Prewriting

Creative Pre-Writing Workshop

In old days and still in most school nowadays, children under age of 5 are not recommended to learn how to read and write because previous researches showed that children are not cognitively and physically ready, or developmentally ready, to learn how to read and write before age of 5. However, a 2017 research study by Treiman R, Kessler B, Boland K, Clocksin H, Chen Z, published in the journal of Child Development*, uncovered some findings that show otherwise. This study shows that young children actually display knowledge about the formulas of written language before they learn what those letters represent, and they begin to write “words” that actually follow rules of the written language as early as age of 3. In addition, children who have learning challenges benefit from early intervention so identifying those challenges as early as possible would be very helpful. Therefore, parents, caregivers and early childhood educators are encouraged to invite toddlers at age of 2 to write.

In addition, early writing experience can help strengthening children’s fine motor skills and dexterity, and help guiding them to prevent or correct poor or dysfunctional pencil grasp that causes discomfort, hand or arm pain, shaky hand, fatigue, or even harm to finger, hand and arm.

The bottom line is, no matter which approach we adopt, we should never force a child to write. The key is by invitation, and if they are not ready, they are not ready. Children’s learning, as always, has to be fun and enjoyable, and relevant to them.

*Treiman Rm Kesssler B, Boland K, Clocksin H, Chen Z. Statistical Learning and Spelling: Older Prephonological Spellers Produce More Wordlike Spelings Than Younger Prephonological Spellers. Child Dev. 2018;89(4):e431-e443.

doi:10.1111/cdev.12893

Cursive Writing

There are many debates about whether children should be taught how to write cursive. It’s not should or shouldn’t; it’s not Montessori or not Montessori. There are pros and cons teaching children to write cursive, but there are so many benefits of learning how to write cursive that you may want to consider teaching your child how to write cursive.

Benefits:

•Children learn the form of alphabet better if written in cursive.

•If children have learning disability such as dyslexia, it may be a challenge for them to distinguish difference between letters such as lowercase b and d. Because each alphabet is very different and unique if written in cursive, so by teaching children with dyslexia to write cursive can provide them a better chance to learn.

•Cursive writing strengthens muscle for writing and improves dexterity.

•Cursive writing promotes brain development by integrating visual and tactile information. It stimulates neurons synapses and the synchronization of left and right hemisphere, which won’t happen if you are printing and typing.