Nursery World - Positive Relationships: Home learning

While certain activities are useful for the development of
handwriting, others can hinder it - and practitioners can help by
explaining the differences to parents.

Handwriting is often misunderstood because parents confuse it with writing. While learning to write is, of course, linked to handwriting, the formation of letters and marks requires several physical skills, including hand-eye co-ordination.

There are many processes involved for children to produce fluid joined-up handwriting, some of which are developmental. When adults try to shortcut any of the processes - by, for example, encouraging children to trace earlier than they are ready or to write on lines - fluent, even handwriting in the primary years is rarely achieved. Having said this, there are some activities that are beneficial to children's handwriting, which we should share with parents while explaining their importance.

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