Sample Copy. Not For Distribution. - Book Publishing House · PDF filechacha and chachi, ... x Sample Copy. Not For Distribution. xi Contents S.No Chapters Page ... (e.g. from left

Sample Copy. Not For Distribution.

i

Take a Flight


ii

Publishing-in-support-of,

EDUCREATION PUBLISHING

RZ 94, Sector - 6, Dwarka, New Delhi - 110075

Shubham Vihar, Mangla, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh - 495001

Website: www.educreation.in __________________________________________________________

© Copyright, Author

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, magnetic, optical, chemical, manual, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written consent of its writer.

ISBN: 978-1-61813-395-3

Price: ` 225.00

The opinions/ contents expressed in this book are solely of the author and do not represent the opinions/ standings/ thoughts of Educreation.

Printed in India


iii

Take a Flight

(A handbook for legible handwriting)

Preeti Jaiswal

EDUCREATION PUBLISHING (Since 2011)

www.educreation.in


iv


v

Acknowledgments I wholeheartedly dedicate this handbook to Dr. Amrita Sahay, my

teacher and guide, who gave me the idea to write a handbook like this

and also to my mentor Dr. Daisaku Ikeda, President of Soka Gakkai

International, who always encourages his disciples to create good causes

for human welfare.

I would like to acknowledge my students who gave me an

opportunity to learn new ways of teaching. They only taught me that I

must use my creativity and should teach them in the way they want to

learn.

I gratefully acknowledge the following members of my entire

family which consists of 13 members. They made me to stay happy by

their nonstop chit chat. Thank you dadu, dadi, papa, mummy, bade

chacha and chachi, chote chacha and chachi, Chainu, Geetu, Umang,

Tannu and Taru.

I would like to thank my best friend Shruti Merothiya who

supported me as an advisor and a reviewer while writing this handbook.

Thank you so much Sarbari ma’am for appreciating my effort every

time and also for your last-minute suggestion. Both the things were

needed.

I would like to deliver a big thank to my father-in-law, Dr. Surendra

Jaiswal, and mother-in-law, Anju Jaiswal, for encouraging and

supporting me toward completion of this handbook.

How can I forget my dear husband Dr. Ashesh Kalp. I thank him for

his care and warm support and to take all my mood swings when I was

facing failures while writing this handbook.

I will also acknowledge my teacher who taught me the strategies to

deal with handwriting problems. A very big thank you to all those

authors, practitioners and trainers who are working in this field and their

writings supported me a lot when I was looking for references.


vi

A very warm gratitude to my publisher ‘Educreation Publishing’ to

accept my content.

I will also acknowledge each one of them who made even a single

effort for me when I was writing this handbook.

With deep gratitude

Preeti

P


vii

About This Handbook

To parents, teachers and special educators

‘Take a flight’ is a structured and systematically designed handbook

which will make your child to write legibly.

Play and hands on activities are the most popular ways to enhance

learning among children of all age. A lot of movements integrated with

activities/games provide the best opportunity for most effective learning

experience.

This handbook has more than 150 strategies, activities and games which

will motivate your child to master the manuscript in a fun and

meaningful way.

Highlights:

Beneficial for children with special needs.

Help children to:

strengthen their fine motor skills;

control their hands movements;

develop eye–hand coordination;

gain attention and increase concentration;

enhance receptive and expressive skills;

strengthen cognitive abilities and

improve visual and auditory perceptual skills.

Beneficial for parents and educators to prepare lesson plans for

writing skills.

P


viii


ix

About The Author Preeti is a rehabilitation therapist who is working with

children since 9 years. She resides in New Delhi and is

working in a reputed school as a special educator. She

holds a Bachelor’s degree in rehabilitation therapy

from National Institute for mentally handicapped. She

is also having qualification to deal with adolescences.

She is also associated with NGOs, and there, she trains

children with special needs. Since school days, she has

a strong desire to devote her life for the human well-being. She has been

supported for the same by her family. During her college days and

working experience, she decided to provide a readymade platter for the

parents and teachers so that they can help their children at home after the

school/therapy sessions.

She believes that children learn in the way they want to learn. So, it

is better to teach them in the way they want.

APPENDIX

P


x


xi

Contents

S.No Chapters Page

No.

1. An Introduction : Learning to write 1

2. Course of handwriting 4

2.1. Pre-writing skills 5

2.2. Pre-requisites to develop handwriting 5

2.3. Factors affecting handwriting 6

3. Checklist to check child’s progress 8

4. Handwriting a fun 11

5. Factors contribute to legible handwriting 13

6. Activities 14


xii


Take a Flight-A handbook for legible handwriting

1

1

An Introduction:

Learning To Write

W Writing is an everyday activity for us. It may seem simple but actually is

one of the most complex activities that humans engage in. It involves

motor, perceptual and language skills. It is not surprising that learning to

write is a process that takes years in the developmental age of a child.

