Why Handwriting Is Important
Handwriting mastery is crucial for developing kids’ confidence and kinaesthetic memory, freeing up working memory, and enabling students to focus better on spelling.
Handwriting is public, and it can become a source of humiliation for kids who struggle with it. Often, reading and spelling difficulties can be masked or hidden, but there is no escaping the fact that your page looks messy. Even as adults, having messy handwriting can impact confidence. Quality instruction, early on, can have a positive impact for life.
The handwriting resources are broken into pre-letter writing exercises for students who can’t yet form letters or lack the fine motor control to combine several different strokes into single letter and letter formation sheets.
The flowchart below provides some guidance on using the activities and worksheets and decision points regarding when to use each sheet type. Each type is provided with a cursive and print version.
Handwriting activities
Before attempting any of the handwriting sheets, some students need extra support with their writing position and pencil grip. This resource isn’t intended to be a complete handwriting guide but a set of worksheets to practice handwriting skills. Complete handwriting guides are available widely, and a comprehensive set of resources is available here: https://dyscastia.com/episodes/episode-11-the-importance-of-handwriting-with-debbie-draper/ thanks to the generosity of Debbie Draper.
You can listen to Debbe in this Dyscastia Episode.
The Sutudent Refuses To Write
Sadly, it’s quite common for intervention students to reach a point where they lack so much confidence that they refuse to write. This is usually due to years of failure to achieve legible handwriting or negative experiences that make a child feel so bad that they would rather get into trouble than attempt to write.
Stroke erase on whiteboard
Students who don’t have the confidence to write on paper or a whiteboard usually have no problems with erasing letters. A good activity to build confidence is for the teacher to write a simple pre-writing stroke (or eventually a letter) on a whiteboard.
Attach a piece of cloth to the end of a pencil to make it into an eraser.
After the teacher writes the stroke, the student erases it using the ‘eraser pencil’ and follows the correct sequence and stroke path. At first, just getting them to hold a pencil and erase it is probably enough of a first step. Eventually, we will increase the challenge of erasing the line in a single stroke and start to talk about pencil grip and posture, all in the context of getting better at ‘erasing’.
You can add interest to this by writing multiple strokes faster and faster, and the student needs to try to keep up with you, erasing everything you write. We often find that after a ‘speed session,’ a student will request to have a go at being the writer to see if you can keep up with them. If this happens, you know you have taken a big psychological step forward because now the student is requesting to write.
Stroke practice on the whiteboard
Before moving to paper (or even as a warmup activity), students can practice the strokes on a whiteboard, which is usually less intimidating than writing on paper. You can also use the handwriting pre-letter and letter introductory sheets for this purpose by putting them inside a plastic sheet protector and having the student use a whiteboard marker to follow the dots and arrows on the sheet by writing on the sheet protector. Then, when they have built confidence, you can remove the protective film and write on the paper.
We need to move gently and carefully in these cases to build confidence.
The student can’t hold a pencil
Pencil grip
Pencil grip is important, and extreme grips should always be remediated.
However, if a student has a good working grip that they have been using for several years, sometimes it isn’t worth the effort. Usually, in this situation, we will give the student a choice about changing their grip. A simple pencil grip routine is to place the pencil on the table with the point facing the student. Pick up the pencil with your thumb and index finger, flip it around so it rests on the hand and place the next finger under the pencil tip for support. See this video for a quick reference
Writing position
There is more to successful writing than a pencil grip. In fact, while pencil grip is important, it is not the most important factor. Good writing starts with posture and core stability. The drill we use with students each time they prepare to write is to say.
- Feet flat
- Sit up straight
- Make sure the table is slightly lower than your elbows
- Angle the paper slightly to match the angle of your writing arm
- Other hand holds the paper still
- Check your pencil grip
- Remember not to press or grip too hard.
Common handwriting issues and how to address them
Gripping too hard
Because handwriting can be difficult and stressful many students who struggle end up gripping their pencil too hard, leading to fatigue and reduced control. If a verbal reminder is not sufficient to relax the grip then you can try making a playdough or plasticing pencil grip and challenging the student to write without putting a big dent in the plasticine. Sometimes this simple feedback is enough for a student to get the feel for how hard they need to grip the pencil.
