can save cognitive room for spelling and later expressing ideas!

Fostering Creativity and Critical Thinking

Problem-solving and creative thinking are two other skills that contribute to pre-writing. The stronger a child’s problem-solving and curiosity, the more likely they are to digest and solidify new information when it comes time to learn writing. Similarly, when a child is encouraged to pursue their creativity, they’re able to express themselves in new ways when practicing pre-writing and early writing concepts.

Instead of giving kids exercises that require one-way responses, ask them for their opinions and observations. For example, instead of telling children to write the ABCs, ask them how they would write the alphabet if they invented it. In this way, they can show off their artistic side and learn to make decisions independent of what they’ve been exposed to. It can be a helpful gateway into teaching letters and writing!

The Role of Pre-Writing in Phonics

Phonics breaks down the English language into speech sounds and correlates those sounds with alphabetical letters. When children learn phonics, they’ll eventually write down sounds they hear in order to spell in addition to sounding out what they read.

A 2022 study shows that when children are introduced to phonics early, it helps them understand the link between letters and phonemes (speech sounds). For example, when a child that understands sees the letter “b” at the beginning of a word, they know it’s a /b/ sound. This is the foundation for learning to spell, which is an important pre-writing skill.

Phonics education lays the foundation for strong literacy skills in children. Kids’ brains are like sponges that absorb new information. So when you introduce them to phonics early, they’ll learn important literacy skills that’ll make it easier for them to read and write.