Learning how to spell for kids
25 Best Ways To Try
Kids can learn spelling in fun ways while engaging in creative activities.
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When you form a word with letters, it’s called spelling. Learning to spell words is an essential academic milestone that lets a child comprehend and convey their thoughts properly. Perhaps it is why several parents enquire how to teach kids to spell.
Knowing the right time to introduce a child to the concept of spelling is vital to prevent overwhelming their brains with too much information.
Forming a word in English can be particularly challenging as the child has to understand several spelling rules to form a grammatically correct word. Similarly, opting for age-appropriate ways to teach spelling is necessary to ensure the child learns spelling words with ease. This post brings you some fun and creative ways to teach spelling to your child in a step-by-step method.
Benefits Of Learning Spelling For Children
Here are some benefits of learning spelling for children (1).
1. Improves reading and writing skills
Image: iStock
Learning to spell is directly related to reading and writing well. The more words a child knows to spell, the better they can read and write.
Related: 13 Best Effective Ways To Improve Handwriting For Kids
2. Improves vocabulary
As your child learns to read and write better, they can improve their vocabulary by reading new words or even trying to spell the words you use in your daily conversations.
3. Helps diagnose learning difficulties
Making your child learn spelling can help you diagnose if your child has a learning difficulty, such as dyslexia. Early intervention can help them overcome the problem.
25 Ways To Teach Spelling To Kids
Make learning spelling fun for your children by employing any of the methods mentioned below based on your child’s mood and preference.
1. Highlight the difficult words
Children often have difficulties with specific words. If your child stumbles over a word each time, you can highlight the letters in it that confuse them and let them try again. Some of the most difficult words for them are those where “e,” “i,” and “a” occur one after the other.
For example, they might find it challenging to spell words such as receive, separate, desperate, thief, weird, and achieve. They might also trip over words with double letters, such as accommodate, address, necessary, and occasion. You can highlight these words in their notebooks and encourage them to pay close attention to them when reading.
2. Break it down into parts
The easiest way to teach spellings to children is to break up a complex word into simpler, more manageable parts they can spell easily. You can separate the words by syllables so that they can work out how to spell the letters of each syllable and then bring them together.
For instance, you can break up the word anger into an/ger, television into te/le/vi/sion, and cycle into cy/cle.
3. Copy, copy, recall
This is a simple yet effective technique for teaching kids to spell. In this method, you have to write down a word and draw three sections beside it. In the first two sections, the children have to write the word. Next, they have to cover the two sections and write the word in the third section by recalling.
Once they have written the word unaided, they can open the covered sections and check. If it is correct, they can proceed to the next word.
4. Associate words with images
Image: iStock
Most children remember images more than they remember texts.
You can use images while teaching spelling. Children get confused while using letters that generally have the same pronunciation and often interchange them. They often write things like “kat” or “krispy” for “cat” and “crispy” respectively.
In such cases, you can use pictures to help them with their spellings. For example, you can say, “The cat curls its tail in a C shape” and show them relevant images. Also, explain them the rules – choose k when the vowel is e or i, and choose c for o, u, or a. C is also much more common when followed by another consonant.
Related: 30 Best Phonics Games For Kids To Make Reading Easy
5. Emphasize on pronunciation
If there are double letters in a word, emphasize on them when reading, so your children also make it a habit. For example, say occasion by stressing on the “c” and going easy on the “s.” Similarly, for necessary, stress on the “s” and go easy on the “c.”
6.
Make acronymsLearning acronyms forms an essential part of education, even in colleges. Medical students remember the names of diseases or medicines using relevant acronyms. Acronyms make it easy and fun for children to remember spellings. The best part of this exercise is that you or your children can come up with anything and have fun.
For example, cat can be the acronym for come again tomorrow.
Some other examples are:
Owl: Oh, why late?
Friend: Five rats in England need donuts.
Related: Acrostic Poems For Kids: How To Teach And Examples Of It
7. Write on the palm
Image: iStock
Instead of writing the words on paper, ask them to trace the words on their palms (or any other part of their body). When they feel their fingers on their palm, they are creating muscle memory. With repeated “writing,” your child can memorize how a word is written.
8. Sing
Creating a melody out of a word is one of the sure-fire ways of making your child learn the spelling of the word.
In fact, children participating in spelling competitions use this technique with great success. You can use a preset tune or create one.
The song should contain the letters of the word, and you should sing it repeatedly until it gets imprinted on your child’s mind. Once this is done, even if your child forgets the spelling, they will remember the rhythm of the word and recall the letters according to the rhythm.
9. Spell and eat
Making your child sit down to learn their spellings might seem boring to them. They would want to do something more entertaining, and learning spellings would not be on that list. However, you can teach them spellings during day-to-day activities, such as when having meals, so that they have fun learning.
For instance, you could ask them to spell a word and then have a bite of food. This will keep them distracted enough to learn spellings and finish what’s on the plate as well. You could also offer their favorite food sometimes as an incentive for learning their spelling.
