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.  

Sit still, keep hands to yourself, & stop bumping into me!

Children often get in trouble at school for being "wiggly", not keeping hands to themselves or for personal boundary issues.  In late pre-k and kindergarten it becomes more important for students to learn these concepts.  When children do not master these concepts, they often get in trouble more and more and may start to dislike school.   Why do some children have problems in these areas?

Any of these issues may stem from a number of non-behavioral reasons. These are the major ones that I see:

Core Strength:  this affects sitting still in line, staying seated in a chair, and sitting upright in the floor during circle time.  Our core strength is a perfect synergy between our extensor muscles (in our back) and our flexor muscles (in our stomach).  When one, or both of those muscles do not have good enough strength to maintain an upright position for sustained activities, then a student will basically tire out.  The child may lean on others, attempt to lay in the floor, change positions, fall out of their chair, and be "wiggly".  In addition, kids with less than adequate core strength will often have reduced endurance and may be quite fatigued after an elementary school day.

Proprioception: this is one of our body's sensory systems that allows us to sense our body's position in space.  Our joints, tendons, and muscles contain the receptors that allow for accurate proprioceptive feedback.  When you lift weights, you feel each muscle that is being exercised.  If you work out well, you'll have awareness of those muscles long after your workout is over.  During and after this workout, you have a keen sense of where these sore muscles are.  In fact, if you close your eyes, you could likely point right to the place that you are the most sore.  This is proprioception (and maybe some lactic acid setting in too!).  Everyone has different thresholds for senses.  Kids that seem to be a bull in a china store most likely have very high thresholds for proprioceptive input.... meaning that their nervous system needs much more input before it can register the input. Kids that may have a high threshold for proprioceptive input are the ones that bump into everything, seem to be accident prone or clumsy, constantly seem to touch others, may hug or play too rough, or may crave  jumping/bouncing.

What to do?  For core strength, swimming, karate, and yoga are great activities that help.  You have to stay after it so that you can build on the core strengthening.   For proprioception, a sensory diet works wonders.  Activities that allow a child to get this input prior to school will help the child to succeed.  Sensory diets have to be allowed during and after the school day too.  They don't have to be obvious activities though.   A sensory diet activity can be carrying books in a crate to the library, jumping on a trampoline for 20 minutes prior to school, monkey bars,  sitting and bouncing on a yoga ball, climbing up a rope,  and other heavy work activities. 

If you need help, then get a pediatric occupational therapist involved.  Often, it is helpful for the connection at school as an O.T. can explain why a child's behavior is an attempt to activate the nervous system, not an attempt to drive the teacher crazy.  :-)

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! 

Mini Charmer's Preschool

The Mini Charmer's Preschool for kids aged 3-5 begins this Fall.  This school will be an opportunity for children to enrich their fine motor, gross motor and handwriting skills prior to kindergarten.  I'll be using the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum, to teach handwriting to this eager bunch of children.  With more and more private schools (such as Charlotte Latin, Providence Day and Charlotte Country Day School) requiring advanced motor skills prior to admission, this is a great opportunity to make those schools smile.