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How to foster early writing skills and confidence
Narelle LancasterOccupational Therapist
LOTS for [email protected]
0408 868 837
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We now expect a 4 year old child to do what was once expected at 6 years of age
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Today we will discuss:
• Writing pre-cursors,
• Effective fine motor activities,
• Peggy Lego Program
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Why play based?
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Sensory Motor VS Visual Motor
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There is more neurological activity when young children are engaged in multi-sensory activities compared to predominantly visual motor activities
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Letter by letter
A child learns more effectively by tracing, copying and then writing their name – LETTER by LETTER
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If children cannot do this …
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Each new letter proposes a new motor sequence.
That is 52 new motor sequences to learn.
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What if we can reduce that to combinations of 5 new motor actions?
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Waking up children’s proprioceptive systems
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What is the single primary goal of the activity?
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If the child doesn’t experience success after practicing one method … change by
simplifying or modifying the task.
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Development of Writing Pre-Cursors
How do we get from this
to this?
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By three years of age …
• Refined pincer grip• Good bilateral integration and
orientation to their midline• Use a static quadrupod pencil grasp• Have good manipulation skills• Copy a horizontal and vertical line,
and a circle and copy a cross.• Draw a person with a head and 1 or
2 other features• Can copy basic whole body and
arm actions to songs.
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By four years of age …
• Draws a person with head, face, legs and arms
• Uses tripod grasp either static or dynamic
• Copy a cross and imitate a zigzag line
• Colour in targeting a boundary• Usually have a hand preference • Can imitate simple hand actions to
songs
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By five years of age …
• Have good pencil control for writing and colouring
• Can copy +, X, angular lines and squares
• Uses a dynamic tripod grasp• Has clear hand dominance• Draws people in action with other
basic depictions
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By six or seven years of age …• Sophisticated tool use • Emerging in hand manipulation and
pencil pressure allowing pencil flow and speed to emerge
• Smaller symbol reproduction• Able to draw detailed, elaborate
drawings depicting scenarios• Accurately forming letters and
symbols• Cognitive conceptual and visual
spatial elements of writing emerging
• Good visual tracking, localising and switching
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1. Peggy Lego sensory motor program2. Fingertip proprioception games3. Hand strengthening/pincer grasp reinforcer games4. Breaking down how a child holds a pencil into concrete steps5. Deep pressure shoulder work6. Eye hand co-ordination warm ups7. Fine motor planning games8. Lots of sensory based drawing and symbols9. Commence paper based visual motor readiness10. Name writing
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Adapted Peggy Lego Directionalities and rhymes, and associated letter formations
.
“Tall man, tall man, starts at the top, pulls down to the bottom and stops.”(l i t j f) “Sideways, sideways to the magic land”(f t and visual scanning across the page)
“Starts with a click, up and around”(c o a d g q e s) “Up and over”(n m h r k p) “Down and under”(u v w b y)
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Classroom expectations
3K Gross motor and sensory motor learning of the directionalities and rhymes
4K Gross motor and sensory motor learning of the directionalities and rhymes
Basic craft/ paper based practice
Utilise in prompting for drawing
Exposure to correct letter formations in a play based manner (commences motor mapping for correct formations whilst nurturing early writing confidence and interest.)
Name writing. Remember trace, copy, write – letter by letter. Consider cut our name tracers to trace and paste onto work rather than attempting to write name too early.
PP Paper based craft practice
Use a sensory motor reinforcer immediately before visual motor practice (tracing, then copying letters on paper.)
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Peggy Lego 4K Classroom Session Samples• “Tall man and Sideways” Sample A• • Water painting on fence/ wall• Wheelbarrow walks, pegging onto clothesline• Sensory motor letter stations - ltijf• -marble roller letters• -tactile letters• -car/ road letters• -rice tray letters• • “Tall man and Sideways” Sample B• • Running fingers down each others backs/ bodies• Blindfolded playdough treasures• Sensory motor letter stations - ltijf• -shaving cream letters• -sandpaper letters• -torch letters• -Wikki Stix trace • • For PP add in related craft task, and paper based letter formation practice after sensory
reinforcer practice.
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Moving on from Peggy Lego
Remember:
Formalising too soon may cause regression.