Teaching young children to write the alphabet

June 24, 11:39 AMEarly Childhood Parenting ExaminerAngele Sionna

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"A" tracing sheet from ZiggityZoom.com

Little ones are introduced to their ABCs early on by reading with parents and in song. When they get to the Pre-K level, they begin to show an interest in learning to write the letters they're seeing and learning about.

So how can you as a parent help your young children get started on writing the alphabet or stay on top of it while pre-school's on summer vacation?

Here are a few tips that I've found work with my three year old...

Download free printable alphabet tracing worksheets for all 26 letters on ZiggityZoom.com. Tracing is the first step to learning to write.

Buy a reusable tracing book that lets children write and rewrite letters over and over again. A great one to try is called Write On!. It comes with a DVD that kids can watch and practice with. My 3 year old was very interested in the video and with no prompting from me began to follow along with them in her reusable book. Great program!

Another reusable tracing book my daughter has had great success with are the My First Wipe Clean book series. She traces shapes, lines, objects and letters. Her preschool teacher told me that kids do well with letters after they've mastered tracing shapes. It definitely has helped Ava.

Use a Doodle-Pro! Those fun drawing boards are so great for teaching children to write letters. I write letters and my daughter traces them, erases and tries on her own. She thinks it's a great game too!

Making Letters: A Very 1st Writing Book is a great first step for teaching writing. As your little ones flip through it, they practice air-writing the letters. The pages are textured to make tracing fun and mess free.

Make letter shaped cookies. Not only is this a tasty assignment, but kids really get into it. Use any cookie recipe made for using cookie cutters. But no need to buy special cookie cutters, you can roll the dough and just shape into letters by hand. Make both letters for every one in the family's names plus the alphabet!

I asked experts to share more tips on teaching writing to young children. Here are their ideas...

Jerry Blum, Founder and Director of the USA Reading Clinic, has this tip:

A fun way for preschoolers to learn to write the alphabet and their names is to use sand; either in a box at home or at the playground. Kids love playing in sand, so parents will have no trouble motivating their kids.

Starting with the letter “A”, write the letter in the sand and have your child trace the letter with his or her finger. Make sure the child is tracing the letter in the proper direction. Have the child say the letter out loud. Repeat the tracing several times. Next, erase the letter and see if the child can write the letter in the sand the proper way. When a parent is confident that the child knows the letter, move onto the letter “B” and so forth repeating the above procedure. Each day introduce several new letters. Repeat letters from previous days.

After practicing this technique for a while, the child should be able to write all the letters of the alphabet in the correct order.

Once the alphabet is learned, parents can use the same procedure to train the child to write his or her name.

Stacy Dykstra, Executive Director for Smart Start Central Oklahoma, offers these tips:
 

• Everyday moments offer opportunities for learning, but remember young children learn best through play. Parents can get started by asking children to help plan and write out the dinner menu for the week. Then together they can write the grocery list, which will give the young child an opportunity to develop his vocabulary and use his writing skills. At first, the parent may write a word and then the child may trace it or try to write it herself underneath the word.  As a child gets more familiar with the letters, the parent may spell the word letter by letter and the child will write each letter independently.  Keep in mind, young children probably won’t be able to complete the whole grocery list at one sitting and that is OK.  Parents can finish the list when the child loses interest.
  
• Make your daily reading time a time to point out beginning letters and sounds of your child’s favorite characters or pictures.  Eventually, your child will be able to tell you what letter “Clifford” begins with, and many other words that also begin with “c”.

Nancy O'Neill, who taught her son to write, has this tip for other parents:

The one thing no one ever told me nor did I think of myself when our son was young, was that I should have taught him upper and lower case letters.  At age 2, he could recite the alphabet, sing and recite nursery rhymes. By three, he was writing his name and other simple words.  But I taught him using all capital letters because I thought it was easier.   Then when he got to pre-school at age 4 and could write almost any word, he actually had to learn the lower case letters. It should have been obvious to me knowing that the world doesn't write in all caps but just never thought of it at the time.

Jan Z. Olsen, founder of Handwriting Without Tears, has these 10 tips for parents to start teaching children as young as 9 months old...

1. Give them little bites – Encourage children, even ones as young as 9 months, to pick up small objects, like tiny pieces of food, with their fingers. It will help to develop writing muscles and good coordination.
2. Draw – Children who draw often, write better. For young draw-ers, give them broken pieces of chalk or crayons to use. They will have no choice but to hold these small pieces correctly!
3. Play – Encourage preschoolers to use finger paints and sponges to strengthen writing muscles and reinforce coordination
4. Move - Teach spatial words, like “under, over, top, middle, and bottom” by using visual representations. Put one hand under another, etc.
5. Go “Top Left” – Get children in the habit of going from top to bottom and left to right.
6. Sing – Point to the letters as you sing the alphabet song. Sing songs that use their fingers, like the “Itsy Bitsy Spider”, and “The Crayon Song” on the Get Set For School Sing-Along CD
7. Sit up straight - Make sure your child can sit with her feet on the floor and their arm can move freely wherever they write, at home or school.
8. Read – Show your children the importance of communicating through words.
9. Do it correctly yourself - Remember that children learn by imitating you, so make sure that YOU are holding your pencil and forming your letters correctly.
10. Ask – Discuss with your child’s teacher what resources are available to help develop their skills.