Pressing too hard
Is students press too hard on the paper, leaving multiple pages of indents in their book when writing, in a similar way to the playdough grip you can roll out a thin piece of playdough and put the paper on top. Challenge the student to write (or draw) on the paper without breaking it. This gives them the feel for when they are pressing too hard as the paper will break.
Student can hold a pen
Once a student can grip their pencil you can start to practice basic letter strokes. For some students this may be too challenging because they may be embarrassed or self-critical of their handwriting. For these students that can’t or won’t write on paper there are a few activities that will often ease them into beginning to write on paper.
Air writing
Air writing can be a non-threatening way to start a student off with letter shapes and pre-writing shapes. The student simply traces the path in the air with their finger.
Letter stroke sheets
The letter stroke sheets are designed to be used as a pre-writing activity for students who may struggle to form whole letters. They are broken down into print and cursive and follow the program teaching point structure. Many of the strokes are used across multiple letters and so as the students progress, they will need to do less of this pre-writing introductory work. The table below is a guide to the pre-stroke sheets and the suggested order of introduction.
Suggested Pre-letter formation (Letter Stroke Sheets) instruction routine
Like all complex skills handwriting needs to be broken down into small sub-skills that need to be mastered before attempting to perform the entire skill. We recommend using the whole-part-whole method for teaching handwriting.
Demonstration phase
- Whole
- The teacher demonstrates the whole skill multiple times, with commentary highlighting the key points to remember. These key points need to be limited to no more than 3 when practising sub-skills. E.g. if writing the letter i in cursive, the whole letter will be demonstrated
- .Part
- The teacher demonstrates the sub-skill that will be worked on in the session with key points (no more than 3) for the child to pay attention to. For example, if writing the letter i in cursive, you may start by practising the upstroke and downstroke with emphasis on 1. Start on the green line. 2. Write a straight line up to the top of the green section. 3. Keep your pen on the page and go back down to the bottom of the green, trying to stay on top of the original line.
- Whole
- The teacher demonstrates the whole letter again, showing how the sub-skill fits in and why it is important to practice it.
Practice phase
- Demonstrate the sub-skill again using the pre-writing worksheet. There may need to be multiple demonstrations.
- Allow the student to attempt the sub-skill while narrating the three key steps. Take careful note of the student’s errors (don’t vocalise them), as it is very common for these errors to occur again when the student moves to the next level of difficulty.
- Feedback
- First, give immediate positive specific feedback to the student related to the 3 key points for this sub-skill. Find something specific, no matter how trivial, to praise the student for. You don’t have to limit this to specific skill-based feedback, general encouragement is good too, but specific feedback must always be given. E.g. Well done, you started on the line, and you finished on the line!
- Give the focus for improvement for the next attempt. E.g. Last time you started on the line, and you finished on the line, well done. This time try to stop at the top line as well.
- Practice as many times as possible, always providing specific feedback. Encourage the student to keep going, reminding them that the more they practice, the easier it will get, but don’t push too hard. We want this to be a positive experience.
- Optional scoring: This will depend on the student and how well they respond to this approach. Most students like a scoring system they can try to beat as long as they only compete against themselves. A reward system tied to the score can also be a good motivator. When scoring, go through each attempt and give it a point for achieving each of the 3 key sub-skills to get an overall score for the sheet (and good objective feedback on what to work on next).
- Use the score (or your observations) to determine when the sub-skill has become automatic, and the student is ready to proceed to the next stage.
Pre-writing worksheets and suggested sequence
The Literacy Resource kit contains a complete pre-writing sequence of basic letter strokes, their correct formation, notes, and teaching points for each stroke. It is aligned with the LSK teaching sequence and considers letter strokes previously taught at each step. The sequence (and worksheets) cover upper and lower-case print and cursive letters. The complete sequence is available for download in the resources section (members only).
Handwriting practice activities
Handwriting is a difficult and complicated skill and as such requires many hours of practice to master. Kids can find this kind of repetitive practice boring, so we have included a variety of handwriting practice sheets to add variety and keep kids interested.
