Your home is probably filled with amazing drawings made by your little ones. There’s something incredible about recognising objects within those pictures; when letters start appearing, it’s a celebration!
Learning to write is a complex skill that takes time to develop and master, and school plays a big role in this. But at Hopes & Dreams, we give our children a solid foundation to get them started. After all, 90% of a child's brain development happens before the age of 5.
Here’s an insight into what we do to help develop writing skills in our nurseries.
The Building Blocks Of Writing: Fine And Gross Motor Skills
Two types of skills are crucial for writing: gross and fine motor skills.
Developing gross motor skills comes first. Through play and physical activity, children build up these skills that are the crucial precursor to honing in on fine motor skills as they get older. Gross motor skills set the foundations for the balance, control and coordination required for more intricate movements.
Gross Motor Skills
Gross motor skills involve the larger muscles of the body. We might be running, jumping, climbing, or throwing a ball when practising gross motor skills.
When it comes to writing, gross motor skills are used for strength and coordination for posture, shoulder stability and arm movement.
Fine Motor Skills
Where gross motor skills cover large body movements, fine motor skills involve the smaller muscles of the hands and fingers. It's these skills that are required for precise movements like holding cutlery, buttoning buttons and using scissors.
Fine motor skills are responsible for the dexterity needed to control pencils, crayons, and other writing tools when we learn to write.
To get started on motor skill practice with the young children in our nurseries, we use the EYFS principle of using large-scale activities as a starting point. We might use big paint brushes and water to make marks and shapes or use sticks to scratch lines into the sand, before progressing onto smaller tools that require more skill to manipulate.
Strengthening Gross Motor Skills
Developing gross motor skills before focusing on fine motor skills is crucial.
When children work on strengthening gross motor skills, they build muscle strength, stamina and core strength. Gross motor activities help children to develop spatial awareness and understand how their bodies move, allowing them to later build on the hand-eye coordination needed for learning to write.
At Hopes & Dreams, we provide plenty of activities that build the gross motor skills necessary for writing. Children can explore how their bodies move and improve spatial awareness, balance, strength and coordination through…
- Outdoor play.
- Dancing and movement games.
- Yoga and stretching exercises.
- Crawling and obstacle courses.
We also ensure that our activities encourage reaching across the body to develop core strength and muscle isolation, as mentioned in the EYFS framework.
Developing Fine Motor Skills
To develop those fine motor skills that will play such a huge part in learning to hold a pencil or pen, Hopes & Dreams settings use lots of play and crafts. Here are some of the activities our little ones get up to:
- Playdough manipulation (rolling, pinching, cutting).
- Threading beads and lacing activities.
- Using tongs or tweezers to pick up objects.
- Puzzles and building blocks.
- Finger painting and drawing.
We must also build strength in the muscles children use to grip onto writing implements. Squeezing a pencil can be tough to get used to - even adults can get tired if they’re writing long passages! Using pegs to peg socks together is a simple way to get hands moving.
Pre-Writing Activities For Different Ages
Pre-writing activities can be encouraged at home and during nursery hours, and you can start as soon as you like!
Under 2s
For younger children, focus on sensory activities that foster an enjoyment and interest in shapes, marks and letters. This could include:
- Reading and repeating words
- Rhymes with actions so children can associate words with their meaning
- Finger painting
- Mark-making in soil or sand
Ages 2 And Up
For older children, we’re looking for and encouraging hand dominance. Here are some examples of learning opportunities:
- Drawing activities. Get children involved in the retelling of a story, or ask them to draw what they did at the weekend.
- Playdough seek and find objects. Hide a selection of bits and bobs in balls of playdough and watch the children pull and stretch the manipulative apart to find them.
- Letter games. Simple games like spotting the odd letter out - ’Can you spot the R hiding in with the Ps?’ - and ‘Can you name all the things in the room beginning with S?’ can be an engaging way to get children excited about letter recognition and sounding out.
- Pouring and scooping water, sand or rice. This includes pouring themselves a drink and drinking from a cup; holding a cup handle with one hand builds wrist muscles.
- Encouraging children to dress themselves, whether that’s a jumper on a windy day or an outfit from the dressing up box.
- Letting children explore cutlery and how to use it.
- Digging for treasure!
Exploring Letters And Writing Through Play
Hopes & Dreams nurseries provide a strong foundation for writing through play and exploration. Engaging children in a variety of outdoor activities and focused tasks ensures both fine and gross motor skills are developed, readying the next generation of writers!
Interested to know more about developing a toddler’s fine motor skills? Read this blog. It’s a good one.
