The Importance of Building Prewriting Skills in Preschoolers

Building pre-writing skills in preschoolers is much easier than you may think. There are a number of benefits that come with focusing on this area and there are resources to help you do it. If you’ve contemplated on introducing your preschooler to the world of handwriting, I’ll be the first to tell you that it’s worth it. Here’s why!

The Importance of Building Prewriting Skills in Preschoolers

Although children around this age can barely color within the lines, they quite naturally pick up writing utensils and make every effort to make them work. This is a good sign that your little learner is ready to take their natural writing exploration to the next level. Before getting into ways to help with building prewriting skills in preschoolers, let’s look at a few benefits.

Prewriting skills are fundamental for writing development.

Before kids learn to write legibly and fluidly, they have to build the skills necessary to hold a pencil properly, follow dotted (or dashed) lines, draw, color, and so on. These skills will combine effortlessly when practiced at an early age.

Prewriting skills help build motor skills.

Writing involves a combination of motor skills: fine, gross, and visual. Each of these work simultaneously so your child can pick up a pencil, use it to write, and see what is being written. Copywork is one writing activity that uses all three of these motor skills without question.

Prewriting skills are a child’s first steps in written communication.

Although preschoolers aren’t writing stories or poems, they are being introduced to a new form on communication through prewriting skills. If you’ve ever watched a preschooler “draw” a picture, they know exactly what that picture means to them and can even formulate a story around it.

How to Build Prewriting Skills in Preschoolers

Knowing the benefits, now let’s talk about different ways building prewriting skills in preschoolers can take place.

Give your preschooler an opportunity to write.

Something as small as a caddy filled with a few pencils, coloring pencils, and crayons can be a good start to promoting early writing in your preschooler. Keep the caddy where they can reach it, as well as scrap paper, a writing journal, or notebook. Give them opportunity to explore as they see fit.

Include hands-on prewriting activities in your homeschool.

There are a variety of fun hands-on prewriting activities you can do with your preschoolers. Since they like to touch, feel, and experiment, invite your preschooler to write in/on:

• salt
• flour
• shaving cream
• the window
• a mess-free sensory bag

Use prewriting workbooks

I love the idea of prewriting workbooks, so much so that I created one specifically for preschoolers. In my Prewriting: A Shapes & Lines Workbook, I focus on activities and resources to help get your preschooler on the road to correct handwriting. It begins with activities to work on Fine Motor Skills and moves into Correct Pencil Grip before the child ever actually writes anything.

Using this workbook just 10 minutes a day, several days a week, you’ll notice your preschooler becoming more fluid with their prewriting skills. For less than a Starbucks coffee, you can give your preschooler a resource they’ll love, and you’ll love the progress they make in handwriting! Make this resource reusable by laminating the pages and use it for all your early learners who are ready to start writing.

Download your Prewriting: A Shapes & Lines Workbook

This 32-page workbook contains articles, activities and resources to help get your preschooler on the road to correct handwriting. There are 15 prewriting pages with different lines, angles and curves to help students begin to control their handwriting. Then there are 9 pages of traceable shapes, which further help children work on their fine motor skills and control.

To download the Prewriting: A Shapes & Lines Workbook, simply add it to your cart and then checkout. **Upon checkout, you will be added to my Weekly Newsletter list.**