10. Make connected words
Learning spellings will be more fun when your children play this little game with you. Tell them a word and ask them to make a new word from the last letter of your word. You can make them write the words or say them aloud.
This simple game can also teach your children the pronunciation of words, particularly those with a silent letter at the beginning or end, and will make them enjoy playing with words.
11. Make videos
If you do not have the time to be with your child while they are learning their spelling, you can record a video on your phone. Record videos of you spelling out the letters first, followed by your child repeating them.
When your child watches it enough times, they will be able to write the word effortlessly.
12. Create flip cards
You can also indulge your child in creating flip cards. You can print the image of the word behind the letters that make the word. For example, print the image of cats behind the letters C, A, and T.
Let the child find the different letters with cat images and assemble them to form the word.
13. Search for words
Word searches are perfect for teaching kids to spell. They teach your children different ways to look at letters and form words out of them. Give them a grid with an assorted set of words. Use a timer to make it more fun and watch them as they race against time to find new words.
You can also use books, magazines, or newspapers for a word search. Give your child a particular word and ask them to mark the occurrences of the word on a page or a paragraph. This game will sharpen their brains and improve their comprehension skills as well.
14. Pass the ball
Image: iStock
When you have a group of children with you, you can play this game to teach them spelling. Say a word, and the children have to stand in a circle and pass a ball to each other while saying a letter each.
If a child says a wrong letter, the next player throws back the ball to them and waits until they say the correct letter.
The game guarantees a lot of laughter while also making them learn effortlessly.
15. Play scrabble
You need not necessarily play Scrabble with your children, but you can use the alphabet tiles in Scrabble to let your children make words. They can even calculate the points on the tiles as their score. This is also an excellent way to teach them words and numbers.
Scrabble is fun as it teaches children to make new words using the same letters. For example, C-A-T can also be written as A-C-T. If they add a K, they can form the word T-A-C-K.
16. Use mobile phones
Studying might be boring for children, but give them a phone, and they will be happy for hours on end. You can use this to your advantage. Try different spelling games that are suitable for children. Install a couple of these games, and let them navigate through different levels by spelling new words.
These games and puzzles help children learn and memorize new words, and they will be spelling complex words in no time.
17. Make flashcards
Image: iStock
Use age-appropriate flashcards to teach spellings to children. Teachers at preschools often use flashcards to teach children new concepts. You can use flashcards to teach spelling, reading, and writing skills to children.
Write words on the cards and read each word aloud. Let the child write the word on the back of the card and then check it together. For reading, lay out some flashcards with letters to form a word and ask your child to pick the image that matches the word. For writing, let the child trace the word over the card using tracing paper and then write it on another card without any assistance.
18. Color the words
Children love playing with colors. So, why not introduce some colors in the world of words? Write some words in a big cartoonish font so that they can be colored, and let your children go wild coloring them.
If you are good at drawing, you can draw objects and ask your children to color them and then spell them.
This way, they will have a magical, colorful time with words and also learn their spellings.
19. Play word bingo
Bingo can help your children master basic spelling skills. Don’t believe it? Trust us. All you have to do is create a grid and write different letters in different boxes. Read out words and tell your children to circle the letters that occur in each word. The first one that gets a full house wins.
You can also use bingo to teach reading to your children. Swap the letters with words and ask your children to circle those words you read out.
20. Spell with stairs
Make climbing up and down the stairs a learning activity. You might have already made them count the steps each time they ascend and descend. Now, you can ask them to spell out words on the steps.
Make them say a letter of a word as they climb each step. For younger children, you can even spell out three to four words. Step on the stair, say out a letter, then proceed to the next.
21. Group similar words
Instead of teaching children seemingly different words and spellings, group similar-sounding words or those that have similar spellings and make a list. This way, your child will be able to visualize one word and automatically associate it with other words.
For example, words such as high, sigh, nigh, light, and sight have “igh” in common. Write them down, and ask your child to spell each word aloud. They will be able to remember their spellings better.
22. Cut out words
If you don’t have a Scrabble set at home and do not want to buy one either, make some word tiles yourself. Take a magazine or newspaper and cut out letters in bigger fonts for easier handling. Paste them on construction paper or an empty cereal box and cut them out.
Give these letters to your children and let them experiment with them to form new words. You can also teach them to pronounce the words while they are creating them.
23. Use computer applications
Applications such as Microsoft Word and Grammarly are pretty helpful for quick spellchecks.
While they are intensively used by adults, they can also be used by children to learn spellings. Ask your child to type a word and check whether it is spelled correctly.
You can also use an online dictionary or other applications for puzzles and word games to improve your child’s spelling, reading, and comprehension skills.
24. Use creativity
Writing on a sheet of paper using a pencil is standard for children. As they have notoriously small attention spans, it won’t be long before they find something more interesting to do.
You can let them explore the world of letters by letting them be as creative as they want. Give them colors and encourage them to draw and paint words. They can also create a word collage using cuttings from magazines or try their hand at calligraphy.
25. Read more
Last but not least, read more to your children. The more you read to your children or the more they read, the richer their vocabulary. They learn words and their pronunciations by sight and sound.
