Teaching Tots: Handwriting Without Tears

Fine Motor Skills have always been a strength of G's. She loves to work puzzles and is able to copy simple strokes. Because I work closely with a lot of occupational therapists, I get to learn about fine motor development and it's been an important component of our curriculum with G. From early on, she's been exposed to puzzles and crayons, although I admit that scissors are still something she doesn't get too much experience with.

Some of the first strokes a child should copy are a horizontal and vertical line, followed by a circle and a +. More difficult shapes such as a square might come next and diagonal lines are probably last.

I was discussing ways to increase her handwriting development with our occupational therapist, and she suggested the Handwriting Without Tears program. Another benefit of working closely with other developmental therapists, is getting these items at a reduced price or figuring out ways to make them for free. So, our access to this program was not purchased through their website, but rather utilizing sources from the OT.

One of the first steps in the program is to teach vocabulary. Here's where my speech therapy background comes in. Your child needs to learn the vocabulary of long, short, big curve, little curve, horizontal and vertical, up, down, across, and diagonal.

I first exposed G to this program by 'playing' with the blocks, which are just pieces of foam that you can cut yourself. I showed her how to lay a long block or a short block either going across the page or up and down (horizontal). She then had to imitate how I placed the block. Imitation is one of the first stages of learning, so start here.
One of our next steps was to start with letter formation. Had I read the program before hand, this is NOT where you want to start! But, G is already able to draw some shapes and form a few letters on her own, so I thought it would be okay. As you can see above we made the letter 'H'.

You'll want a solid piece of foam with a smiley face in the corner, to cue your child that you always start at the top left side of the page- where the smiley face is. We layed 1 long block going down (horizontal), and then the 2nd block, finally putting another long block across the two horizaontal lines.

We then backed up to shapes. 'o' is another letter that G can easily form, so I wanted to teach her the vocabulary of big and little curves.

Again, you'll want to start with doing a straight line down (horizontal), then teach your child how to do a straight line across (vertical), and finally teach your child how to make a '+'. We actually call this a 'down across'.

Next, we went on to a square, which is actually more of a rectangle. But, this is a shape that she cannot write when she's drawing, so this is where we will continue in the program. I taught her to make the square by placing a short line down, then another line across, a line that goes up, and then the last line to go across.

Toward the end, G decided she wanted to make a 'train track'. She did this by placing several 'down acrosses'. I tried to reinforce the vocabulary she learned, by telling her that she was using little lines and that they were horizontal and vertical.

You can find out more about the Handwriting Without Tears program from their website. I do want to offer a disclaimer, that I am not an expert in the program and that I have not ever been to a training. My knowledge is based on what I've read and the handouts that we received from the OT. I have many friends who use this program with their own preschooler and I've heard nothing but wonderful things about the program. In fact, several of the preschool curriculum's I've looked at for preschools when we move is whether or not they use this program.

We will continue to make simple shapes and simple letters. G needs to learn the square and be able to master it on her own before I feel comfortable moving on. We'll next move on to 'x' and to a triangle. And we'll start with letters that are important to her (they're in her name) or that are simple to make.

You can easily make these 'blocks' by purchasing the foam pieces, cutting long straight lines, short straight lines, large 'c' and small 'c' (or the curved lines). You'll also need 1 solid piece of foam with the smiley face in the top left corner.

If you've used this program, your child has, or you've read about it, I'd love to hear your experiences!