While many educators view prewriting skills as the ability to create the strokes that we use to form the letters of the alphabet, we view prewriting-skills as the preparation of the hand through non-graphomotor activities. The hand of the child must be prepared before a child ever picks up a pencil.
Mary Benbow, an occupational therapist and handwriting expert, states that, “Adults should not assume that children somehow know the best way to hold a pencil, or that they will acquire it through incidental experience.”
One of the reasons that worksheets are noticeably absent from our Montessori Toddler Communities and Children’s Houses is that we believe that if a child is not developmentally ready to manipulate a pencil, worksheets will not only be tedious and detrimental the correct manipulation of a writing tool, but they will also extinguish the child’s natural curiosity and enthusiasm for learning. It is important that we respect and follow the child’s lead.
Research shows that development and stability of the muscles necessary for manipulating a pencil developmentally come at the ages of 4 (forearm/wrist), 3.5-4 (tripod grasp), 4.5-5.5 (radial manipulation/ulnar stabilization), and 5-6 (finger excursion). It is important to offer children appropriate activities to support the development of prewriting skills. (Jan McCleskey, MA, OTR) Experts say that when a child is asked to hold a pencil without being developmentally ready, they resort to stabilizing the pencil in subpar ways. It is essential that a quality early childhood program provide the child with the time, activities and materials to support essential prewriting skills instead of focusing on graphomotor experiences which the child is not yet ready for.
While we refer to the preparation of the “hand,” the ability to hold and manipulate a pencil actually requires the use of the entire limb, or as one expert states, “Muscular movement is a mechanism for writing consisting of two physical actions—a rolling motion of the upper arm from the shoulder, and a lateral motion of the forearm from the elbow—operating in combination, with the forearm resting on the desk, acting as a pivot.” (Michael Gebhart, In Pursuit of Penmanship)
It also involves the wrist. “Children with fine motor and writing problems often lack good wrist stability in extension and therefore cannot activate the most functional finger movements required for skilled manipulation.” (Mary Benbow, MS, OTR)
And it, of course, involves the strength and refinement of hand and finger muscles: palmar arches, thumb opposition, a separation of the two sides of the hand (moving the pinky separately from the thumb), and the the rotation, translation and shift of the fingers. The pincer grasp (thumb and index finger) and tripod grasp (thumb, index and middle finger) are important skills to master.
To support the development of these muscles, contemporary experts in the field recommend activities that Dr. Maria Montessori implemented in her Children’s Houses over a hundred years ago, and include:
- Movements which require use of shoulder/arm, such as washing a window or mirror
- Pouring (such as from a pitcher or watering can)
- Spooning items of varying sizes (for example, a scoop of rice or a single large pom pom)
- tongs to pick up and transfer small objects.
- Stamping, crayon rubbing, drawing, or painting on a vertical surface (such as an easel) to allow wrist extension and encourage shoulder and elbow movement
- Threading (such as beads on a string)
- Rotation (such as
- Gross motor movement on the playground (such as hanging from monkey bars)
- Tactile input (feeling different textures, such as sandpaper letters and numbers, rough and smooth boards)
- Manipulating nuts and bolts
- Opening jars and lids
- Punching paper with a push pin
- Cutting paper with a scissor
- Squeezing water from a sponge
- Tracing around the metal insets (the first real experience a child has with holding a pencil in the Montessori classroom!)
- Using modeling clay or dough
- Lifting and carrying increasingly heavy or bulky objects (such as the pink tower, the brown stairs, cylinder boxes, knobbed cylinders)
- Opening and closing clothespins
- Using spray bottles
- Manipulating a dustpan and broom
- Using food preparation utensils such as a grater, a vegetable peeler, a child-safety knife, an apple slicer, a whisk, a spatula, etc.
- Practicing lacing, buttoning, buckling, snapping, zipping using the dressing frames
- Pushing coins into a slotted box
- Tearing paper (we provide tissue paper which a child can tear and then glue into a collage)
Only when a child has explored extensively with these activities and mediums is he ready to pick up a pencil and focus on graphomotor activities such as tracing, coloring, drawing or handwriting.
Whether at home or school, it’s important to offer your child a variety of activities that encourage the development of their prewriting skills. If you’d like your child to experience the benefit of a holistic Montessori education, ask us about our part- or full-time enrollment options today!