You can select stories that contain words that you want them to learn. By repeating stories, you help improve their spelling skills while also firing their imagination.
1. What age should a child be able to spell?
Children may start to spell their names and simple words by five to six years of age (2). Some children may learn sooner than others.
2. What part of the brain is responsible for spelling?
The left hemisphere of the brain is considered responsible for spelling (3).
3. Why is it easier to read words than to spell them?
Spelling words may seem more complicated than reading, as sounds can be spelled in many ways. It needs more practice to spell than to recognize or read the words (4).
4. Why is my child struggling with spelling?
A child may find it difficult to spell if they are not practicing enough. However, if the difficulty persists despite all efforts, it may indicate certain disorders such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Consult a doctor to identify the cause (5) (6).
How to teach your kid to spell is a common concern of many parents and caregivers when their children are ready to learn languages. Learning spelling can improve the child’s vocabulary, reading, writing, and communication skills. This may also help diagnose certain learning disorders at a young age and helps modify the learning process to tackle the disability. You may highlight the difficult words, break them down, and teach the spelling. Good knowledge of phonetics, associating words with images, copying, and recall can help children learn to spell.
Key Pointers
- When children learn to spell, they can significantly improve their reading and writing skills.
- Learning spellings help identify learning disabilities such as dyslexia from an early age.
- If your child has difficulty spelling certain words, highlighting and explaining may help them learn them better.
References:
MomJunction's articles are written after analyzing the research works of expert authors and institutions.
Our references consist of resources established by authorities in their respective fields. You can learn more about the authenticity of the information we present in our editorial policy.
1. Reed, D. K; Why teach spelling?; RMC Research Corporation, Center on Instruction (2012).
2. Toddlers begin learning rules of reading, writing at very early age, study finds; Washington University in St. Louis.
3. Brenda Rapp and Kate Lipka; The Literate Brain: The Relationship between Spelling and Reading; National Library of Science (2011).
4. Spelling and Reading: How Are They Connected?; Hill Learning Center.
5. Disorders of Reading and Writing; American Speech Language Hearing Association.
6. Anna Maria Re et al.; Spelling errors among children with ADHD symptoms: the role of working memory; National Library of Science (2014).
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11 Research-Based Spelling Strategies Parents Can Try at Home
Preface: In this article, you will find a variety of fun and engaging ways to implement research-based spelling strategies such as:
- teaching phonemic awareness, (a strategy to help students understand letter-sound correspondence and the individual parts that make up words)
- teaching morphological awareness (understanding/recognizing similar chunks in words, word families, and word parts)
- utilizing the whole-word approach (memorizing the spelling of a word without needing to understand the individual parts that make up the word)
- utilizing the rule-based strategy (teaching explicit spelling rules)
- implementing multi-modal teaching, which allows students to learn information through a variety of modes (e.g., seeing, feeling, hearing, creating)
Keep in mind that the strategies in this article are recommendations.
Please do not try to pressure a child into using all or any of these strategies. This can lead to frustration which can turn your child off to spelling practice.
Every child is different and you have to examine their level and frustration tolerance when imposing academic tasks. For suggestions on ways to encourage children to complete tasks or assignments they do not want to do, see 3 Ways to Use Timers to Motivate Children and How to Use Schedules to Improve Children’s Behavior.
Common Spelling Mistakes
- Using the wrong consonant (e.g., spelling cat as kat)
- Using the wrong vowel (e.g., spelling seat as seet)
- Leaving out consonants (e.g., spelling kicking as kiking)
- Leaving out a vowel (e.g., spelling plain as plan)
- Writing only one consonant, when a consonant should be doubled (e.g, spelling butter as buter)
- Leaving in an “e” that should be dropped (e.
g., spelling riding as rideing) - Reversing letters (e.g., spelling foil as fiol)
- Leaving out the ”silent e” (e.g., spelling kite as kit)
- Using ys instead of ies (e.g., cherrys instead of cherries)
- Spelling words phonetically when a specific suffix should be used instead (e.g., spelling vacation as vacashin)
- Using an “s” instead of a “c” or a “c” instead of an “s” (e.g., absense instead of absence or offence instead of offense)
- Forgetting rules like “i before e except after c” (e.g., spelling receive as recieve)
While the errors above are the ones I have observed most frequently in my career as a school psychologist, there are many other types of spelling errors a person can make.
11 Research-Based Spelling Strategies
1) Practice phonemic awareness.
Phonemic awareness is hearing individual sounds in words, and letter sounds.
Let your child hear what it sounds like to break words up into their individual sounds. Show them what happens when you change a sound. For example, say the sounds in pig separately (p-i-g), then say the word. Then say the sounds in big (b-i-g) and say the word.
Put it on paper so they can see the change. Talk about which sounds are different and which sounds are the same. Have your child practice breaking words apart and blending them together.
For more strategies to teach your child or students phonemic awareness and letter sounds, see 10 Fun Activities to Teach Your Child Letter Sounds and How to Teach Phonemic Awareness.
2) Allow beginners to spell phonetically.