Children start creating some random lines on their own. For a child,

writing begins with scribbling. Scribbling is the most enjoyable activity

for young children. The coordination of holding a pencil on the paper

and making a mark on it by applying adequate pressure gives a sense of

achievement among the children.

At the age of 3 or 4 years, children begin to practice writing. At this

age, children start formal schooling and are exposed to a variety of hand

activities, movements and begin to follow formal handwriting

curriculum. They start with making lines and simple pictures. They learn

to write letters, which may begin with imperfection, and gradually learn

to combine letters together to form a word by the age of 3–4 years. They

may comfortably write recognizable letters and learn to write their names

first. In the school, they continue to learn to read and develop an

understanding of how words work. They also learn to group letters to

form words and gradually words to make a sentence. That is why, it is


Preeti Jaiswal

2

important to establish a meaningful link between words and their

meaning.

The association between words and their meaning may be

established by using pictures. This small practice of making association

leads to picture reading. Gradually, they start naming letters and also

learn their phonic sounds. After learning phonic, children try to join

letters and try to read words that they see around. At this time, they begin

to enjoy books, comics, picture story books and magazines. They attempt

to read those books and feel proud for themselves. It shows that they

understand the connection between the sounds they hear and the words

they see. This is how they learn to read and write.

Eventually with practice and formal schooling, by the end of 6–7

years, the children learn to write as per the convention of the language

(e.g. from left to right for English and Hindi, from right to left in Arabic

etc.), understand the difference between upper and lower cases, the need

to maintain adequate spacing between words and importance of usage of

correct spelling.

Gradually with support of teachers and parents, children learn to

write legibly and practice to write in cursive. This is how they acquire

and use handwriting in daily lives.

Importance of handwriting

In our advance society and machinery age, we are using variety of apps

and gadgets. We are using keyboards and touch screens, but still children

need to learn writing by hand. It is a functional tool which allows

children or adults to put ideas on paper, effortlessly and fast. All of us

use our handwriting to give exams, doing class room work and

homework, for making important points, jotting down shopping list,

writing letters or birthday cards, for filling up forms and more.

Importance of handwriting skills:

Handwriting skills are very important from school to college students. It

provides educational benefits. Handwriting helps them to express their

thoughts. For writers, poets and journalists, handwriting is a best skill

and mode by which they serve many cognitive and creative writing

benefits. In other words, they use their pens and skill of handwriting to

flow their creative ideas.

During brainstorm, it is very difficult to go paper free and opt for

writing gadgets; that time, handwriting helps us to move freely.



3

Handwriting is also a clear reflection of our personality. Handwriting and

manuscript also shows the richness and spark of culture of different

places.

*****


Preeti Jaiswal

4

2

Let’s Look Into The

Course of Handwriting

W Typically, developing children, by the age of 6 or 7 years old, are fairly

competent at writing legibly when instructed with a traditional-

handwriting curriculum.

Many children begin to scribble on paper shortly after they are able

to grasp a writing tool (pen/pencil), and if not supervised, will eventually

write on any available surface like walls and floor. In addition, this is the

most enjoyable activities for children. As children mature, their

scribbling evolves into the handwriting skills specific to their culture.

Let’s check the development of prewriting and handwriting in children.

Performance Task Age Level

Scribble on paper 10–12 months

Imitate horizontal, vertical and

circular marks on paper 2years

Copies a vertical lines, horizontal

lines and circle 3years



5

Let’s understand about pre-writing skills

Pre-writing skills are the fundamental skills that children need to develop

before they are able to write. These skills are essential for a child to be

able to develop the ability to hold and move a writing tool smoothly and

effectively. The major component of pre-writing skills are pencil strokes

that most letters, numbers and early drawing are comprised of. These

stokes involve:

I, -, O, +, /, ?, X.

Importance of pre-writing skills:

Pre-writing skills are important to improve an ability which is

associated with fine motor tasks.

It is an essential skill which is required for school readiness.

This skill helps a child to complete self-help/self-care activities,

such as picking up roti and eat, buttoning, using zips etc.

Pre-writing skills help to avoid frustrations experienced by child by

developing good hand functions and related skills.

It also ensures that a child doesn’t fall behind his/her peers in

development of handwriting. It helps our child to maintain and

develop a positive sense of well being.

Pre-writing skills and related concerns

Sometimes, children experience few difficulties during their normal

developmental period. When there are some difficulties in achieving

pre-writing skills or there is interference, then child faces problem as

given below:

Difficulties in meeting academic criteria.

Difficulties in mastering letter formation.

