Conducted over a two-week period, the Curriculum Development Study, led by Professor Jane Medwell of the University of Nottingham, involved exercises with a team of seven early years’ teachers, two university lecturers, and 69 parents to understand the status of handwriting education at home and at school among children 3-5 years old.

The in-depth study unearthed a broad range of insights, including the fact that handwriting is not prioritised in the classroom or at home, with teachers and parents focused on a range of different reading and maths related tasks. This unique research was designed to help reverse the current trend. Since handwriting is considered a fundamental learning tool, leading academics warn that the skill must be given renewed focus.

As part of our ongoing research for the Write Your Future Campaign, we have been working closely with Professor Jane Medwell, a leading academic in the field of handwriting and literacy. Here, Professor Medwell shares some of her thoughts and insights on her most recent research project, a study on mark making and letter formation in 3-5 year olds.

Having spent much of the last 10 years studying the link between efficient handwriting and effective writing and learning, I have long-believed that children’s handwriting deserves greater attention than has been the case to date. I began my career as a primary teacher and have seen first-hand the importance of setting strong foundations in early-years settings, so I was keen to explore further how teachers and parents might help their very young children in the beginnings of handwriting. I was therefore delighted to be invited by Berol and Paper Mate to partner on the Write Your Future campaign. Its aims to champion handwriting as an essential foundation for learning provided the perfect opportunity for me to continue my research in this area.

After being commissioned by the campaign to conduct a new study, we set out to understand how mark making activities could be improved by working with seven Early Years Foundation Stage (age 3-5) teachers. It was notable, if not surprising, to see the enthusiasm of these expert practitioners when given the opportunity to learn from each other and refine and hone their approach. It was also critical that we were able to get the views and input of parents as so much learning in these early years takes place outside of the classroom.

In the initial stage our teachers audited their setting’s mark making and letter formation activities for two weeks and interviewed a sample of parents about home mark making. They then tried out some new techniques suggested by colleagues and evaluated the impact on children and families.

“Teachers felt that parents were cautious in writing with children and got much more explicit guidance from schools about reading.”

A few issues became clear:

Mark making and early writing (MMEW) had a lower profile than reading and maths in school and with parents.

All the teachers felt that more was expected of them than had been in the past in terms of preparing children to be confident writers at an ever-earlier age.

Teachers felt that parents were cautious in writing with children and got much more explicit guidance from schools about reading.

Parents of all backgrounds were struggling to know how they should approach mark making with their children.

Our teachers then set out to develop and try a range of new strategies and activities to engage children playfully in MMEW. One such activity has been described below.

Many parents were unsure what early “writing” involved and… some seemed to wish to avoid messy activities. A Learn to Write morning was held and attended by up to 30 parents. The focus was for parents to SEE the activities that counted as MMEW, to understand where MMEW started, to participate in non-threatening ways and to collect information so they could try activities at home.

The teacher arranged activities including: forming letters with playdough, painting with cotton buds, using coloured ice cubes to make marks, painting food colouring on bread and toasting it, etc. Each activity had a “How to …” sheet for parents to take away. Teachers and assistants were deployed to explain why the activities were important for the children’s MMEW development. Staff explained that MMEW begins with activities like babies drawing shapes and spirals in their food. The follow up included all children taking home small pots of treacle or cornflour for messy play at home.

Outcomes

Teachers and parents are encouraged to ensure that children do more, earlier, and this also applies to MMEW. However, this can also create a nervousness about doing the wrong thing. Giving teachers the opportunity to take a step back and focus on handwriting led to some simple but impactful ways to make a difference. This was perhaps one of the most striking aspects of our study.

In particular, we found that improving the dialogue between parents and teachers is critical in increasing engagement and driving improvements in mark making and early writing.

There was consensus that handwriting is currently less likely to result in parental engagement than reading or maths. Whilst there is a reasonable level of comfort amongst parents around the teaching of phonics, more attention needs to be given to what a good start to writing looks like at home and in school.

Our study has led us to a number of key principles:

MMEW is for all children and all parents.

MMEW demands awareness of and attention to literacy in schools and homes.

The earliest steps in MMEW must not be overlooked or avoided.

Effective MMEW involves all children undertaking sensory, motor and literacy writing activity.

The adult role in inducting children to MMEW is crucial, with the need for parental input.

Teachers have a key role to play in keeping MMEW at the front of parents’ and children’s minds.

Ongoing dialogue between parents and teachers is key to finding the simple, but effective ways to engage children.

Yet this does not need to be complicated. We found that it was often the simplest things which stimulated practice amongst young children in the most fun and effective ways.

Emma Edwards is a trained Primary School Teacher turned Stay At Home Mum to four-yearold Adam. She writes at Adventures and Play about simple play activities, crafts and learning opportunities for children of all ages. Visit Emma’s blog here: Adventures and Play.

“Handwriting is a topic that usually sees people divided into two camps. Either we should only teach children to touch type, or joined up handwriting is a fundamental life skill. In my view it does not need to be an either/or decision. Although electronic devices have added an element of convenience to the writing process, handwriting is more than just forming letters on a piece of paper.

Handwriting supports the development of cognitive skills. Our brains are activated in different ways when we are physically writing than when we are just pressing keys. By using our motor skills during the writing process, information is more likely to be retained in the long term. Handwriting coordinates the two parts of the brain and you are more likely to be creative with that information.