When first learning to spell, allow children to spell words exactly as they hear them. Teach them to say each sound in a word and write down the letter or letters that represent each sound, until they have spelled the word.
For example, they might spell lemon as l-e-m-i-n.
Then review the word with them and talk about which letters they can change to make the word correct (help them figure out the correct replacement letters if needed).
You can practice this several times with different words. Let them rewrite the word the correct way and compare the changes.
For children who have trouble writing, allow them to use magnhttps://amzn.to/3b6LZLOetic letters to create the word, such as the ones below, or allow them to type on the computer if they are able to do so.
Magnetic LettersThey can also create the letters/words out of Play-Doh or Wikki Stix as shown below.
3) Teach children to notice chunks in words.
Chunks are more than one letter together that normally make the same sound (e.g., ch, sh, br, ple, all, ate, at).
Have your child practice writing several words that use the same chunks to establish a sense of word families (groups of words that have a common feature or pattern).
For a fun and effective way to teach sound chunks and spelling, let your children or students practice with the game Didax Chunks: The Incredible Word Building Game.
Great Interactive Spelling Games
4) Practice rhyming words.
Teach children about rhyming words and provide them with several examples. After teaching them how to rhyme, give them a word and ask them to come up with rhyming words.
Once they have the hang of it, encourage them to tell you a word and list several words that rhyme with it. Encourage them to write rhyming words down as well.
Allow them to start with a common word pattern such as “all.” Show them how adding a letter in front of “all” and changing that letter produces a list of several rhyming words (e.g., e.g. all, ball, call, fall, hall, mall, tall, wall).
Again, for children who have trouble writing, try typing, magnetic letters, or creating the words from Playdoh or Wikki Stix.
The strategies below are for students who have gotten the hang of phonetic spelling and are ready to or struggling to move to the next level; or for students who are struggling with phonetic spelling and may do better with memorization or rules.
5) Learn spelling rules.
See a list of some common spelling rules below (also known as rule-based strategies).
- Short -Vowel Rule: When a one-syllable word has a vowel in the middle it is usually a short-vowel sound (e.g., hat, set, pit , lot, nut)
- Doubling Consonants: If f, l, or s comes after a vowel, the letter is often doubled (e.g., stuff, call, grass)
- Two-Vowels Together: If two vowels are together, the first vowel usually says its name and the second vowel is not heard (e.g. seat, rain, tie)
- Silent e: When a short word has a vowel, a consonant, and then an “e” or a longer word has that same pattern in the last syllable, the first vowel is usually long and the e is silent (e.g., cake, kite, vote, mute, meditate, debate)
- y as a long i: When the letter y comes at the end of a short word with no other vowel in the word, it makes a long i sound (e.
g., dry, cry, sty, pry) - y as a long e: When a word has two syllables and the second syllable is composed of only a y or an ey, the y makes a long e sound. (e.g., honey, money, bunny, sunny)
- I before E: The rule is “i before e except after c (e.g., receive, receipt, deceive, conceive) or when sounding like ‘a’ as in neighbor or weigh.”
- Words with “ch”: Use “ch” at the beginning of words (e.g. chair, cheese, chin) and “tch” at the end (e.g., watch, witch, patch)
These are only some of the rules in spelling. You can do a Google Search for common spelling rules to learn more.
Please remember there are always exceptions to spelling rules, meaning that these rules will not apply to every word in the English language.
It can also be difficult and cumbersome to remember these rules. Strategies for remembering common spelling rules include the following:
- keep the rules in a place where the child/student can easily refer to them when spelling, such as in his desk or in his notebook
- discuss the rules when reviewing spelling errors with the child (for instance, if you and your child are editing his work and you see he spelled catch as cach, give him a gentle reminder “remember it is “ch” at the beginning of words and “tch” at the end” or have him read and say the rule out loud)
- after reviewing the rule, have him rewrite the word he misspelled
- make flashcards of the rules (you can do this on index cards), with the name of the rule on the front and the definition on the back as shown here.
After creating the flashcards, make a game out of it, to make it more fun for the child. For example, take turns (first you show the front of a flashcard and have your child state the rule. Then have him show a flashcard and you state the rule)
6) Teach children to use an online dictionary.
Use a site like dictionary.com. There your child can type in the word he is unsure of in the search box. If he spells the word wrong, but the spelling is somewhat close, the site will ask “Did you mean _________?”
For example, if you spell “vacashin” in the search box, a question on the bottom of the screen pops up that says “Did you mean vacation?”
7) Teach children to edit their work and use repetition.
Encourage children to review their work carefully and rewrite a word five to ten times when they find a misspelling (ten times is recommended but this may be too much for some children).
It is much easier to notice spelling errors when rereading work, than to notice them the first time around when the mistake is made.
Many times spelling errors get ingrained in one’s memory after repeating the same mistake several times. Writing the word several times in a row helps to retrain the child’s memory.
You can try to make repetition more fun by turning it into a game. To do this, take turns with the child. (e.g., have him write the first word 10 times while you watch, then you write the next word 10 times while he watches – or any other turn-taking variation).
