Preschool fine motor and handwriting development

Today in our Mini Charmer's Pre-K class, we continued our focus on numbers.  Our class contains ten gifted kiddos ready to learn formal handwriting prior to kindergarden.

After spending the first several months on uppercase letters, working on numbers is a nice change of pace.   Boys especially like numbers as they relate to numbers often better than girls ( girls often have an easier time with letters).

Our first activity is for the kids to find the numbered gingerbread men in the gym.  Each child is assigned a number to find.

This format helps kids to increase skills in visual perceptual, visual memory, and number recognition.  This also helped with team building, as we heard "Jack, here is your number!", "thanks!", and so on.   Next we took all of the numbers and laid them out on the floor one by one.  I asked "is a 4 bigger or smaller than a 12?".   As we continued this process we ordered them from 1-20 on the floor and then counted forward and backwards.  Many kids this age do not consistently recognize numbers in the teens and so this repetition is great for them.  

After some good gross motor action in the gym, we settled in the classroom and did centers that warm up and increase fine motor skills. 

Wind up toys were a big hit. Wind up toys help so much with translation (stabilizing something with one part of your hand and mobilizing with the other part) as well grip strength. 

Pop beads were another center.  These pop beads are quite hard, but the kids had no trouble at all with it!

Pop beads of this size are super because they force a child to utilize a stable pincer grasp while using strength in pushing together.   This carries over into grasping a pencil correctly.  

Another fun center was the textured stencil and rubbings of dinosaurs and sea creatures.  This would also be a super Christmas gift (kids love these).  They are made by Melissa and Doug and can be found at Toys and Company, whom we partner with.  The stencils are two part-  they first can be used to stencil amazing animals, insects or dinosaurs and then they can be used as a rubbing plate.  

In this picture, he is completing the stencil side.  Next, he will put the textured stencil under the paper and then rub the crayon to make the drawing come to life.  As an occupational therapist, this is one of my all time favorite activities to develop hand and handwriting skills WITHOUT doing handwriting.  Great fun for all.  My 11 year old even likes doing these stencils.  

Lastly, I teach the direct skill of writing numbers.   We use our Handwriting Without Tears book and the kids lay on their stomachs (it works on core strength but also makes sure that the wrists are stabilized appropriately).  

I give everyone a slate chalkboard and demonstrate how to write each number 1-3 today and then each child practices it.  I was truly amazed at how well they did and they were so proud of their accomplishment.  It is a wonderful experience to see children learn to love handwriting and to gain such confidence.  

Letter recognition, visual perceptual and rock salt

Kids love digging in odd textures and after having left over rock salt I decided it would be fun to utilize it during therapy.   I added some colored alphabet letters (they are actually beads) to the salt.

Then I wrote a few letters that they would be looking for on the grey boxes (Handwriting Without Tears paper).

I allow the alphabet letters to be upside down or backwards in the rock salt, as being able to find them in this manner increases form constancy which is a  visual perceptual skill.  Form constancy just means that a leaner know that a letter turned sideways/different color/various size is still that letter and can pick it out. Form constancy is a skill needed for reading.

To modify this activity to make it harder, I could actually write a few letters on the grey boxes, let them look at it for a few seconds, and then turn the sheet over and have them see how many letters they can find that I had written down.  If they can put them in order then this increases the challenge.  I often may ask the child to write the letters in the extra boxes.  Asking a child to find a certain number of letters in a specified time is a great way to increase the challenge.  If I want to test letter recognition, then I could ask them to give me certain letters but not write them down. 

To modify this activity to make it easier, I could decrease the number of letters in the rock salt and decrease the letters that they are looking for.    If the child doesn't like the tactile feel of the rock salt, then they can pull out with tongs or use thin gloves to pull the letters out of the salt.

numbers, letters, shapes and handwriting on chalkboard

I love using my chalkboard that I have painted on the wall in my gym and throughout my center.  To make the activity more therapeutic, I always have kids use broken chalk pieces (encourages proper grasp), have them kneel while writing (trunk stability), and let the kids use a spray bottle to clean their work. 

The activity I use with many 4 and 5 year olds helps with letter recognition, drawing shapes, and counting and writing numbers.  This method also helps kids to learn to follow and remember multi-step directions.

First, write several letters on the board.  I do a variety of capital and lower case letters--this time it was some of those "tricky" ones that are commonly reversed.

Notice the right side of the board-  this is the "key" which the kids will refer to finish the task.  For example, the "B"'s should be found and surrounded by a triangle.  This is a great time to reinforce shape drawing. 

Next, the child will start finding the letters and surrounding them with the shapes as indicated on the key.

I usually put 2-3 copies of each letter on the board so that it gives the child more opportunities to find the letter and to practice the shape.  If the child is too overwhelmed by a lot of letters, then you could do less. 

When they have found and surrounded each letter by its shape, I ask them to then count how many times they found each letter and then write it in the box beside it.  The box helps them to define the area that I wish them to write and is familiar to the kids that are learning handwriting with the Handwriting Without Tears program. 

At the end, the kids get to use the spray bottle to clean the board. They love it!