Do you wonder how to teach a toddler to write? Many parents want their children to learn writing when their little one begins to hold objects with their fingers. However, the right time to learn writing skills may depend on many factors, such as how easily they can hold a crayon or pencil, their interest in letters, enthusiasm, and more. Toddlers may also show specific interest in capital letters or small letters. Not all toddlers achieve milestones simultaneously. Also, teaching writing skills requires a lot of patience. You may wait until your toddler shows signs of interest rather than forcing them to learn. Read on to know some interesting ways to teach your toddler to write numbers and letters and how to make them enthusiastic about learning writing.
Interesting Ways To Teach Your Toddler To Write
Your toddler or preschooler may be an enthusiastic artist, wanting to draw random figures everywhere. But to teach him to write will involve more than just stick figure art and random shapes. Here, we give you tips to help him master the task.
How To Teach Your Toddler To Write The Alphabet
At that young age, writing the alphabet could be rocket science if there is no guidance. Toddlers are at a learning age and have the enthusiasm to pick everything they see. Getting them to write the alphabet shouldn’t be tough, but start with the uppercase letters and then migrate to lowercase, just to prevent confusions among ‘p’, ‘q’, ‘t’, ‘l’, ‘i’, etc.
How To Help Your Toddler Write Numbers
Numbers work much like the alphabet. They come with their own rules and confusions. If you spin yarns around how a preschooler can learn to write numbers, it would help him. Remember anything less mundane is bound to get your preschooler’s attention. Numbers should be taught the same way as the letters.
How To Teach Your Preschooler To Hold A Pencil
What If Your Preschooler Seems Reluctant to Write?
Toddlers could have writing problems for various reasons. Hyperactivity, underdeveloped motor grip, and lack of attention, are just a few to name. Identify what the problem could be, to get them back into writing legibly.
1. Develop Proper Hand-Eye Coordination:
Playing with a bat and ball or various color beads, or practising catches can improve your toddler’s reaction time.
Ask him to chase your finger or draw a circle and keep moving your finger in and out of the circle.
This also helps to improve hand-eye coordination.
2. Exercises For Fingers:
Give your toddler a stress ball and ask him to press it.
Encourage him to give a handshake.
Engage him in daily chores such as drying clothes and fixing them with clips.
You could ask him to close and open his wrist several times or even move his arms around.
These activities help in strengthening the muscles and give a better grip at the pencil.
3. Write As Well As Draw:
In addition to writing, encourage your toddler to draw. He can start drawing things that he sees around him.
These drawings can be basic shapes like stick figures. The idea is to engage him in making shapes.
4. Puzzle Practice:
Puzzle practice can be a good way to encourage him to write.
You can cut the letters and put them apart.
Ask him to assemble them and create a name-puzzle.
At first, the names can be random and small. Let him take a while to graduate from three letter words to more.
5. Give Rewards:
Positive reinforcement is often successful with children. Buy him stickers, cars, and toys that he loves. Let him show off the prizes and rewards to his friends. This would encourage him to write.
Schools And Their Role
Schools play an important role in making your toddler learn to write. In fact, you will be surprised to see how your reluctant toddler loves to scribble in his book, once he begins to go to school. Pre-schools induce kids to write and recite through creative ways. Here are a few ways:
Take up one letter a week, and make them practice on sand plates or whiteboards.
Take up activities to make toddlers identify the letters. For example, write letters on flash cards and jumble them, and ask the students to find a particular letter.
Pronounce the letters several times for the kids to catch their sound and repeat.
Make them to draw straight lines and curves to begin with.
Identifying Problems In Toddlers
There is no need to trigger the panic button if your toddler seems interested only in looking at pictures. Some children tend to be restless and find it difficult to be seated at one place. While some are hyperactive, others turn into daydreaming. Toddlers generally have less attention span compared to adults, which is understandable at their age. For the hyperactive toddlers, not only writing but listening to stories also becomes a problem. Some toddlers may have more energy than others and need more active time and breaks mixed in with learning. You can talk to teachers to rule out the possibilities of ADHD, although ADHD is not generally diagnosed until around age six.