Some children are more willing to complete this type of task when they can see a visual of how many times they are expected to write the word. For instance, number the paper 1 to 10. “After you write your words, you can pick a game to play!”
8) Show how different sounds can be represented different ways.
For example, the /k/ sound can be represented with a c as in cat, a k as in kangaroo, a ck as in kick, or a ch as in school.
9) Teach children how to test their spelling.
Create spelling lists or spelling flashcards on index cards.
You can create them for your child, with your child, or encourage your child to create them himself.
You can also purchase spelling flashcards or search for free spelling lists on the internet such as the ones at VocabularySpellingCity.com.
Teach Your Child To Test Their Spelling Using These Four Steps:
1. Look at the word and pay attention to the spelling and what the word looks like
2. Cover up the word with his hand or turn the flashcard around.
3. Visualize the word in his mind, and then spell the word aloud, in his mind, or on paper
4. Check the flashcard or list to ensure his spelling was correct. You can show your child an example of how to do this and then let him practice on his own.
10) Allow children to replace and change letters.
You can use a dry erase board or chalkboard.
For an activity, try writing a word but leaving some letters blank (have your child fill in the missing letters-providing them with guidance as needed).
For example, for the word table you could write (t a b _ e) and have him/her try to fill in the missing letter.
As your child improves, you can make it more challenging. If your child has trouble thinking of the missing letter, try giving a choice of three letters to choose from.
As an alternative to a dry erase or chalkboard, you can put sand in a sand tray (you can place the sand in a shallow baking pan for a tray). See an example of writing in sand below.
or in shaving cream or whip cream (as shown below)
Just like with a dry erase or chalkboard, this will allow students to write and rewrite words, make corrections, replace letters, fill in missing letters, etc.
11) Use a tablet or device.
There are several spelling apps that allow children to have fun while learning to spell or improve their spelling skills.
Also, some children who are resistant to traditional writing are sometimes willing to write on a tablet. They can write with their finger or with a Stylus such as the one shown below.
If pen/pencil grip is a concern, see How to Help Your Child with Handwriting and Pencil Grip.
Additional Tips to Improve Spelling:
Read with your child and encourage your child to read as much as possible.
When you come across a word with a certain pattern or rule, you can point out the word to your child/students and reiterate the rule.
For example, if you see the word vacation you can remind your child that many words that end with a “shin” sound are spelled with the suffix “tion” such as creation, medication, or fiction.
If you see the word “cat” you can remind your child that several three-letter words end with “at” such as bat, hat, and, mat. Teach your child to try to pay attention to these types of patterns when reading.
Use spelling workbooks
Keep in mind that every child is different.
Some respond to several strategies, others respond to a few, while others may not respond to any of these strategies.
If your child is significantly struggling with spelling or acquiring other academic skills, despite consistent practice and guidance, talk to your child’s school and/or doctor.
They should be able to refer you to the appropriate professionals to determine what might be interfering with your child’s progress and what additional strategies might help.
Remember to always stay calm when working with a child or student, even if you think they should be getting something that they are not getting.
If you get frustrated with them, they may start to feel anxious, angry, inferior, stupid, etc. which will lead to a less productive learning session.
Keep practice sessions short (5 to 10 minutes for younger children or children who get easily frustrated and 10 to 15 minutes for older children or children who can work for longer periods without frustration), unless the child is eager to keep going.
It would really make my day if you could comment below after trying some of these strategies with a child or student. I would love to hear if you enjoyed doing the activity together and what you found most helpful.
An image of you and/or your child or student(s) completing some of these activities together would be a beautiful addition to the site so feel free to share pictures or videos if you are comfortable.
For questions contact [email protected].
You Might Also Like: How to Study Spelling Words: A Spelling Strategy for Students by Reading Rockets
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Education and Behavior – Keeping Us on the Same Page for Children
Rachel Wise
Rachel Wise is the author and founder of Education and Behavior. Rachel created Education and Behavior in 2014 for adults to have an easy way to access research-based information to support children in the areas of learning, behavior, and social-emotional development.
As a survivor of abuse, neglect, and bullying, Rachel slipped through the cracks of her school and community. Education and Behavior hopes to play a role in preventing that from happening to other children. Rachel is also the author of Building Confidence and Improving Behavior in Children: A Guide for Parents and Teachers.
“Children do best when there is consistency within and across settings (i.e., home, school, community). Education and Behavior allows us to maintain that consistency.”
www.educationandbehavior.com
step-by-step instructions with expert advice
And now the first letter, the first word, appears on a piece of paper. Uneven and uncertain. But long-awaited. How to teach a child to write? How can I help him develop writing skills at home? Answers-in our material
Alena Gerashchenko
Author KP
Anna Shumilova
Methodist of the Teacher Platform
Mars Diamond 9000
Director0003
Writing is an important skill that is learned in preschool and elementary school.
