Writing
To make writing easier for children later on, they need to experience two things:
1) The pleasure of writing - to make lists, notes, communicate feelings and ideas, label things, organize information, and tell stories. By writing with children and for children - every day - we nurture their willingness to write later on.
This is Gloria telling us her story about her little sister. Gloria has dyslexia and cannot read or spell very well at the word level yet, however she can absolutely dictate a story to me and read it back to me. This keeps her motivated to want to learn to write stories herself.
Also, let them see you write! Write notes to them, write messages, write lists, write poems, write stories...show them writing is fun!
2) The mechanics of writing - that words we speak are made up of individual sounds (phonemic awareness), and that these sounds can be printed to form words. Learning how to print letters begins with lots of drawing and scribbling. And tracing.
Printing Letters
Kovack, M. (2019, March 7). Gloria and Flip Books. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NibbaBY-EmY
When I work with children who struggle to connect the sounds in words to letters, I usually find success when having them "trace" big huge letters (perhaps using masking tape on the floor or door, or chalk on the pavement outside) using their first two fingers. Tracing on a rough surface is helpful. They can also trace on the "alphabet-on-a-string" letters. Letters always start at either the top or the middle line (except lowercase e).
Along with tracing the letters, it is very effective if children are encouraged to trace 3 times and:
1) Say the letter name (e.g., "j")
2) Say a "keyword" that begins with that letter (e.g., "jump")
3) Say the sound of the letter (e.g., /j/)
To talk about letters, I have found it helpful to divide them up into 4 groups: "tall sticks", "short sticks", "arounders", and "sliders".
Can you guess which letter belongs in which group?
The Paessel Family/Flickr, CC BY (2019). Retrieved from http://thespoke.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/can-learn-childrens-drawings/
Ha-Ha! Sometimes we may even have to resort to chocolate pudding!