Playful motor skills writing courses: fun while writing, fun while learning
Successfully learning to write is the foundation for school success. Educators and parents can create the necessary preconditions for this success by training and supporting children’s motor skills in a playful learning environment.
Positive, varied experiences with pens and writing are particularly important for developing legible, fluid, efficient and personal writing.
When learning to write – as with other forms of motor skill acquisition – learning success is achieved by finding and exploring personal approaches and solutions. By deliberately varying (letter) forms, writing speed, writing pressure and rhythm, children will experience and practise writing in a varied manner and thereby further develop their writing motor skills.
Simple tips and exercises are sufficient to improve writing-specific motor skills
1. Improving fine finger coordination: get a feel for the pen by turning it with the thumb and index finger, rock the pen backwards and forwards, and turn the pen in both directions between the fingers like a propeller.
2. Improving writing-specific basic movements: form a circle with the thumb and index finger and move the fingertips forwards and backwards (coordinated bending movements).
3. Increasing writing speed: draw quick horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines.
4. Converting free movements to writing movements: quickly change relaxed scribble movements into letters.
5. Promoting a child’s personal legible handwriting: deliberate variation of letter size.
6. Finding personal writing speed and automating writing movements: write letters and words at exaggerated speed and slowness before reflecting on their legibility.
7. Promoting self-perception: vary pressure while scribbling, even with eyes closed. Follow-up with self-reflection: What does high pressure on the paper “sound” like? How does my arm feel?
8. Promoting fluid writing: write letters in a consistently rhythmic manner and find a writing melody.
9. Automating writing movements: quickly dictate familiar letters and words and write them immediately.
10. Practising movements: together with friends, draw a running track on a piece of paper and have a race with your pens.
11. Improving pen hold and pressure application: create a mountain landscape from a screwed-up piece of paper and use a pen to draw a “mountain range” on it, draw shapes, and write names and numbers on it.
Further reading
MARQUARDT, C.; SÖHL, K.; DIAZ-MEYER, M.: Schreibmotorik - Förderung der Handschrift. In: SchuleAktiv! (2015), Ausgabe Heft 2 / 2015
MARQUARDT, C.; SÖHL, K.: Schreibmotorik - Schreibenlernen leicht gemacht, STABILO Education, (2016).
The complete publications by the Schreibmotorik Institut
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Schreibmotorik Institut e.V. (2017). Playful motor skills writing courses: Fun while writing, fun while learning. Retrieved [Month dd, yyyy] from http://www.schreibmotorik-institut.com/index.php/en/facts-tips/expertise/512-playful-motor-skills-writing-courses-fun-while-writing-fun-while-learning