“Handwriting supports the development of cognitive skills. Our brains are activated in different ways when we are physically writing than when we are just pressing keys.”

Sadly, research conducted by Berol and Paper Mate shows that handwriting standards are getting worse. However, as a result of that research, they have teamed up with Twinkl, an independent resource for teacher materials, to devise new, fun and engaging handwriting resources as part of the Write Your Future campaign. These resources are designed for both school and home use so that “every child should be able to enjoy the learning benefits of handwriting in order to ‘write their future.’”

If you make handwriting enjoyable from the start, children are more likely to see themselves as writers. If the physical process of writing is unpleasant, this will impact the whole process including composition and spelling. As a primary school teacher and a mother I wanted to put the new resources to the test. I wanted to see if they were easy to use, could improve handwriting skills and most importantly, if they were fun to use.

In school these new resources will make a whole school handwriting policy easier to follow. To ensure consistency, a similar format is used throughout all of the resources. Both looped and non-looped resources are available for both Key Stage One and Two. I believe the resources will save valuable time when preparing for handwriting lessons. In an era when handwriting is pressured by other curriculum demands, it is important that the resources are easy to manage and effective in teaching handwriting skills.

I believe these resources will help parents and teachers alike and I was therefore particularly interested in the research results that discussed parental involvement and handwriting. Although 94% of parents considered handwriting skills an important part of their child’s learning it would appear that for many parents, they simply lack the time and knowledge to provide handwriting support at home. 60% of teachers believe that having parental support would help them teach handwriting more effectively in class but a third of children do not receive support with writing from parents at home. As a teacher and as a parent of a four-year-old child who has just started his primary school education I can see both viewpoints.

As parents we are asked to help our children practise handwriting with little or no direction about how to form the letters accurately. Training needs to be given to parents to ensure they are confident to support handwriting at home. These new resources help bridge that gap. The materials demonstrate the correct posture and grip needed to write, as well as how to correctly form and join letters.

I tried out the new Write Your Future resources at home with my four-year-old son. Each resource was easy to download and I could then select which items I wanted to print. I focused my attention to the two pre-handwriting resources suitable for his age range.

The Pre-Writing Colouring Sheets are used to motivate children to practise using a range of different fine motor skills through the colouring scaffolds. My son used a variety of different media including coloured pencils, felt tip pens, pastels, chalks and wax crayons to experiment and explore a range of different grips. He then used scissors to cut out his masterpieces and created stick puppets with the colouring sheets. He had a great sense of satisfaction in seeing a purpose to his colouring in and enjoyed using the stick puppets within his role play. The activity worked on developing and strengthening hand muscles, body position and fine motor skills - all prerequisite skills for handwriting. Working on strength rather than letter formation in the early stages can eliminate the possibility of incorrect pencil grasp.

The Pencil Control Activity Sheets helped my son develop pencil control pressure, placement and directionality through tracing over the loops, lines, circles and zig-zag patterns. We followed the additional guidance which recommended warming up exercises - something that my son thoroughly enjoyed and helped him focus on his pencil control. We laminated the sheets so he can return to the activity time and time again with a whiteboard pen. The worksheets helped guide my son’s hands through the basic lines and shapes needed to create any letter in the alphabet. He enjoyed seeing his own improvement over time which gave him additional incentive to keep practising to improve further.

We also explored the Letter Join Activity Sheets suitable for Key Stage One pupils. These are available in looped and non-looped format. I downloaded the non-looped resources as this was in line with my son’s school handwriting policy. The sheets use the ‘ground grass sky’ visual guide. The sheets are free of graphics, to reduce distraction from the task at hand. Each stage gave him a scaffold to work with - first writing inside the letters, then over a shadow outline before finally practising his own independent letter joins. My son liked having the visual guidance and enjoyed the repetition. Again, seeing his own improvement when looking back at previous activity sheets motivated him to practice more. After working through the sheets for a short period of time my son has not only developed the skills necessary to form his letters correctly, but he is also able to transfer these skills to his independent writing.

The Write Your Future website not only has resources to download but is also a useful place for parents and teachers to find top tips to help them overcome common obstacles when trying to motivate children to write.

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The Write Your Future White Paper, written by Jane Medwell, University of Nottingham and David Wray, University of Warwick, analyses and reviews existing literature to highlight the clear academic evidence that handwriting is an essential foundation for children’s learning.

These activity sheets include a full range of different two letter joins. They start off with simple copy writing of the two letter joins then move on to looking at mainly National Curriculum spellings which use the joins. Finally, the children are asked to find their own spellings which include the two letters.

These activity sheets include a full range of different two letter joins. They start off with simple copy writing of the two letter joins then move on to looking at mainly National Curriculum spellings which use the joins. Finally, the children are asked to find their own spellings which include the two letters.

These activity sheets include a full range of different two letter joins. They start off with simple copy writing of the two letter joins then move on to looking at mainly National Curriculum spellings which use the joins. Finally, the children are asked to find their own spellings which include the two letters.

These activity sheets include a full range of different two letter joins. They start off with simple copy writing of the two letter joins then move on to looking at mainly National Curriculum spellings which use the joins. Finally, the children are asked to find their own spellings which include the two letters.