How do you teach a 4 1/2 year old to write?

Question

My 4 1/2 year old can read very well for his age but cannot write yet numbers or letters , except his first&last name (uppercase only - 9 different letters total ). I have been practicing with him sheets but he can only copy them and does not know how write them by himself. He gets frustrated and does not want to try .

Also he cannot draw a person or a house yet . Is he behind and what can I do to improve his writing skills?

Answer 1

Leave him alone and stop trying to make him advance faster than he is capeable.  YOU are causing him to become frustrated by insisting he learn to write.  IF he has inclination and is interested in learning it himself he will but if he is getting frustrated then he isn't really interested.  Leave him alone.

Answer 2

I am an elementary school EA, one thing kids really like are the dry erase boards. You can buy small ones fairly cheap. That is one idea. For my own kids (I was not working and had not thought of the dry erase boards) I just dot to dotted them and at that age just have him do a few a day. Also a pencil grip helped my youngest tremendously. I only like the triangular ones. All the other shaped ones are to confusing for them to figure out. The triangle there is only 1 way to hold it. As far as drawing at 4 a stick figure would still be fine for a person. But I would be willing to bet the dry erase board with different colored markers would be fun for him. Or let him write on construction paper instead of regular paper, he may be more willing to write on red (or whatever color) paper. Just draw the lines yourself with a ruler.

We also use the hat, belt and foot line. The top line is the hat the middle/dotted line is the belt and the bottom line is the foot. Kids can relate a lot better to "go all the way to the hat line" rather than all the way to the top. I just drew a little hat, belt and foot on each row for my kids.

Answer 3

Often boys, do not find writing very engaging.  Try going to the dollar store and getting a workbook.  See if he enjoys working with the characters while writing letters.  

I wouldn't worry about it too much.  He has time.  Kids that don't pick it up right away are usually just not interested.  It isn't an issue of capability.  Boys are often held back until 6 yrs old for kindergarten because they just aren't ready.  Boys also, often lack the fine motor skills needed to write well but can catch a ball easily.

Just keep encouraging him like you are doing and try to make it fun, not work.  Hold the pencil right - "kiss" it with the two fingers.  Write your name with a capital letter followed by lower case so his teacher doesn't have to correct that later.

Enjoy this time with him.  He'll catch on in time.  Kids catch up on reading/writing by 2nd grade unless they  have something wrong.  Even if they start out a bit behind, they catch up.

Answer 4

Maybe try making your own sheets and make the letters like connect the dots, so he will have to know where to connect the dots for what letters. that's all I can think of.

Answer 5

Buy him lots of coloring books and crayons and encourage him to draw and color.  It builds the muscles needed to write correctly. Buy a chalkboard and let him practice with the really fat chalk...or even use the sidewalk chalk on the sidewalk this summer!   Use a small sponge on a dry chalk board for letter practice!  Sky write -this is where you pretend you whole arm is the pencil and you practice creating the letters in the sky.  A lot of handwriting is muscle memory so just keep practicing it!  Vary the medium and he won't get too bored with it.  But remember you want this to be a positive experience so don't stress him out!  Good luck!

Answer 6

Is he using the wrong hand? Sometimes they need to try their left hand and it might help.

Otherwise I would just engage in more fine motor skills.... beads on strings, puzzles, drawing/painting. Things that require hand/eye co-ordination.

Answer 7

This is what they did in prek for my son:  They took paper and wrote his name out about four inches big in black crayon.  Then they had him go over they name with every color in the box of 24 crayins everyday once a day and in a week he got it.  It really worked I was shocked.  Good luck!!

Answer 8

Reading and writing are two very different skills.  Writing involves fine motor skills, which are not highly developed in a four year old.

Since he is already frustrated, I would back off and give him time.  He will do it when his brain is ready.  Let him draw, paint, color, but don't give him writing lessons.  He'll be fine.

Answer 9

Stormy S, shut the f*ck up and get offline if you don't have anything positive to contribute.

But to answer your question, give him a break for a little bit, and then try again...a little at a time. Don't give up on him yet. Good luck! :)