Is there any materials you recommend on how to teach a child to write?

Question

My son does knows how to trace the dots to form numbers and letters, but he will be 5 next year and i want him to start writing the letter without using the dots. he is currently in special education because he has PDD NOS ( mild autism) but teachers say he will be able to go to regular school. Just want to know what can i do to teach him ho wto write .

Answer 1

Handwriting Without Tears

http://www.hwtears.com/

Good luck!

Answer 2

I work in Early Childhood Special Education and typically at this age we don't focus on actual letter formation.  That will be taught in Kindergarten when they begin to focus more on the actual letter strokes and what each letter looks like.  I would be more concerned with whether or not your child holds the writing utensil correctly and whether or not he is exhibiting pre-writing skills such as coloring, focusing on staying in the lines, drawing pictures that are becoming more recognizable etc.

As long as he is working on the skills I have listed above, I would say your child is right on target with the development of his Fine Motor Skills.

If this does not seem to be adequate enough and you still feel the need to focus on his writing skills, begin with his name and make sure you have him print in capital letters.  These tend to be the easiest since they are all the same size and require only knowing 4 basic strokes to make any letter.

Answer 3

There are dry erase boards marked with writing guide lines. Mine came with magnetic letters which show the little directional arrows for strokes.  You can focus on one letter at a time with a kit like this and not go through reams of paper:)

Answer 4

We home school, and are always looking for materials that fit each individual child.

The materials many of us use are available to everyone.

I would look into a program called Handwriting Without Tears.

http://www.hwtears.com/

Also for fun; we did this when ours were young;

spray shaving cream on the counter top, and let them for the letters in there; it's great for many giggles.

Answer 5

Have you thought about a black board on the wall , with the alphabet and numbers

Answer 6

There are lots of books available to help children start hand writing and most of them are pretty good. I found the best thing to do with my autistic daughter was to treat the books as a game. The most important thing is for you to help your son and be patient. Once by daughter learnt the basics of writing she preferred to do it on her own and has never looked back. Good luck.

Answer 7

I agree with the other answers a blackboard and chalk is a good idea.  You can also help with just a pen and paper, you write the letter say A on the top line and get your child to copy the letter on the bottom lines.  Also try to get your child familiarized with the alphabet, make up songs etc., like A for annie apple, B is for bouncy ben, C for clever cat etc etc... There is a very good website that I put my own little son onto and he loves it!  It's called Starfall, http://www.starfall.com here they can have fun and learn also!  hope this helps!

Answer 8

Here are 2 inexpensive handwriting programs , they are both very good !

http://www.avko.org/332.html

http://www.hwtears.com/

Answer 9

A blackboard and chalk are the best tools for learning to write, as mistakes are easily erased, and the kids have fun.

Answer 10

You can buy this online.

When he starts school, he will have an IEP...Individual Education Plan...This is where you have to advocate for his education.... you will wan to request that they use something similar to this to teach him how to read or write as he may not learn the typical way as his ways of learning will be unique...

If you feel lost, look up on the net EDUCATIONAL EDVOCATE...you can get a person to go with you to assist you in advocating for your child..the school has so many children more often than not, our special ones fall through the cracks and dont get all the services unless we know what to specifically ask for and if they cost a lot, the schools seem to dodge them unless you have an advocate...

Good Luck..  ADVOCATE EARLY..FROM THE START !

Handwriting Without Tears --

(this was used for my mild autistic child)

Program for teaching pre-printing, printing, and cursive developed by Jan Z. Olsen.

Offers books, manipulatives, and workbooks.

www.hwtears.com



Handwriting Without Tears:

Different and Better> Teaching Strategies

Independent Writing. Children are asked to write a word without demonstration and without a model. ...

Tears®, children develop the basic pre-writing ...

www.hwtears.com/teachingstrategies.htm...