Writing is an important lifelong skill. Children need to learn to write so they can communicate and express themselves. Early writing begins with mark-making; children achieve a correct pencil grip through the development of their gross motor skills and core strength. As children develop their pencil grasps change: Most children naturally develop a pencil grasp that is comfortable for them and a variety of different grasps can be seen in any classroom. A pencil grasp only becomes a problem if the child complains of fatigue, pain in their hand, or has difficulty writing neatly and at a reasonable speed (as compared to their peers). The most efficient grasps are the dynamic tripod and dynamic quadrapod.
Pencil grip development
In order to achieve an effective pencil grip, children need to play and explore a range of movement to develop their physical strength, control in the upper body, hands and fingers. This includes crawling, balancing, using tweezers, as well as sewing, brushing and digging.
Photo of Early Years
We believe that only when children have the required core strength, gross and fine-motor skills to sit upright at a table, holding their pencil correctly, are they ready to write. This can only happen once letter formation has been explicitly taught, coinciding with the letter phonemes and graphemes taught in Phase 2 phonics (Autumn Term).
LW Letter Formation PDF
We use Cued Articulation actions alongside our teaching of pure souns, this helps to support children’s speech and language. A flyer to support the learning of these actions at home can be found her:
Cued Articulation Actions
We encourage children to use a range of materials when practising their writing, lying flat on their tummies whilst mark-making also helps to develop core strength; as well as during scheduled trim trail time and our weekly PE sessions.
Photo of Trim Trail/PE
In the Spring Term of Reception, we introduce ‘Wiggly Warm-Up’ time to pin-point each child’s individual area for development. This could be: writing their name, developing their pencil grip through fine-motor activities or practising correct letter formation. We rotate the activities each day and encourage small groups to scrunch paper, use scissors, play-dough or yoga.
Our letter formation follows the Little Wandle scheme and our Handwriting policy can be found here:
Handwriting Policy
We do not use a cursive script, instead, we use print emphasising formation beginning and finishing in the correct place. Our preferred font to support children’s learning of print is the approved Little Wandle font (Sassoon Infant). We use rhymes and visuals to help children achieve the correct formation and encourage children to practise them at every opportunity both indoors and outdoors. A video of the correct letter formation can be found here:
Letter formation Video (to be uploaded)