Handwriting Games

To enhance motor skill development, use fun exercises to help your child with their handwriting skills!

Before we jump into therapeutic activities, let's review the foundations that support writing development.

1) Posture

Ensure your child has a comfortable chair that supports an upright posture while writing. It is common among children with low muscle tone to be prone to slouching and crowding towards their books/paper. This impacts eyesight and quality of writing. Use pillows, blankets, and foot stools to support balance in the upper body to reduce muscle fatigue throughout writing exercises.

2) Accomodations (e.g., pencil grips, slanted writing surface)

Pencil grips and using smaller writing instruments (e.g., golf pencils, pieces of chalk) can help develop a strong tripod grip. To increase traction, wrap textured tape (e.g., baseball grip tape) around the pencil to provide a surface for the fingers to maintain stability. A slanted writing surface (~20 degree slant) helpful to support proper posture during writing activities. Make your own by using a large three-ring binder with a clipboard atop to provide a hard writing surface.

Games for Handwriting Skills

A) Dice Words

It's back to basics for this game! Roll a dice and write a word that has that number of letters. Increase the difficulty by rolling multiple D6 or visit a game store to buy special dice (e.g., D20).

B) 26 Objects

A movement-based game with two parts to help with penmanship and language expression. Set up this activity together by writing each letter of the alphabet on separate small pieces of paper. Throw all the pieces of paper into a hat and pull them out one at a time. For each letter that's pulled, find something around the house that starts with that letter. For more difficult letters, use pictures to represent objects (e.g., picture of a xylophone for X). Once the object has been identified, practice printing the word together. 

C) Magic Words

Take a multisensory approach to keep learning fun! Set up a magic board using a baking sheet or serving tray with sand, pudding, or shaving cream. Each player gets a sensory writing tool, such as a hotdog, cotton swab, or chopstick, to write a word. Try to incorporate verbs and animals to encourage imaginative play by acting out the words.

D) Card Scrabble

Adapt regular playing cards to create a handheld version of Scrabble. Write a letter on each card and take turns pulling a card. When a card is pulled, practice tracing or writing the letter. Collect cards until you can spell a word. First one to spell any word wins! To increase difficulty, use a dice to determine how many letters the word must have to win. 

References

Thank you to Mary Cooney (mercyformarthas.com) for building the foundation of these exercises. Her favorite resources for handwriting development include Kumon coloring books, large paper, easels, Montessori tracing boards, Kumon tracing books, Let’s Learn Writing worksheets, and Learning Without Tears Preschool book and chalkboard or frame mat.

Thank you to Victoria Wood (theottoolbox.com) for ideas on handwriting games. She has many other fun ways to work on handwriting skills, including size awareness, spatial awareness, letter formation, pencil control, pencil pressure, and speed.