Copies a cross, right oblique lines,

square, left diagonal line, left oblique

cross, some letters and numerals and

may be able to write own name

4-5years

Copies a triangle, print own name,

copies lower and upper case letters 5-6years


Preeti Jaiswal

6

Excessive pressure and anxiety in a school-aged child due to

difficulties in keeping up with the class.

Difficulties in completing written questions within the allocated

time.

Poor self-esteem.

Difficulty in developing efficient typing skills.

Difficulty in manipulating items for construction (puzzle, logo etc.)

Avoidance of the given activities.

Factors affecting handwriting

There are few factors that affect handwriting. The factors are listed as

follows:

Cognitive factor (low-intellectual functioning, mental retardation)

Visual-perceptual skills (inability to recognize pictures, letters etc.,

common in children with learning disability)

Sensory issues (hypersensitivity/hyposensitivity toward touch, poor

control over proprioceptors, commonly found in children with

autism, dyspraxia etc.)

Visual skills (low vision or requirement of glasses)

Motor and physical factors (limited range of motions of hand,

muscle tone, found in children with physical deficits like cerebral

palsy)

Cultural factors (language or script)

Environmental factors (desk’s height, proper seating, relation to

board/instructor etc.)

Factors affecting handwriting

There are few factors that affect handwriting. The factors are listed as

follows:

Cognitive factor (low-intellectual functioning, mental retardation)

Visual-perceptual skills (inability to recognize pictures, letters etc.,

common in children with learning disability)

Sensory issues (hypersensitivity/hyposensitivity toward touch, poor

control over proprioceptors, commonly found in children with

autism, dyspraxia etc.)

Visual skills (low vision or requirement of glasses)

Motor and physical factors (limited range of motions of hand,

muscle tone, found in children with physical deficits like cerebral

palsy)

Cultural factors (language or script)



7

Environmental factors (desk’s height, proper seating, relation to

board/instructor etc.)

*****


Preeti Jaiswal

8

3

Checklist to check child’s

progress

W

Following checklist shows you that when and what

skill you can expect from your child, and you can

refer it as a developmental checklist to check over

child’s progress.

1 to 2 years

As body balance improves, child is able to pick up toys from a

standing position

Paint with whole arm movements

Put rings on a peg

Turn two or three pages at a time

Scribble with all types of media

Finger paint: also use other media such as shaving cream and

pudding

Turn knobs

Ball play with small and large balls; start with rolling on the floor,

then gentle 2-handed tossing



9

2 to 3 years

Turn pages one by one

Hold crayon with thumb and fingers instead of fist, use broken

crayons to encourage this

Trace over vertical and horizontal lines and circles in a top-to-

bottom direction

Use multisensory materials to keep drawing and pre-writing

interesting, such as drawing in shaving cream, whipped cream,

pudding, hair gel, finger paint, sand etc.

Paint with wrist action, rather than whole arm movements, to make

strokes. Here, one can support child’s movement by holding his/her

forearm, when the forearm is supported by a table

Tear paper and make collage pictures

Snip edges of paper or around paper plates with scissors, try cutting

along a short line.

Roll, pound, squeeze and pull clay or putty

3 to 4 years

Throw and catch a ball

Drive pegs into holes

Draw crosses and circles in a top-to-bottom direction

Put lines together to draw people




Manipulate clay by making balls, snakes etc.

Play with wind-up toys

Construction toys such as duplos, bristle blocks (krinkles blocks)

and wooden blocks

Toy tools such as hammer and nails, screwdriver, nuts and bolts

Lacing boards

String medium and small-sized beads

Cut along wide lines with scissors and eventually cut around a circle

Fold paper for cutting snowflakes or paper airplanes (will need help)

Imitate drawing vertical and horizontal lines, circles and crosses


Preeti Jaiswal

10

4 to 5 years

Use scissors to cut out circles, triangles and square shapes

Copy crosses, squares and X’s in a top-to-bottom direction

Draw people, animals and objects




Use coloring books to color within the lines of the picture

Print a few capital letters

Practice writing first name

5 to 6 years

By the age of 6, a child has mastered the basic strokes needed to

form letters and numbers. Make sure he/she forms shapes, numbers

and letters in a top to bottom direction and from left to right.

Reinforce learning letters by making it a fun activity: Try rainbow

writing – retrace over strokes and letters in different colors of

crayons or chalk.

Use sidewalk chalk to write and draw.

Use stickers or stamps – child can connect them to form shapes,

letters or numbers.

Demonstrate how simple shapes can be put together to make

drawings of people, animals and objects.

*****



11

Get Complete Book At Educreation Store

www.educreation.in



Documents

Sample Copy. Not For Distribution. - Book Publishing House · PDF filechacha and chachi, ... x Sample Copy. Not For Distribution. xi Contents S.No Chapters Page ... (e.g. from left