Introducing writing

By the time your child starts school, a love of reading and an interest in the written word will stand him in excellent stead for embarking on the next stage in his learning journey. You can help achieve this by making it easy for your child to practice his ‘writing skills’ – because that’s what those first scribbles actually are!

Start with drawing?

Children of around 18 months old can usually grip a pencil and love drawing – or at least scribbling! – in an abstract fashion on scrap paper. Your child will master the art of drawing a rudimentary circle long before he can make the connection between that circle, the letter ‘O’ and the sounds that it can make, so help him develop the basic skills he needs for pencil control. Start by helping him to hold his pencil properly, rather than grasping it in his fist – he’ll soon see that this gives him an extra degree of control. Get him drawing and copying shapes, and coloring in pictures, or just let him experiment with scribbling with different colors, chalks and crayons.

Introducing letters?

The next stage is really to try and get him interested in letters, and showing him that these odd shapes that he sees around him actually form words, and that these words tell us something. Point out words and letters around you. You may want to invest in a set of brightly colored magnetic letters to go on the fridge – he’ll love playing with these and arranging them in shapes and patterns, and it’ll get him used to the shapes of the different letters. Point out letters that can easily be associated with something he’ll understand – the hissing ‘S’ is like a snake, or the round ‘O’ is like an open mouth. Show him the letters that make up his name – he’s likely to be interested in what his name looks like, and this might be the route in to getting him to write his first letters. You can buy wooden alphabet letters that make up his name to display in his room or on his door to help him to recognize how it’s spelled. 

Reading

Try to read your child a story every day. As he follows the words you say and connects them with the pictures he sees, he‘ll eventually begin to recognize some easy letters in his favorite books. See if your child can spot any letters he recognizes around the house – for example, the letter ‘T’ on a telephone or ‘W’ on a welcome mat. Sing songs and nursery rhymes about letters – the alphabet song or doh-ray-me, for example. Encourage your child to make birthday cards or write ‘letters’ to Grandma – he can try to copy what you’ve written if he’s old enough or you can help him to write his name with a crayon if he’s too young. Alternately, write his name using a highlighter pen and let him write over it with his pencil.

Keep in mind that if your child shows no interest in letters and writing, or is finding it difficult to manage his pencil or crayon, you shouldn’t push it. It doesn’t indicate any kind of academic problem – many children show no interest in reading and writing until they start school. Give the writing a break and continue to reinforce the appeal of the written word through reading books and stories. Studies have shown that children who are hot-housed into producing the whole alphabet in writing before they start school don’t necessarily retain their academic advantage later on. By the time your child starts school, a love of reading and an interest in the written word will stand him in excellent stead for embarking on the next stage in his learning journey.