5 Best Tips to enhance writing skills in your preschooler | Proeves Learning Lab

Writing is it intricately linked to critical thinking. It also has implications for performance across all areas of the school curriculum. Learning to write is not an easy task for preschoolers.  It plays a significant role in their academic and cognitive development. National Association for The Education of Young Children (2016) states that ‘skills that children learn as young writers can impact their literacy development later in life’. Early writing skills have a major impact on academic performance and overall literacy of a child.

Many children want to play rather than sit down and write. In order to motivate your child to write, it is important to make the activity seem fun and interesting. Here are some ways you can go about it:

Allocate a writing station/desk: An official writing station has all the necessary materials to write including different types of paper, writing tools, glue, paint and stickers. It is the best to let your child sit at the writing station by himself and see how he expresses his creativity. Sometimes add surprises to his/her materials at the writing station so that your little one is always interested in coming back.

Start with writing their name: The best way to make the activity of writing interesting to your child is to begin with teaching him how to write his name. Tell him about the different letters that make up his name and the order he should put them in to spell it correctly. His first few attempts are not likely to be very successful but don’t be discouraged, appreciate for their efforts.

Encourage to write using fingers: It’s not necessary that you use an appropriate instrument such as a pencil or a pen all the time. A great way to get them fascinated with writing is to get your child to dip her/his fingers in paint and then write something or spread sand and ask them to write by fingers.

Give them choices: Offer them crayons, colour pencils, markers, chalk or oil pastels and see what he likes best. Give them alternate writing canvases like blackboards, cardboard, plexiglass easels can be used for practising writing. Offer your child different materials and see which ones engage him best.

Make it fun: Making writing as fun as possible will do wonders for your child’s interest in the activity. You can purchase a writing book where children learn how to write letters by connecting dots. This will help your little one practise letter formation which is a key aspect of learning how to write.