The Initial Step in Teaching the Little One to Write

Reading, writing, and counting abilities are considered as skills that are unable to simply be mastered by the Little One. They have to go through several developmental phases until they are eventually able to read, write, and count.

When initially introducing the process of writing to the Little One, parents may feel that this is a very difficult thing for them to learn. The introduction of new things is not always easy. However, parents should not give up easily.

The key to training the writing ability of the Little One is patience and consistency. The process of learning to write should also be conducted in an enjoyable manner so that the Little One is not bored and does not easily forget what is already learned. This way, they will continue to remember it.

In this digital era, the Little One is often more adept at using gadgets compared to using their hands to write or draw. This does not close the possibility for the Little One to become lazy in learning to write, as they consider it to be more difficult compared to playing with their gadgets, with which they can easily process something just by a touch.

So, how should we stimulate the Little One in order for them to want to learn to write? Parents can implement the following tips:

• Make the study room of the Little One comfortable and enjoyable so that they feel at home in the room. Avoid giving them toys so that they can focus on studying.
• Provide stationeries that the Little One likes, such as books and pencils with their favourite cartoon character on it. They will then be more motivated to use those tools.
• Create a schedule to study routinely.
• Get accustomed to starting the learning process with casual conversations. This is helpful to stimulate the senses of the Little One. Furthermore, their vocabulary will also increase. Good communication abilities are a good foundation to learn to read and write.
• Start by holding a pencil correctly. Before the Little One learns to write, teach them how to hold a pencil correctly. If the way they hold it is already correct, they will feel comfortable to use the pencil on a paper.
• Thicken lines. Select a topic that the Little One is interested in. For instance, if they are very interested in animals, give them a book about various animals and ask them to thicken the images of the animals in it.
• Trace dotted lines. After they are able to thicken lines, present them with the next challenge, which is to trace dashed or dotted lines.
• Practice by starting with one letter. Ask the Little One to write just one letter in a sheet of paper. Repeat this step several times until they are able to write that one letter neatly. Then, continue with writing another letter, until they are able to do this for all the letters.
• Provide support and avoid patronizing. Do not get bored of providing support to the Little One. If they are tired, allow them to rest first before starting again.

Before starting to teach the Little One to write, parents can ask them to do activities that are related to the introduction of letters. These stimulations can be conducted to sharpen their linguistic intelligence. There are various creative stimulation ideas available in the Morinaga Multiple Intelligence Play Plan website, and parents can select those that are in accordance to the age of the Little One. By actively providing stimulations, parents are fully supporting the growth and development process of the Little One to proceed optimally.