COVID-19 Pandemic Affecting The Handwriting Skills Of Preschoolers

 

Although COVID-19 has an impact on many aspects of life, it has had a particularly dramatic impact on the lives of preschoolers. Preschoolers aged 2.6-4 years never had the opportunity to see how genuine schools are set up and what happens during the school day. Despite all of the soft skills taught in the classroom, handwriting is one of the most significant aspects that aids in the formation of children's fine motor skills. 

Drawing and writing with the hand stimulate neural circuits, according to investigations, although movement and cognitive exertion are required to achieve this. Writing, which is done by holding a pen and paper (while creating upright lines, slanting lines, or curves), provides the brain with greater sensory input than utilising a screen. The brain cells are stimulated for enhanced learning and memory as a consequence of these sensory inputs.

Since a corollary, it is critical for children to keep handwriting practise at home, as it provides a lively learning environment.

As a result of the lockdown, pre-schools have been closed for a long time. As a consequence of this, there will be a negative impact on kid’s life, we as parents have observed a lack of physical activity in our children due to which toddlers that are undergoing changes in behaviour do not always obey the instructions given to them, whether it's for an e-class or school-assigned activities.

Nowadays, there are e-classes available from every school, which can instruct parents to make their kids learn to write A-Z or 1-10. 

1. Parents get puzzled, wondering how they can educate their children to write when the kid can't even sit independently. 
2. Most mothers lack the necessary teaching training to support their kids learn how to write, at home.
3. Handwriting and penmanship are becoming less important to children because they don't bother to learn how to grip a pencil. This is related to the toddler’s lack of exposure to the school environment, where they would learn to develop interpersonal skills.
4. Reduction in toddler’s brain activity or sensory experience, which is incredibly significant throughout these years of growth.

On a more positive side, I believe there is no need to be concerned; if a mother can potty train her child, she can instruct them how to correctly handle a crayon, if not a pencil. If you're reading this article, it's likely that you're also seeking for strategies to get your child to sit and write. However, there are several activities that can be found in a variety of household products that can help children develop stronger grasping skills. 

For instance:

Finger exercises: These exercises assist children strengthen the tips of young fingers, ultimately contributing to a stronger control of the pencil in their fingers, palm, and wrist. There are several approaches that may be used, by pushing the tips of all the fingers together with the thumb, finger walking on the arm using the index and middle fingers from the wrist to the shoulder as well as several others.

Using Tong/tweezers: Holding objects using tongs or tweezers can assist a child grasp things for a longer period of time, resulting in appropriate development and movement of hands and fingers. The object that can be held with tweezers/cloth-pins/tongs can be whatever little, such as pom-poms, candies, cotton balls, grains etc.

Playing with clay dough: Clay dough is one of the colourful and imaginative ways to entice children to grow, without their awareness.  Kneading dough requires children to engage their entire hand movement and transforming a dough into a certain shape necessitates the use of all the muscles of the hand.

Practice scribbling: Scribbling on paper with a crayon/pen/pencil/coloured pencils or on a chalkboard is beneficial. This approach teaches children how to control their wrist and hand by generating random shapes and lines that lead them to construct tiny circles and slanting lines.

Water colours: Watercolors and paint brushes are the best tools for teaching infants how to hold them with small hands and get them on paper. Toddlers begin by gripping the brushes with clenched fists, learning to paint inside the limits of the artwork, which aids in the development of hand control and eye coordination.

Using Child-friendly scissors: Child-friendly scissors aid in the development of finger-to-finger coordination as well as the generation of smooth synchronisation with the eyes and palm of the other hand when cutting a piece of paper/cloth.

Using kinetics sand/ all-purpose flour: To promote a child's willingness to write, kinetic sand/all-purpose flour can be provided to them to create lines or shapes on it with their fingers/unsharpened pencils/wooden or plastic sticks that are always accessible at home.

Ear buds Painting: One could encourage a child to create patterns with dots or allowing them to use an ear bud to drop colour on pre-written letters/drawn shapes by utilising earbuds, that are quite convenient for a child to hold in their palm. Earbuds and paint colours are a great technique to teach a child the patterns of writing alphabets and numerals.

Pasting of Grains/Newspaper: Gluing is also an excellent technique to improve gripping, pattern recognition with fingers, wrist, and eye coordination.  Cutting and pasting paper on a predetermined pattern/alphabet or number design can result in accurate recognition.

All of these techniques will assist your child in developing excellent pencil holding, and children who utilised these approaches at an earlier age demonstrated improved handwriting abilities. A preschooler must be supervised by one of his or her parents while engaging in these activities. All a child lacks is the parent's uninterrupted attention to do a task flawlessly.

Please share your thoughts in the comments area below on how you manage your preschoolers while training them to trace or draw.

 

 

Simranjeet Kaur has a master’s degree in bioinformatics. She manages her institute for grades I-XII (all disciplines) by teaching Science and Mathematics to higher secondary students. Her greatest passion most times involved homeschooling her kid. Since being a mother to a daughter, she has enjoyed reading all parenting blogs, which has sparked her interest in writing.

Found this article useful? Read more blogs at www.themomstore.in 

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this post are the personal views of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of The Mom Store.