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Take a Flight
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Publishing-in-support-of,
EDUCREATION PUBLISHING
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Shubham Vihar, Mangla, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh - 495001
Website: www.educreation.in __________________________________________________________
© Copyright, Author
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, magnetic, optical, chemical, manual, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written consent of its writer.
ISBN: 978-1-61813-395-3
Price: ` 225.00
The opinions/ contents expressed in this book are solely of the author and do not represent the opinions/ standings/ thoughts of Educreation.
Printed in India
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Take a Flight
(A handbook for legible handwriting)
Preeti Jaiswal
EDUCREATION PUBLISHING (Since 2011)
www.educreation.in
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Acknowledgments I wholeheartedly dedicate this handbook to Dr. Amrita Sahay, my
teacher and guide, who gave me the idea to write a handbook like this
and also to my mentor Dr. Daisaku Ikeda, President of Soka Gakkai
International, who always encourages his disciples to create good causes
for human welfare.
I would like to acknowledge my students who gave me an
opportunity to learn new ways of teaching. They only taught me that I
must use my creativity and should teach them in the way they want to
learn.
I gratefully acknowledge the following members of my entire
family which consists of 13 members. They made me to stay happy by
their nonstop chit chat. Thank you dadu, dadi, papa, mummy, bade
chacha and chachi, chote chacha and chachi, Chainu, Geetu, Umang,
Tannu and Taru.
I would like to thank my best friend Shruti Merothiya who
supported me as an advisor and a reviewer while writing this handbook.
Thank you so much Sarbari ma’am for appreciating my effort every
time and also for your last-minute suggestion. Both the things were
needed.
I would like to deliver a big thank to my father-in-law, Dr. Surendra
Jaiswal, and mother-in-law, Anju Jaiswal, for encouraging and
supporting me toward completion of this handbook.
How can I forget my dear husband Dr. Ashesh Kalp. I thank him for
his care and warm support and to take all my mood swings when I was
facing failures while writing this handbook.
I will also acknowledge my teacher who taught me the strategies to
deal with handwriting problems. A very big thank you to all those
authors, practitioners and trainers who are working in this field and their
writings supported me a lot when I was looking for references.
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A very warm gratitude to my publisher ‘Educreation Publishing’ to
accept my content.
I will also acknowledge each one of them who made even a single
effort for me when I was writing this handbook.
With deep gratitude
Preeti
P
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About This Handbook
To parents, teachers and special educators
‘Take a flight’ is a structured and systematically designed handbook
which will make your child to write legibly.
Play and hands on activities are the most popular ways to enhance
learning among children of all age. A lot of movements integrated with
activities/games provide the best opportunity for most effective learning
experience.
This handbook has more than 150 strategies, activities and games which
will motivate your child to master the manuscript in a fun and
meaningful way.
Highlights:
Beneficial for children with special needs.
Help children to:
strengthen their fine motor skills;
control their hands movements;
develop eye–hand coordination;
gain attention and increase concentration;
enhance receptive and expressive skills;
strengthen cognitive abilities and
improve visual and auditory perceptual skills.
Beneficial for parents and educators to prepare lesson plans for
writing skills.
P
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About The Author Preeti is a rehabilitation therapist who is working with
children since 9 years. She resides in New Delhi and is
working in a reputed school as a special educator. She
holds a Bachelor’s degree in rehabilitation therapy
from National Institute for mentally handicapped. She
is also having qualification to deal with adolescences.
She is also associated with NGOs, and there, she trains
children with special needs. Since school days, she has
a strong desire to devote her life for the human well-being. She has been
supported for the same by her family. During her college days and
working experience, she decided to provide a readymade platter for the
parents and teachers so that they can help their children at home after the
school/therapy sessions.
She believes that children learn in the way they want to learn. So, it
is better to teach them in the way they want.
APPENDIX
P
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Contents
S.No Chapters Page
No.
1. An Introduction : Learning to write 1
2. Course of handwriting 4
2.1. Pre-writing skills 5
2.2. Pre-requisites to develop handwriting 5
2.3. Factors affecting handwriting 6
3. Checklist to check child’s progress 8
4. Handwriting a fun 11
5. Factors contribute to legible handwriting 13
6. Activities 14
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1
1
An Introduction:
Learning To Write
W Writing is an everyday activity for us. It may seem simple but actually is
one of the most complex activities that humans engage in. It involves
motor, perceptual and language skills. It is not surprising that learning to
write is a process that takes years in the developmental age of a child.
Children start creating some random lines on their own. For a child,
writing begins with scribbling. Scribbling is the most enjoyable activity
for young children. The coordination of holding a pencil on the paper
and making a mark on it by applying adequate pressure gives a sense of
achievement among the children.
