Common Mistakes Done While Teaching Handwriting

Writing is one of the major focus areas for child development in pre-schoolers. Parents are often confused and not aware about how to start and when to start. So this blog is to help you understand what not to do while starting handwriting skills. I will be telling you about common mistakes done while teaching handwriting so that you can avoid those and enjoy a smooth teaching-learning experience with your kid.

When to start?

While there is a lot of buzz around early learning and early basic skill development, Process of writing is one skill that should be started after a child turns three years old. However, pre-writing skills must be given ample amount of practice and should be started early.

Now let's start with the mistakes we commonly make while teaching handwriting.

• Not starting with pre-writing skills: Writing is all about gripping. Pre-writing skills help to strengthen the finger muscles and wrist movements. Directly starting with gripping is not at all good for kids as their hands will not be steady and there will be poor letter formation on piece of paper will not be clear.
• Starting with pencils and sketch pens: For kids to write properly with pencils or colors, they have to be familiar with hand movements and basic hold. So you should always start with finger tracing using rice or a semolina tray. After that you should introduce kindergarten crayons, chalk and board and lastly crayons/ sketch pens/ pencils.
• Teaching letters right away: Like every lesson starts with basic skills , writing must also start with basics. You should never start with letters right away. The basics include standing lines, sleeping lines, slanting lines, curves and tracings. Children require a lot of practice on these to be able to learn letters.
• Scribbling: Parents get so focused on teaching handwriting that they think that free hand scribbling is futile. Well it's not. If you want your kids to get interested in writing, you need to give them time to love the process. Paste big sheet of paper or newspapers on the wall and let them go free hand. Encourage scribbling and appreciate them.Let them put their ideas on paper  This will help you in later stages when you teach them letters.
• Teaching the letters in order: This is a very common mistake done while teaching handwriting. I would have done the same if Aarav wouldn't have been enrolled in school. They start with letters with standing and sleeping lines like L,I,T, F, E,H and then letters with slanting lines like A,K,M and then they will come to curves B, C and so on. Follow this pattern and it will become easier to teach handwriting to kids.
• Worksheets mania: While worksheets are a great teaching tool, when it comes to handwriting, you should put them on hold until your kid is ready to follow a structure. Give a lot of free handwriting practice with charts, sheets, sensory trays and erase boards before jumping to worksheets.
• Not focusing on proper formation: You don't need to be uptight about proper formation initially but when your kid gets the idea of letter formation, keep checking his form and correcting it. If you ignore the proper formation then they will get set in their ways and it will be a task to correct it later.

So these are the common mistakes parents make while teaching handwriting. If you are doing the same, it's time to analyse and make some changes in your methods. I hope this blog helps you. Please don't forget to share your feedback in the comments box.

Priyanka Chhabria is a parenting blogger and a teacher. She uses her teaching experience in her parenting and uses social media to help moms normalise their parenting struggles. She also advocates self care and encourages other moms to dedicate time for it as well.

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