Fine motor skills: what has to come before handwriting

Handwriting is the last step of a long climb. Before a child can form a letter, their hand needs strength, control and the ability to stop where they mean to. Those are fine motor skills, and they are built mostly through play.

The steps before writing

1. Grasp. From a fist around the crayon to a pinch with the fingertips.
2. Strength. Small hand muscles that can hold a pencil for more than a minute.
3. Control. Drawing a line that goes where you want it — and stops.
4. Copying shapes. A line, a circle, a cross, a square, a triangle, roughly in that order.

A child who can copy a cross and a square is usually ready for letters.

Lifehack: give a toddler a broken crayon. A short stub cannot be held in a fist, so little fingers learn the pinch on their own.

Play that builds the hand

• Play dough — squeezing, rolling, pinching.
• Tongs and tweezers — moving pom-poms from bowl to bowl.
• Stringing beads and lacing cards.
• Scissors — snipping strips is the start.
• Peg boards, Lego, puzzles.

On paper: lines with a purpose

Mazes and tracing ask for exactly the control writing needs: a line that follows a path and stays inside it. Trace the Line is the gentlest start, then wide first mazes, then Letter Tracing. Grid Drawing adds counting to the line.

For more, see mazes before handwriting.