Letter challenge sheets
These sheets are designed to practice fine motor control, posture, pencil grip and letter formation, emphasising maintaining control. The student writes the letters inside the shapes while trying not to touch the lines and then writes the letter again underneath.
The primary focus of this activity is to practice all the techniques, such as posture, grip, and focus, with continuous specific feedback provided by the teacher. It’s also useful to discuss the student’s success with these and get them to think about how to improve.
Letter introduction sheets
Each time a whole letter is introduced, we recommend that the student follow the arrows and practice the technique multiple times until it becomes automatic before attempting to do this with a pencil. Practice can be on a whiteboard or if more support is needed place the sheet in a plastic sleeve and use a whiteboard marker to trace the letter multiple times.
The teacher can give verbal cues as they demonstrate and as the student writes the letter. If the student used the pre-writing sheets, these cues can be taken from those focus cues on the pre-writing sheets. For example, start on the green line, then go up to the blue line, back down and out, and then the dot. Having these verbal cues helps the student remember the letter strokes in sequence.
We also recommend that each time a student learns a new letter, they also make a spelling card that is then used as a daily writing practice. The teacher says, ‘How do you spell /ĭ/’ and the student says is, ‘/ĭ/ is I’ [letter name] as they write the letter.
Letter challenge sheets
These sheets are designed to practice fine motor control, posture, pencil grip and letter formation, emphasising maintaining control. The student writes the letters inside the shapes while trying not to touch the lines and then writes the letter again underneath.
The primary focus of this activity is to practice all the techniques, such as posture, grip, and focus, with continuous specific feedback provided by the teacher. It’s also useful to discuss the student’s success with these and get them to think about how to improve.
Spelling Drills
Spelling Sheets
Those who are familiar with the Playberry T3 Spelling card routine may choose to use these sheets as an interim step for students who are struggling to remember the letters on their own or may be struggling with aspects of the letter formation. The sheets only cover the early teaching points as students usually progress to being able to do these on their own by the time they are beyond this stage. If students are still struggling to do these independently beyond these teaching points you should consider going back and practicing the pre-writing shapes to achieve automaticity before adding more letters to the students’ cards.
For those unfamiliar with the Playberry T3 spelling card routine, each time a child learns a new letter sound, they make a reading card and a spelling card that they practice daily. The spelling drill involves the teacher asking the student how to spell the sound, and the student replies with the sound and the letter used to spell it while writing the letter in their book. If we are doing the short /ă/ sound, as in apple, the teacher would say, ‘How do you spell /ă/?’ The student replies, ‘/ă/ is a [ayy]’ and writes the letter a.
The optional scoring check boxes on the spelling drill sheets are designed to encourage the child to look closely at their work and check that they have written the letter correctly and said the sound and letter name correctly. They can also be used for a second review where the student writes the letter on their own (rather than tracing). Each time the student does it correctly, the box is checked. Depending on the student’s capacity and if they are using a pencil or erasable pen, they can erase incorrect attempts and have another go until all the boxes are ticked.
Make A Chunk sheets
These are interim activities to add more variety and writing practice while practising the letter chunks. The student draws a line from the first letter to the second part of the chunk and then writes the chunk on the line next to the second chunk.
As previously mentioned, one of the most difficult parts of handwriting intervention is maintaining student interest while giving them the repetitive practice they need. We can and should push students to practice, but we must be careful not to turn handwriting into a negative experience. By providing multiple short, fun activities, we keep up the pace of the lesson, interest, and sense of progress.
We often have these sheets printed and ready to go if a quick change of direction or break in the lesson routine is needed.
Tips for Success
Success with the Literacy Support Kit comes from consistency, patience, and encouragement. Here are some key tips to help students feel confident, stay motivated, and make steady progress on their literacy journey.
- Stay Consistent and Patient: Consistent practice and patience are crucial, particularly with students living with significant learning difficulties.
- Celebrate Small Wins: Recognise each achievement, no matter how small, to build student confidence and motivation.
- Personalise the Approach: Adjust activities based on the student’s needs, using games and alternative materials to keep learning fun and accessible.
Contact Us
For more details on the Literacy Support Kit or how it can complement other literacy programs, please contact us with your questions.