Pre schooler not able to write letters
firni posted on Fri, 10/09/2009 - 11:44
Hi All
I have a 4 years old son. He is in LKG still he cannot write his letters A B C and numbers 1 2 3. I have been trying hard but he doe not want to do that. He is good at reading and verbal skills. Whenever I want him to sit down and try writing he will just ignore and say that he wants to read his books.
Is he late at writing. I have seen kids of his age writing well. What should I do?
Some kids do start writing (or copying) as early as 3 years but I don't think your son is late in writing. Does your son hold a pencil or a crayon? I think you should start with teaching him to hold a pencil first. Don't force him into structured writing (eg. Alphabets) but encourage him to scribble or draw something.
May be its a bit late but don't worry. Many kids are not able to develop their fine motor skills by this age. You just need to develop his hand muscles. Let me use his crayons a lot (hope he loves coloring, which most kids do.).
Please don't force you your son into writing or coloring. And do nim for what ever he does well, instead of critisizing for wrong. Slowly he will develop interest. Each child has him own way and pace of development.
Instead of making your son write with a pencil why don't you try some creative ways. I did the following with my daughter :
1. Make her write with her fingers on sand
2. Dip her fingers in water color and made her write on floor.
3. Finally I have given her slate and chalk to write where she could write with chalk and rub and rewrite.
She has been enjoying all these. Slowly in a month I will move her to writing on paper.
I remember my daughter writing the first proper letter at just over 3.5 years but I know of kids who do not write any recognizable characters till 5yrs. You should keep your patience and keep trying innovative ways of developing your son's interests. As from what you are saying I gather the problem is more of disinterest rather than inability to write.
I agree with toppy that the problem with firni's son id of interest. But behind this I think there is something which is preventing him to find interest in writing. May be as mentioned by one of the mom's his fine motor skills are nit yet fully master.
My daughter is 4 years old and she can write properly since she was 3. But I did face writing problems with my son. He started writing only when he was about 4 years old. First I used to think that he was just lazy so kept away from writing but slowly after talking to few friends I discovered that I need to help him with his fine motor skills. It took him 3 months to be proper. I used Play-doh, stringing of bead and many other activities to let him practice.
firni, Try to do the same with your son.