The opinions of experts differ: someone thinks that it is better not to put a letter to the child at home, someone, on the contrary, is convinced that it is the parent who opens the world of writing to the child. We believe that you can start developing the skill of writing letters at home - learn to draw pictograms, connect dots on paper, draw - not write - letters. Leave the capital letters and intricate, ornate words to the schoolteachers. Teach your child the basics. Get him interested in drawing, help develop spatial perception of reality, teach hand-finger coordination. We will tell you step by step how to teach your child the basics of writing before school. nine0003
Step-by-step instructions for teaching a child to write
Everything needs a system. In training, a systematic, everyday contribution to the development of skills is very important. Compliance with the following steps will lay the foundation for high-quality development of the child's writing.
Step #1. Get interested
Start telling children in an exciting way what writing is, why it is needed, how it originated and developed. The main thing is to present the story not with dry facts. Do it brightly, colorfully, picturesquely. Show your child photographs of the walls of the Egyptian pyramids, which depict various drawings and hieroglyphs. Tell your son or daughter the story of the Novgorod boy Onfim, who wrote birch bark letters in the 13th century, show his monument, and the letters and drawings. The emotional presentation of the story, coupled with illustrative material - all this will resonate with the child. Also invite the child to do the exercises during the stories. Here are a couple of activities to accompany stories that will help your child understand the nature of writing and want to learn to write on their own as soon as possible. nine0003
Exercise 1
Show your child pictograms (wall pictures that our ancestors used to communicate information to each other), invite him to fantasize and make up an oral story based on the pictures he saw.
Exercise 2
And vice versa: make up a story with your child and invite him to illustrate it in detail with the help of pictures. Such tasks, among other things, develop fantasy, speech and storytelling skills.
After the pictograms, go on to explain ideographic writing. It sounds complicated, but in fact, ideography uses simplified pictograms - symbols. The Chinese language is built on symbolism (principle 1 character = 1 word), designations in the transport sector. Acquaintance with the symbols will be interesting to the child if you pay attention to them during a walk. nine0003
You can teach a child to draw simple images with meaning: for example, two wavy horizontal lines symbolize a pond; crossed circle - prohibition, the word "no" and so on. Stories about ideographic writing and "practical ideography" will expand the horizons of the baby, teach him to perceive the world around him more sensitively, develop creative thinking, and teach spatial perception.
If you feel that the kid is ready for more (he asks questions, draws a lot), tell him about modern writing, about languages. Explain that the Egyptians wrote from right to left - it was inconvenient: hieroglyphs, drawings were smeared by hand. Show your child that writing like this is not very convenient. Tell us that we inherit the experience of the ancient Greeks - we write from left to right. Take a digression into history and tell the fidget that Latin was developed from the ancient Greek language, and it became the official language of the church. Latin formed the basis of many other languages (English, German). And our ancestors developed Slavic writing, the Russian language. Conclude that today we use the Russian script, an alphabet of 33 letters. Show the child a primer, study each letter with him. Invite the child to circle each of them with a finger. nine0003
Step #2: Practice Moderately
Spend no more than 15 minutes a day on letter-drawing.
Let the child during this time repeat the outlines of the letters from the primer. Let him try to draw them. If the letters are crooked - it's not scary. It should not scare you that the signs crawling out from under the pencil of a novice writer do not quite look like letters. Transform the process of learning to write into a game - sit next to the baby and draw incomprehensible signs of eyes, smiles, legs and arms. So the child will have more fun. He will trust you, the process, the primer, and next time he will accurately draw a letter, and not a hippopotamus or a fat cat. The main rule is to learn to draw letters for a quarter of an hour. Let the child rest. Even the creativity that the kid is passionate about can exhaust him and discourage him from learning to write. nine0050
Spend no more than 15 minutes a day on letter-drawing. Photo: globallookpress.com
Step No. 3. “We wrote, we wrote, our fingers were tired!” Develop fine motor skills
Together with your child, sculpt from plasticine, build towers and wonderful animals from the designer, draw, color, make applications, lay out mosaics, embroider with a cross.
Practice daily, captivate your child with creativity and at the same time help him develop fine motor skills of his hands. If he learns to manipulate various small objects, it will be easier for him to learn to write. Fine motor skills training allows you to develop the temporal regions of the brain that are responsible for speech. If the baby has good motor skills, he writes well, then it will also not be difficult for him to tell a poem beautifully or come up with a story and vividly present it to his family, classmates, teacher. In man, everything is very subtly interconnected. nine0003
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The child's back must not be bent by the wheel. Incorrect posture will negatively affect the health of the internal organs of the baby, his psychological state, even the activity of his thinking.
Do sports with your child (gymnastics, swimming). Show him how to walk correctly - straight with a slightly raised chin, rushing the top of his head up. Teach him to sit at the table correctly: the child should bend in the lower back, the shoulders should be slightly relaxed, lowered. The kid should not lean heavily on the back of the chair and shift the entire body weight onto the table. The muscles of the upper body should be toned and slightly tense, but the neck should not be pulled forward. A slight tilt of the head is acceptable. In any case, consult with your pediatrician about how to properly seat your child at the table. He will suggest effective practices for controlling the muscles of the back, neck, arms and will talk in detail about why it is so important to develop the habit of sitting at the table correctly. nine0003
Popular questions and answers
How to teach a child to write beautifully?
