Pencil Grip
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1-1.5 years
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Palmer-supinate grasp
- The whole hand is used in a fisted grasp on the crayon.
- The wrist is slightly bent towards the body.
- The colouring movement comes from the shoulder.
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2-3 years
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Digital-pronate grasp
- Five fingers hold the crayon.
- The crayon is held in the mid fingers, rather than close to the fingertips.
- The colouring movement comes from the elbow.
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3.5-4 years
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Static tripod grasp
- Three to four fingers holding the pencil with fingers often bring bent or fisted.
- The writing movement comes from the wrist and the hand moves as a unit.
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4.5-5 years
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Dynamic tripod grasp
- Three fingers holding the pencil with a rounded webspace.
- Isolated finger control for precise and refined pencil control.
- The writing movement comes from the fingers only.
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Handwriting
There are many skills that need to be developed that are required for handwriting.
These building blocks include:
- Hand dominance – consistently using the same hand.
- Hand division – ability to use the thumb, index, and middle finger.
- Hand and finger strength
- Letter awareness
- Pencil control and mechanics – holding and moving the pencil appropriately with suitable pressure.
- Pre-writing skills – pencil strokes that most letters are comprised of
- Visual perception – brain’s ability to interpret information.
- Planning and sequencing – completing multiple step activities.
- Postural control – stability in the trunk.
Handwriting
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Nursery
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- Starting to explore and develop awareness of letters appearance and sounds.
- Starting to develop number recognition.
- Starting to form letters by joining components (for example, ‘o’ and ‘l’ make an ‘a’).
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Reception
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- Write their name legibly and accurately.
- Recognise all letter names and sounds.
- Correctly form letters and numbers (some incorrect orientation is acceptable).
- Write consistently on the line.
- Write letters that are consistently the same size.
- Use lowercase letters only.
- Leave spaces between words.
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Year 1
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- Correctly form all letters and numbers (minimal incorrect orientation is acceptable).
- Write consistently on the line and within lines.
- Leave spaces between words and letters.
- Distinguish between tall, short and long letters.
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Year 2
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- Write consistently on the line, within regular sized lined paper.
- Correctly form all letters and numbers (no incorrect orientation).
- Develop mastery of upper-case letters.
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Year 3
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- Begin mastery of link script/cursive writing.
- Display easily legible writing.
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Pre-writing shapes:
