Handwriting



Handwriting Milestones and Early Learning Services uses The Handwriting Without Tears® curriculum that draws from years of innovation and research to provide developmentally appropriate, multi-sensory strategies for early writing. The program follows research of how children learn best and includes materials that address all styles of learning. It serves as a great introduction to writing for your preschooler or kindergartner or provides remediation support for your older child.

Good handwriting begins with a strong foundation of essential skills, setting children up for success in school. As children enter kindergarten, certain foundational skills are expected to be in place. These skills include proper tool grip (pencils, crayons, scissors, etc.), sitting in a chair with correct posture, maintaining focus and attention, coloring, drawing shapes, familiarity with letters and their orientation and the ability to write their name.

Handwriting success can be achieved through a series of milestones that help develop and refine writing skills. These milestones are important for handwriting success. 

Children typically start with a gross grasp and progress to a tripod grasp, where the pencil is held between the thumb and first two fingers.

Recognizing and identifying letters of the alphabet is crucial for developing handwriting skills.

These include activities such as tracing lines and shapes, coloring, and drawing basic strokes to improve hand control and coordination.

Achieving consistent letter size and maintaining appropriate spacing between letters and words are important milestones for legible handwriting.

Understanding the concept of spacing between letters and words helps in improving the overall readability of handwriting.

Learning to form each letter of the alphabet correctly and consistently is an important milestone for handwriting success.

Correcting letter reversals such as confusing "b" and "d" or "p" and "q" is an important milestone in handwriting development.

Being able to write on the baseline and maintain consistent alignment with the ruled lines helps create a neat and organized appearance.

Developing the ability to write smoothly and at an appropriate speed is a milestone that allows for efficient and effective written communication.

Consistently producing legible handwriting that is easy to read and understand is a significant milestone in achieving handwriting success.


HANDWRITING ASSESSMENT AND TUTORING PROGRAMS ARE TAILORED TO MEET THE SPECIFIC HANDWRITING AND FINE MOTOR NEEDS FOR PRINTING. 

The Print Tool® is an assessment used to assess capitals, lower-case letters and numbers.  The skills evalulated include memory, orientation, placement, size, start, sequence and spacing.  Pencil grip, posture, "helper hand" use will also be observed. These scores form the basis for the remediation plan in which tutoring sessions are based on. 

My First School Book helps children of different abilities develop crucial readiness and pre-writing skills such as music and movement, building and drawing, and basic habits for letter and number formation.  

My Printing Book emphasizes printing lowercase letters correctly and using them in words and sentences to prepare students for writing in all their classes.  Hands-on, fine motor manipulatives help students develop the language for letters, sequence for formation, and reversal-free writing.

Printing Power is for students who need a printing review. The focus is on smaller-size printing.  It provides a complete review of numbers and capital and lowercase letters.  Word, sentence, and simple paragraph writing is reviewed.