Anna Shumilova, methodologist of the Uchi.
ru platform:
— Is it really necessary to demand beautiful handwriting and perfectly clean notebooks from a child? Some parents are worried when teachers lower their children's grades for the design of notebooks, and they believe that the main thing is to write down the exercise without errors, give the correct answer to the question, and find the right solution to the problem. Other parents, on the contrary, force the child to rewrite the work with blots and expect the teacher to spend enough time on calligraphy in the classroom. The truth, as always, lies somewhere in the middle. Any teacher knows from his own experience that in dirty, untidy notebooks there are rarely work without errors. Order and accuracy help to form a harmonious, logical thinking. If the student writes quickly and readably, this becomes a huge advantage for him in mastering the school material. We are of the opinion that the teacher should teach children to write. Any adult person knows for himself that it is quite difficult to change handwriting or the way letters are written.
Incorrect spelling of letters will not help either the first grader or his teacher, but, on the contrary, will cause additional difficulties. However, a parent can help. nine0003
If you want to help your child prepare for writing, it is best to start with block letters and do no more than 20 minutes at a time. You should also explain to the future student the basic principles of writing.
1. The line is the letter house. It has a floor and a ceiling. You can not break through the floor and stick out the legs of the letters from there. You can't break through the ceiling and stick your head out like a giraffe. If such a nuisance nevertheless happened with the letters, you can give the child a colored pencil and ask them to underline the hooligan letters and ask what exactly is wrong with them. After that, be sure to underline the letters that turned out to be written correctly, and praise the child. Another great exercise is coloring. We select a small part of the picture and ask to color it without going beyond the outline of the figure.
For little naughty fingers, it's not so easy. nine0050
2. When we write letters, we imagine the rails on which the train travels. If the rails cross, the train will derail and fall. The letters should not dance on the line, but stand like soldiers. After the kid writes a line, you can take a ruler and draw vertical lines through the letters. If the rails are straight everywhere, then the train arrived wonderfully, and you can put a big fat plus on this line! Over time, the rails may become slanted, but should remain parallel. nine0003
3. Written letters consist of a certain set of elements: sticks, hooks, loops and ovals. As we wrote above, it’s better not to collect letters without a teacher, but it’s worth practicing writing sticks of different lengths. To work with an oval, we can draw a box. The oval should look out the window and not get stuck in it. If a child draws a circle, then his chubby cheeks will not crawl through the window. Cheeks will have to be erased.
In addition to writing, we advise you to have an A4 lined notebook. If you don't have one, the regular one will do. First, the parent himself draws a large beautiful printed letter. The child paints its elements in different colors. Then we write giant letters (several centimeters high). At the beginning of the line, the parent puts dots, the child circles them, and only then appends the line on his own. Next come the middle letters and, towards the end of the page, the midget letters. While the child is writing, you can ask him to pronounce the sound of a capital letter in a rough voice, the sound of a middle letter in a normal voice, and squeak the sound of a midget letter. That will be much more fun! nine0050
How to teach a child to write quickly?
Anna Shumilova:
— A quick letter is a continuous letter. He will be taught by a teacher at school. As soon as the literacy period ends (around February 1st grade) and the Russian language begins, you can dictate very short dictations to your child.
You can use the collection of O. V. Uzorova. You can come up with short funny sentences about your child yourself. This will generate additional interest in the letter. Only practice and control over the maximum continuity of the hand while writing one word will help to write quickly. So that the child does not forget what this or that letter looks like (which happens up to grade 3), it is necessary to spend minutes of calligraphy. nine0050
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How to teach a child to write at home?
Almaz Marsov, director of the online school "It's clear":
- Learning to write can be divided into 2 stages: preparing the hand for writing and writing itself.
At the preparatory stage, you need to teach the child to coordinate brush movements. To do this, play and create with your child. Coloring pages, hatching tasks, as well as graphic exercises will help you: graphomotor tests, labyrinths, tasks of the series “connect by dots”, “connect by dotted lines”, “draw the second half” and so on. In a word, these are the tasks that will teach a child to use a pencil or pen - to set the direction of the lines, control the force of pressure, control the size of the image, the clarity of the lines and smoothness. After that, you can start writing letters and numbers. nine0003
The main principle is to go from simple to complex. First, you can learn to write part of a letter or number, then the letter or number in full. It is important to show the child the correct sequence of writing letters and numbers: from left to right, from top to bottom. Too many children come to school with the wrong letter and are faced with the need to relearn. To avoid this, we recommend that you complete tasks with the children and control the correct spelling until they develop a writing skill.
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Of course, the best helper is prescription. As soon as the child masters the letter with a hint, you can move on to a more difficult option - writing in a notebook. The more practice, the more confident and better the child's writing. Finally, the skill needs to be consolidated and improved. Write everywhere: sign drawings and crafts, write on asphalt with crayons, on misted glass with your finger - turn writing into a game and an interesting activity for a child. The more you practice, the faster and more beautiful the child will write. nine0050
What kind of games help children develop writing skills?
