How to Teach a Child to Write

Video Transcript

WOMAN: Teaching your child to write. It is very important for you to understand that young children need to learn first by using the large muscles. We call that gross motor control. So in order for a child to learn to write, it is important for them to be able to train those large muscles first. In learning to write, children love to be able to move, and so therefore, whenever we are writing we want to do some things like finger paint. Finger paint letters. That way, the child is using large muscles to do that. Also, sometimes it is very difficult for young children to hold pencils. So you want to use large crayons or paintbrushes. Painting is a great medium for children to use whenever learning to write. You may also have a pan filled with sand. Allow the child to run their finger through the sand and draw a number in the sand. That is another way that they have some tactile reinforcement. You can cut out letters out of sandpaper and let the child run their fingers over those letters, drawing those letters. It is important to repeat these things time after time because repetition is what makes a good writer.