How good is cursive writing at pre primary?

Question

my child is being taught cursive writing in preprimary,and he is finding it difficult.please let me know what to do.

Answer 1

i most newsagency and bookstore they have educational activity books which kids follow the dotted lines and its shows joins and which direction to go and it has lines to guide the capitals and little letters and the child then gets to practice themself on just the guiding lines

hope this has helped

Answer 2

absolutely not age appropriate for a preschooler to be made to learn cursive! first of all, it is fairly unlikely they are ready for writing at all. secondly, kids this age are building on synapses-- so when they try to write their mind is envisioning the words they have seen the most, and most of the written language they have seen so far is printed.  most importantly, learning to use language should be a joy to your little one! If it's frustrating, do something else!

Answer 3

While it may be difficulty at first there are some good arguments for going right to cursive. First, it is almost impossible to reverse. The letters flow naturally left to right as they attach to each other. Second, the kids only have to learn one alphabet and do not have to unlearn anything. On the other hand, if preprimary means nursery school for a three or 4 year old be aware that many kids are not ready for any formal writing at that age and your son may need some time to grow.

Answer 4

you cant really do anything about it. if you are really concerned take your child to kumon or a tutoring center.

Answer 5

Cursive is actually the best place to start.  My schools did not teach it just because we knew they would be going into schools later that did not use it, so it was just one of those things.

Remember that spelling comes before writing.  Cursive is fantastic because, if taught properly, it enables the child an easier time to write.

My first question is "how old is your child?"  This may be a factor.  He may be starting to learn to write and be very young.  Working with that is different than someone who is 6, has been writing for a while, and is still struggling.  Not that there's anything wrong with still struggling - they just may have different needs entirely as to how to handle it.

My next question is "is he finding it frustrating?"  If he is, he needs to be reminded that this is just practice.  He doesn't have to do it perfectly.  It's ok.  Just enjoy trying.

Here is a response to a question about writing numbers I wrote recently.  I think it applies here as well.  Just remember to change "numbers" to "letters."

Hope it helps!

Matt

__________________________

What we use to get students to write numbers is actually quite

different. The problem with writing is that many students do

not have the fine motor skills developed to write. They also

may not have the concentration.

With that in mind, the question becomes "how do we build that

up so that writing becomes a natural thing for children?" I

think it is important that we help the child develop these

skills early. Once they are older, their hands are already

used to working in a certain way. It is harder later to teach

them than it is now, but to simply teach them is not

appropriate without a solid foundation.

Begin with the earlier years. Focus on several aspects:

1) Fine motor skills. We talk a lot on these boards about

exercises in fine motor skills and we do have a lot of great

ideas that get presented. I strongly encourage you to develop

find motor skills that also promote the pencil grip. Puzzels

that have pegs in them that you naturally use your 2 fingers

and thumb are fantastic for this. Transferring beads from one

container to the next with your fingers is also an activity

that children enjoy and that helps build up control of these

muscles. Using small tongs and picking up objects also helps

with this. Be sure to demonstrate to the children how to do

these activities properly. When I am selecting which bead I

want next and presenting this material, I look at my fingers

making the motion, then hold it up (not raised...just

naturally) as I select my next bead, continually making that

motion. Simply demonstrating this way gets most children

actively involved in this.

2) Concentration. The activities in the classroom are set up

to build up a child's level of concentration. There are

things within the materials that tell the student if they

messed up. It becomes evident because they cannot complete

the task of the material. They have to concentrate and find

out the solution to the problem. It is also important to

isolate the idea you are teaching. If you are teaching

colors, it may confuse the child to have a blue sky matched up

with a blue elephant. Why shouldn't the blue elephant be

matched up with the red cat? They're both animals. Isolate

the materials so that the only difference between them is the

blue or the red. This helps the child to focus strictly on

the one task he is working on.

3) Order - teach students to work with materials from left to

right and top to bottom. This will develop as an instinct

over time and will make writing and reading easier, since

they're used to starting so many other things this way.

4) Pre-writing writing materials. We have a set of metal

shapes that the child can use. They come in a square, red

frame and the shape is cut out and inlayed inside that frame

in blue. There are 10 frames: Circle, square, rectangle,

quatrofoil, ellise, oval, pentagon, parrallelogram, trapezoid,

and curvilinear triangle. The k**b on the shape to pull it out

is exactly like the k***s I described in #1...it allows the

student to grab ahold of it naturally with a pencil grip to

move it. (There's no easier way to pick it up)

The child takes this, along with some colored pencils, to a

table and begins working with it. The first thing they do is

place the red frame over the paper.  The paper must be the same size as the red frame.  There is no blue shape in there

now and the child traces the shape. The main issue when a child first

starts writing by now does not seem to be the pencil grip, as

they have practiced that since day 1 of school, although

indirectly. If this is an issue, it is easily corrected since

they already have their muscles trained to the feel of the

grip. The main issue tends to be that they press too hard.

They may tear the paper. They may break the pencil. The nice

thing about this is that they immediate know something was

wrong and can correct it the next time. There is no need for

teacher interference at this point. The child just sees it

and tries to make it lighter the next time. Tracing the

inside of the shape has the control of error that the child

cannot go outside the shape itself. This is the first step in

control of where the pencil goes.

The second step involves the child being able to trace the

ouside of the blue shape. This is much harder because the

child must control the pencil to a much higher degree.

Other activities involve drawing lines inside the shapes,

different shading within the shape, and various thing that

help control the pencil control. It is quite a sight to see a

child who can trace the red one, then the blue, then color the

inside of various shades from lightest to darkest.

All of those help the child be prepared for writing, even if

it does not seem like it at first. (Who would think picking

up beads actually helps them write?)

As far as the direct writing of numbers is concerned, many of

our number activities use sandpaper numbers. These are

numbers cut out of sandpaper and glued onto a wooden board.

The child takes their index and middle finger and traces the

shape. If they go outside the shape, they automatically sense

the difference. Children, after practice, can even do this

blindfolded. This helps them both with feeling how the number

is written and learning the name of the number. They have a

sensorial experience with what the shape of the number is that

leaves a better image in their mind of how to write it.

I also think it is important to educate parents as far as the

development of writing is concerned. Many do not realize that

when a child is drawing random shapes and calling it writing,

that is a crucial early step. They have yet to see the

exactness of all the letter/number characters we have. That

comes with time and practice. They often then move into

shapes in the right spots (left to right) or lines drawn on

the paper (straight or squiggly lines). Then they begin to

just form letters that they know and then begin to see a

process happening. Few parents realize this and are quick to

just rush their child into writing things correctly. That's

just NOT how it works.

Matt

Answer 6

it is essential for your child for his / her future. so, help him / her for doing home work etc.

Answer 7

yeah u can buy few good books on cursive wrtitng and

held workout sessions at home under ur observation.

that will help him a lot

Answer 8

you can buy some cursive writing books which is done in dotted lines. your child can practice through the dotted lines. then he can write easily.

Answer 9

First of all show him each letter and then use dotted lines to draw each letter and get him to trace it. Hope this helps!

Answer 10

I taught elementary for 23 years, and cursive writing was introduced in second grade and developed further in third grade.

In my opinion, pre-primary age children do NOT have the hand/eye coordination for this skill.

I would question the need for this to be taught at this level.