Anna Shumilova:
— Almost any exercise can be turned into a game. It depends on the submission of the material. You can draw letters with your nose in the air, collect letters from sweets. You can color the letters, circle them with dots, and then give them gifts. If the letter is oval, it is necessary to give objects that also contain an oval in their image.
Write not only at the table, but also with chalk on the pavement, a marker on a blackboard, sand on glass or on a piece of paper, show letters on your fingers, ask you to guess which letter you are in. nine0050
What determines how fast a child learns to write?
Anna Shumilova:
— We recommend taking your child to at least a few calligraphy lessons or watching video tutorials on YouTube. The teacher will tell you how to correctly determine the size of the line and letter. Pen and ink will not allow the child to rush. He will learn to breathe correctly, regulate the pressure on the pen, focus on writing, see the extraordinary artistic beauty of various styles of writing letters. This will be a great experience and will help the kid develop writing skills and strive for perfection. nine0050
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Most parents of schoolchildren still have to help them with their homework
| Chalk In the age of the Internet and technology, more and more parents are wondering if their child will need handwriting skills and why this is given such attention in schools. We asked Anna Polishchuk, clinical and perinatal psychologist, child neuropsychologist, author of the educational project "Children Ready for the Future", to talk about the importance of writing and proper preparation for it. Knowing how to write is really importantWritten language is not just the ability to write letters. This is a complex integrative process. When we master writing, almost all areas of the brain work at the same time - and they do it in a coordinated manner, creating a whole functional system. nine0003 The visual areas are responsible for reproducing and retaining in the working memory the image of a word and the image of a letter; auditory - for working with a phoneme. Can you imagine how many tasks a child's brain solves per second when it prints a letter? nine0003 We are not just learning to write, we are creating a new functional system, linking all parts of the brain into a single network. The brain changes even morphologically. Try to do old Russian calligraphy - and you will feel how much concentration, tone, and attention it requires. If schools replace writing with typing on a keyboard, this will certainly facilitate the learning process, but this will affect the cognitive functions of children. When to start preparing Beautiful writing largely depends on how ready the child's hand is. It is rare to find a clumsy child with good handwriting - because problems with gross motor skills drag along and difficulties with fine motor skills. Photo: Juriah Mosin / ShutterstockPreparing the hand for writing naturally starts at birth: even just playing in the sandbox, the child develops motor skills. Jumping, jumping rope games, hopscotch, cycling, rope parks contribute to the same goal. Today, the idea of early - anticipatory - development is popular among parents, but there is simply no point in actively putting a child at prescription before 4–5 years old. By this age, it is enough to be able to hold a pencil correctly. nine0003 A child is ready to learn to write if he has the following skills:
How to get interested in writingWriting is a complex integrative function, and in order to generate interest in it, it is important to understand where it starts. nine0003 Written speech is always the transmission of information. From a child to an adult. And it starts with a drawing! When a child scribbles, brings sloppy colored pictures to mom, or gives dad scribbled paper, he is trying to share his thoughts. Adults need to encourage this. The child encodes his words in lines and dashes, tries to convey an idea through an image - this is an analogue of the encryption system in a letter: we also encode the meaning in letters. Therefore, it is very important to initiate drawing. Offer pencils, crayons, paints and brushes, try to draw with your fingers, put dots on paper, traces of palms, learn to color, paint over, depict the first "cephalopod" men. nine0003 Often today's children do not like to draw because of problems with general tone or its asymmetry. Children love to be adults, and this is the whole secret of learning: write yourself! Leave notes, write stories, read to each other and show vivid emotions when the child repeats after you. Praise for trying. Tell us how you like to receive colorful notes and hang beautiful drawings on the refrigerator. nine0003 Create a gallery and save all the creations of children! Show that you care about what the child wants to convey to you in this image! All this is the basis of written speech. The pleasure of drawing gradually turns into the pleasure of writing letters, and then words. If a child does not have such a desire by the age of 5–6, return to the previous levels: draw and make scribble notes. How can I help my child learn to write? First of all, in a natural way, through everyday life. Cooking, cleaning, washing - it's all about motor skills. It would be useful to include drawing, passing mazes, playing with geoboards and mosaics, and graphic dictations in your daily activities. Photo: sakkmesterke / ShutterstockYou can also use special training aids for orientation on a sheet and in the image of a letter. For example, KUMON notebooks "Spatial Thinking" and "Learning to write block letters of the Russian alphabet." The latter has several advantages:
We must not forget an important criterion: such benefits should be offered to a child only when he is already approaching the age of learning to read, that is, closer to 5 years. 
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That is why, when children first begin to write, they pronounce each word aloud. The motor and deep parts of the brain are responsible for sufficient muscle tone, correct subtle movements, and jewelry switching between positions. And of course, all this is accompanied by an analysis and search for semantically suitable words. 
We are talking here about the general tone, and about the posture that the child takes for writing, and, of course, about motor skills. nine0003 
Gadgets, physical inactivity, incorrect posture - all this affects health, it is difficult for children to hold the pressure of a pencil. 
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