Handwriting: Tips & Tricks for Letter Spacing and Sizing
Letter sizing is a skill that should be refined over time as a child’s development grows.
Tips and Tricks:
- Use individual boxes for each letter:
- Having a box for each individual letter allows the child to have a “visual boundary” while writing
- If the child has limited experience manipulating a crayon or marker, they tend to use larger motor movements coming from the elbow or shoulder, instead of dynamic wrist movements
- By providing a box for each letter this will encourage them to begin refining their sizing (boxes should be 3”x3” for a novice writer decreasing as their fine motor control develops)
- Review tall/starting at plane or tallest line on writing paper, small/letters beginning at the midline of the writing paper, and falling/sinking letters going to the worm line of the writing paper:
- Using visual representations helps children to discriminate between the different line boundaries
- Falling letters example: these letters hang below the line like a monkey (g, j, p, q)
- Fundations writing paper: many schools use this paper as it coincides with Wilson’s reading program (sky, plane, grass, and worm line)
- Progress to large boxes for whole words:
- As letter sizing improves, offer the children rectangular boxes for them to size their words within a designated width
- It allows them to rely on their letter sizing judgement
- Provide a picture or sticker for reference:
- Draw or place a simple image or sticker (heart, star, frog, etc) as a visual starting point for the writer and visual feedback so they can see if their letter sizing matches the size of the visual aid
- you can begin each writing line with a verbal prompt, “Make your letters the same size as the star.”
- Ice cream writing paper: letters begin at the strawberry ice cream line, midline letters begin at the vanilla ice cream line, and sinking letters fall below the chocolate ice cream line
- Handwriting Without Tears paper examples:
- Shows wear letters should begin
- Use imagery to represent each line on the paper:
- Using visual and verbal prompts to explain to the child that the top line is the sky and the bottom line is the grass line (i.e. letter g grows down into the grass).
- Examples: skyline, plane line, grass line, worm line
- Use colored line:
- Color-coded lines to represent top, mid, and baselines and pair the visual cue with a verbal cue to support the child
- Size Matters Handwriting Program:
- Provides clear instructions, visual cues, magnetic manipulatives, and verbal language to support properly sized letters for all uppercase and lowercase letters
- This program comes with a student workbook, dice game, desktop stickers, letterbox stickers, activity books, and more
