My son is 3 1/2 yrs old now. He is struggling in writing.
I noticed that there is lack of strength in the handwritting.
His teacher also complained he drew lines very softly.
Can anyone provide me any advise.
Hi Alice
Have you tried to make stencils for him that he can trace around? Such as a circle or waves or other shapes? Maybe the foundation of his handwriting has not been created yet, and he needs to develop those skills before he tackles the handwriting?
He needs to develop his fine motor skills. Play dough helps and so does clay. Also let your son color as much as possible. Is he right or left handed? I would not worry about this too much 
What I did was laminated letter and number tracing sheets or any worksheets that i wanted a skill to be learned and then used dry erase markers for my daughter. We did world maps, number, etc… She loved this and it helped her practice… I also used colored pencils and crayons Hope this helps…
Susan
My son has the same problem (he’s 3 years 3 months) - his teachers recommended we do the same activities with him at home that Susan suggested - let him play with playdough and give him pens to scribble whatever he wants as much as possible.
Wow. I didnt realise that not developing fine motor skills would make writing so difficult. Thanks for the infor
Don’t feel bad this is an area I totally lacked on sadly. My son was never interested in colouring so when it came time for printing he was so behind. So we’ve been focusing on tracing lines and using Hooked on handwriting. I bought some stencils too, I’ll have to pull those out.
Our OT and kizudo suggested we make cute little saying when forming letters so it interests him more to practice. Like “sneeky c, oops I’m a d!” or for w “down down down, up up up, down down down, up up up.” that has help us tons too.
best of luck. Please share anything else you have been doing that helps
That is right!! Fine Motor skills( which means little finger muscles) need to be prepare and flexible for wrtiting otherways those little fingers won’t be enough flexible for writing skills.Also children need hand - eye coordination to be able to have good direction on their writing.
Some tips for these little fingers start working better;
-For eye-hand coordination:
=spooning excercise…Let them spoon some lentils or pop corn seeds or any other kind of seeds from one bowl to another.
=Pouring excercise…Let him pour some water from a jar to a glass.
=Carry one object from one place to another
=Watering flowers
=puzzles…etc
- For fine motor skills:
= grasp tissue paper
=cutting
=coloring
=painting
=pick up little grains or seed by using his fingers.
=clay,play dough you also can make home made clay…I am sure that will be fun.
=drawing
=let him work with his little finger using zippers.
Of course there are more excercises but I think this will be a good start.
And also it is very important to have good coordination with our gross motor skills(muscles legs and body) So I will do yoga, more climbing,jumping and kicking balls some more with him.
Hope this helps.
at three and a half this is not really a problem . i think we are putting lots of pressure on our kids . it is one of the reason i pulled my child out of school after only two weeks , she was three and a half and she enjoys drawing her letters on chalk board , side walks and this is developmentally very normal . her teacher wanted her to write on paper , tracing numbers , small size , and when tina said but i like to draw letters , she made her trace the number by holding her hand .
i am following a montessori online teacher training course and i believe other posts recommending activities to develop fine motor skills , writing would come eventually , not necessary at three and a half . please don’t put much pressure on your child .
viv
I found this tip in one of the website and I thought of sharing it with you guys.
" For fine motor control, as a preparation for a good handwriting can be developed by letting the child crumple papers. Start by tearing pages, and giving the child one page at a time to crumple into a tight ball with one hand only."
I found in the website that there is a accessory called “Pencil Grip” for poor handwritting children. Does anyone know where I can buy this in Malaysia? Pls advise.