Research School Network: Handwriting readiness in the EYFS (Part 2) The Early Years Series

Having completed baseline assessments to determine where children are with their pre-writing skills (see part 1 of this blog), we need to plan carefully to move individuals on from their starting points, to ensure handwriting readiness for all.

Providing Pre-Handwriting Opportunities through Continuous Provision

In most EYFS classrooms, continuous provision offers an abundance of mark-making tools, from paintbrushes, rollers and squirty water bottles in the water, sticks of all shapes and sizes in the mud and sand, a variety of coloured chalks and pens, whiteboards, magnadoodles and interactive writing boards. They offer real-life writing experiences such as shopping lists, exciting design activity sheets to use prior to construction, and birthday cards or invitations in the home corner set up to celebrate a birthday. Educators will utilise these resources to support children’s learning and development along the pedagogical continuum (see figure 1 below) to support children in becoming aware of and interacting with print and attempting their own writing.

Figure 1

EEF – Contexts for Teaching and Learning: The Early Years Pedagogical Continuum

Trivette, Dunst and Hamby (2013) conducted a research synthesis which found the use of ​‘magic markers’ rather than pencil or crayon positively influenced children’s emergent writing skills. Furthermore the EEF ​‘Preparing for Literacy’ Guidance Report referenced some studies that indicated that ​‘the use of attractive writing tools can motivate children to communicate through writing, although the effects may be short-lived’.

So offering variety, and mixing it up, offering children new and different opportunities to mark-make seems sensible; it is worth trying every possible method to encourage mark-making, even if the appeal of each activity and writing tool is brief for some.

In addition to focussing on offering mark-making opportunities, considering where individuals are on the pre-handwriting developmental continuum (see blog 1) can support educators in designing appropriate activities to include fine motor and scissor skills in meaningful linked activities. For example, including playdoh for food making linked to items on shopping lists, wrapping paper, tape and scissors in the home corner birthday role-play and junk modelling with scissors and glue, or nuts and bolts in the construction activity.

However, despite all our efforts and carefully planned provision, we are finding some children will engage in all parts of the play-based learning activity except for the pre-handwriting and mark-making elements. Some children, if given the opportunity, will spend all their time developing gross motor skills when accessing continuous provision; balls, bikes, climbing equipment. This can be frustrating for practitioners who also need their children to focus on developing pre-writing skills. In our setting, possibly due to the increase in use of technology amongst young children, we are finding an increasing number of children are not interested in drawing, let alone attempting any form of emergent writing and these children may only provide evidence of any mark-making within the adult-led guided elements of the pedagogical continuum.

Consequently, we need to plan time for all children to develop their fine motor skills and pre-writing skills. It is essential and cannot be done purely through choice.

Explicit teaching and Intervention

Grissmer et al. (2010) argued that early childhood education interventions should shift the focus from direct maths and reading instructional practices to more on building foundational skills of attention and fine motor actions. This gives us food for thought in the reception classroom, where we need to consider the various starting points of individuals and their ​‘readiness for school’.

Research literature indicates the link between both fine motor skills and handwriting and long-term academic achievement, and with this the importance of developing fine motor writing skills and handwriting readiness in the years before children enter school (Dinehart, 2014). However, when children are entering school without this school readiness skill, explicit instruction in pre-handwriting skills is paramount.

Studies indicate – unsurprisingly perhaps – that there is no silver bullet here, but a multi-component approach may be essential to develop the skills necessary for achieving successful handwriting (e.g. López-Escribano et al., 2022), which includes regular educator feedback and goal setting.

Trivette, Dunst and Hamby (2013) found that unlike with toddlers, where unstructured activities were found to achieve better results in terms of emergent writing behaviours, the opposite was true with pre-school and reception children. Their research found structured activities with verbal prompts ​‘influenced the children’s emergent writing skills, and that when the interventions were conducted over multiple sessions, the interventions had value-added effects’.

The overview of the evidence presented in the early years evidence store around mark-making and letter formation gives us a sense of direction in terms of our instructional role in this process. ​‘The educator uses strategies to support the child with the mechanics of mark-making and letter formation before moving on to produce letter shapes and numbers more formally.’ Explicit instruction, through whole class instruction or – if required – intervention, is more likely to produce a positive effect (Strooband et al., 2020)

The EEF’s Guidance Report ​‘Preparing for Literacy’ suggests children who may experience handwriting difficulties (those who through baseline diagnostics have indicated some difficulties in an area of fine motor or pre-writing skills) are ​‘likely to benefit from individualised instruction, but it is important to identify the specific issue before planning further support’.

Daily planned fine motor skills activities such as ​‘funky fingers’ and ​‘dough gym’ (many examples of activities can be found by searching online) can help develop these pre-writing motor skills. These activities can be beneficial to the whole class, but children need to be given opportunities to develop their skills to move through the stages from their individual starting points, across all three areas of the pre-handwriting continuum. This will mean carefully planned intervention and individualised instruction for some children, to close the gap with their peers.

Final thoughts

Autumn term in the reception classroom should involve both phonics teaching (including letter formation), and a variety of mark-making opportunities through continuous provision with adult modelling and direction. But what we also need to see is a real focus on the explicit teaching of pre-handwriting skills; fine motor skills, scissor skills and pencil control on a regular (if possible daily) basis, with additional intervention for those needing it, beginning as soon as possible. Once children have achieved the emergent writing and pre-writing skills, handwriting instruction will be far more successful.

References:

Trivette, C., Dunst, C. and Hamby, D. (2013) ​‘Influences of Different Types of Writing Activities on the Emergent Writing Abilities of Toddlers and Preschoolers’, CELLreviews, 6 (3), pp. 1 – 8. http://www.earlyliteracylearni… cellreviews_v6_no3.pd

Grissmer, D. W., Grimm, K. J., Aiyer, S. M., Murrah, W. M., & Steele, J. S. (2010). Fine motor skills and early comprehension of the world: Two new school readiness indicators. Developmental Psychology, 46, 1008 – 1017

Dinehart, L. (2014) ​‘Handwriting in early childhood education: Current research and future implications’ Journal of Early Childhood Literacy 15(1)

López-Escribano, C, Babarro, J.M. and Pérez-López, R. (2022) ​‘Promoting Handwriting Fluency for Preschool and Elementary-Age Students: Meta-Analysis and Meta-Synthesis of Research From 2000 to 2020’ Front Psychol. 2022 May 26

Strooband, K.F.B., De Rosnay, M, Okely, A.D., Veldman, S.L.C. ​‘Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses: Motor Skill Interventions to Improve Fine Motor Development in Children Aged Birth to 6 Years’ January 2020​‘Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics’ 41(4):1