At the age of 3 or 4 years, children begin to practice writing. At this
age, children start formal schooling and are exposed to a variety of hand
activities, movements and begin to follow formal handwriting
curriculum. They start with making lines and simple pictures. They learn
to write letters, which may begin with imperfection, and gradually learn
to combine letters together to form a word by the age of 3–4 years. They
may comfortably write recognizable letters and learn to write their names
first. In the school, they continue to learn to read and develop an
understanding of how words work. They also learn to group letters to
form words and gradually words to make a sentence. That is why, it is
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Preeti Jaiswal
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important to establish a meaningful link between words and their
meaning.
The association between words and their meaning may be
established by using pictures. This small practice of making association
leads to picture reading. Gradually, they start naming letters and also
learn their phonic sounds. After learning phonic, children try to join
letters and try to read words that they see around. At this time, they begin
to enjoy books, comics, picture story books and magazines. They attempt
to read those books and feel proud for themselves. It shows that they
understand the connection between the sounds they hear and the words
they see. This is how they learn to read and write.
Eventually with practice and formal schooling, by the end of 6–7
years, the children learn to write as per the convention of the language
(e.g. from left to right for English and Hindi, from right to left in Arabic
etc.), understand the difference between upper and lower cases, the need
to maintain adequate spacing between words and importance of usage of
correct spelling.
Gradually with support of teachers and parents, children learn to
write legibly and practice to write in cursive. This is how they acquire
and use handwriting in daily lives.
Importance of handwriting
In our advance society and machinery age, we are using variety of apps
and gadgets. We are using keyboards and touch screens, but still children
need to learn writing by hand. It is a functional tool which allows
children or adults to put ideas on paper, effortlessly and fast. All of us
use our handwriting to give exams, doing class room work and
homework, for making important points, jotting down shopping list,
writing letters or birthday cards, for filling up forms and more.
Importance of handwriting skills:
Handwriting skills are very important from school to college students. It
provides educational benefits. Handwriting helps them to express their
thoughts. For writers, poets and journalists, handwriting is a best skill
and mode by which they serve many cognitive and creative writing
benefits. In other words, they use their pens and skill of handwriting to
flow their creative ideas.
During brainstorm, it is very difficult to go paper free and opt for
writing gadgets; that time, handwriting helps us to move freely.
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Handwriting is also a clear reflection of our personality. Handwriting and
manuscript also shows the richness and spark of culture of different
places.
*****
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Preeti Jaiswal
4
2
Let’s Look Into The
Course of Handwriting
W Typically, developing children, by the age of 6 or 7 years old, are fairly
competent at writing legibly when instructed with a traditional-
handwriting curriculum.
Many children begin to scribble on paper shortly after they are able
to grasp a writing tool (pen/pencil), and if not supervised, will eventually
write on any available surface like walls and floor. In addition, this is the
most enjoyable activities for children. As children mature, their
scribbling evolves into the handwriting skills specific to their culture.
Let’s check the development of prewriting and handwriting in children.
Performance Task Age Level
Scribble on paper 10–12 months
Imitate horizontal, vertical and
circular marks on paper 2years
Copies a vertical lines, horizontal
lines and circle 3years
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Let’s understand about pre-writing skills
Pre-writing skills are the fundamental skills that children need to develop
before they are able to write. These skills are essential for a child to be
able to develop the ability to hold and move a writing tool smoothly and
effectively. The major component of pre-writing skills are pencil strokes
that most letters, numbers and early drawing are comprised of. These
stokes involve:
I, -, O, +, /, ?, X.
Importance of pre-writing skills:
Pre-writing skills are important to improve an ability which is
associated with fine motor tasks.
It is an essential skill which is required for school readiness.
This skill helps a child to complete self-help/self-care activities,
such as picking up roti and eat, buttoning, using zips etc.
Pre-writing skills help to avoid frustrations experienced by child by
developing good hand functions and related skills.
It also ensures that a child doesn’t fall behind his/her peers in
development of handwriting. It helps our child to maintain and
develop a positive sense of well being.
Pre-writing skills and related concerns
Sometimes, children experience few difficulties during their normal
developmental period. When there are some difficulties in achieving
pre-writing skills or there is interference, then child faces problem as
given below:
Difficulties in meeting academic criteria.
Difficulties in mastering letter formation.
Copies a cross, right oblique lines,
square, left diagonal line, left oblique
cross, some letters and numerals and
may be able to write own name
4-5years
Copies a triangle, print own name,
copies lower and upper case letters 5-6years
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Excessive pressure and anxiety in a school-aged child due to
difficulties in keeping up with the class.
Difficulties in completing written questions within the allocated
time.
Poor self-esteem.
Difficulty in developing efficient typing skills.
Difficulty in manipulating items for construction (puzzle, logo etc.)
Avoidance of the given activities.
Factors affecting handwriting
There are few factors that affect handwriting. The factors are listed as
follows:
Cognitive factor (low-intellectual functioning, mental retardation)
Visual-perceptual skills (inability to recognize pictures, letters etc.,
common in children with learning disability)
Sensory issues (hypersensitivity/hyposensitivity toward touch, poor
control over proprioceptors, commonly found in children with
autism, dyspraxia etc.)
Visual skills (low vision or requirement of glasses)
Motor and physical factors (limited range of motions of hand,
muscle tone, found in children with physical deficits like cerebral
palsy)
Cultural factors (language or script)
Environmental factors (desk’s height, proper seating, relation to
board/instructor etc.)
Factors affecting handwriting
There are few factors that affect handwriting. The factors are listed as
follows:
Cognitive factor (low-intellectual functioning, mental retardation)
Visual-perceptual skills (inability to recognize pictures, letters etc.,
common in children with learning disability)
Sensory issues (hypersensitivity/hyposensitivity toward touch, poor
control over proprioceptors, commonly found in children with
autism, dyspraxia etc.)
Visual skills (low vision or requirement of glasses)
Motor and physical factors (limited range of motions of hand,
muscle tone, found in children with physical deficits like cerebral
palsy)
Cultural factors (language or script)
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Environmental factors (desk’s height, proper seating, relation to
board/instructor etc.)
*****
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8
3
Checklist to check child’s
progress
W
Following checklist shows you that when and what
skill you can expect from your child, and you can
refer it as a developmental checklist to check over
child’s progress.
1 to 2 years
As body balance improves, child is able to pick up toys from a
standing position
Paint with whole arm movements
Put rings on a peg
Turn two or three pages at a time
Scribble with all types of media
Finger paint: also use other media such as shaving cream and
pudding
Turn knobs
Ball play with small and large balls; start with rolling on the floor,
then gentle 2-handed tossing
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2 to 3 years
Turn pages one by one
Hold crayon with thumb and fingers instead of fist, use broken
crayons to encourage this
Trace over vertical and horizontal lines and circles in a top-to-
bottom direction
Use multisensory materials to keep drawing and pre-writing
interesting, such as drawing in shaving cream, whipped cream,
pudding, hair gel, finger paint, sand etc.
Paint with wrist action, rather than whole arm movements, to make
strokes. Here, one can support child’s movement by holding his/her
forearm, when the forearm is supported by a table
Tear paper and make collage pictures
Snip edges of paper or around paper plates with scissors, try cutting
along a short line.
Roll, pound, squeeze and pull clay or putty
3 to 4 years
Throw and catch a ball
Drive pegs into holes
Draw crosses and circles in a top-to-bottom direction
Put lines together to draw people
Use multisensory materials to keep drawing and pre-writing
interesting, such as drawing in shaving cream, whipped cream,
pudding, hair gel, finger paint, sand etc.
Manipulate clay by making balls, snakes etc.
Play with wind-up toys
Construction toys such as duplos, bristle blocks (krinkles blocks)
and wooden blocks
Toy tools such as hammer and nails, screwdriver, nuts and bolts
Lacing boards
String medium and small-sized beads
Cut along wide lines with scissors and eventually cut around a circle
Fold paper for cutting snowflakes or paper airplanes (will need help)
Imitate drawing vertical and horizontal lines, circles and crosses
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4 to 5 years
Use scissors to cut out circles, triangles and square shapes
Copy crosses, squares and X’s in a top-to-bottom direction
Draw people, animals and objects
Use multisensory materials to keep drawing and pre-writing
interesting, such as drawing in shaving cream, whipped cream,
pudding, hair gel, finger paint, sand etc.
Use coloring books to color within the lines of the picture
Print a few capital letters
Practice writing first name
5 to 6 years
By the age of 6, a child has mastered the basic strokes needed to
form letters and numbers. Make sure he/she forms shapes, numbers
and letters in a top to bottom direction and from left to right.
Reinforce learning letters by making it a fun activity: Try rainbow
writing – retrace over strokes and letters in different colors of
crayons or chalk.
Use sidewalk chalk to write and draw.
Use stickers or stamps – child can connect them to form shapes,
letters or numbers.
Demonstrate how simple shapes can be put together to make
drawings of people, animals and objects.
*****
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