Factors

Affecting
Writing
Competency

Fine Motor Skill

Fine motor skills involve the small muscles of the
body that enable such functions as writing,
grasping small objects, and fastening clothing
Fine motor skills involve strength, fine motor
control, and dexterity
Fine motor skills are important in most school
activities as well as in life in general

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 Weaknesses in fine motor skills can affect a child's

ability to eat, write legibly, use a computer, turn
pages in a book, and perform personal care tasks
such as dressing and grooming.

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Activities for Fine Motor Skill

1. Manipulation activities
Manipulating playdough: rolling it into small balls, long rolls etc.
Tearing paper into fine strips use them for collage or crumple them into
balls.
Screwing up whole pieces of newspaper in one hand at a time to develop
strength.
Threading beads or macaroni onto string.
Cutting out with scissors, using the correct grip.
Manipulating clothes pegs to pick up small objects.

2. Sensory activities
Finger painting or manipulating other liquids with
the fingers and hands e.g. slushy mud, tomato
sauce (ketchup) on a plate
2.2 Picking up small objects with the fingers, like
pegboard pegs, rice grains etc.

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3. Activities to develop stability

3.1 Wheelbarrow walking, crab walking,

hanging on playground apparatus to develop
strength of the upper body.
3.2 Working on a vertical surface such as a
blackboard or easel which requires the wrist to be
bent back is good for developing fine motor skills

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Other Activities

tying shoes
zipping and unzipping
buckling and unbuckling
writing legibly and without significant muscle fatigue
playing games that require precise hand and finger control
drawing, painting, and coloring
manipulating buttons and snaps putting small objects together
doing puzzles making crafts using scissors
manipulating small objects such as coins

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Visual-Motor Coordination
the coordination of the body's visual and motor
systems, as occurs when somebody reaches out
for something that is being looked at
the ability to coordinate vision with the movements
of the body or parts of the
body

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Activities
Spacing

1. Have student write on graph paper, one letter per box and one box between
words.
2. Have student insert a colored line or highlighter dot between words.
3. If using the index finger of the non-dominant hand isn't successful, try making
a spacer with a Popsicle stick or tongue depressor. Making these spacers could be
a classroom or home activity in which the students decorate and/or name their
spacer.
4. Place dots between words with a pencil, then erase the dots.
5. Teach student to review their own work to determine if there are spaces between
the words. If they don't have spaces they can use a highlighter to add them.
6. Some students respond better to concrete instruction such as, "Move your
pencil over before you start the next word."
7. Highlight right margin if student crams words on right side of paper rather
than dropping down to next line.

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 Visual Tracking

Ball activities
2. Large chalkboard drawings: make roads for small vehicles to drive on
incorporate writing with favorite stops, such as "M" for McDonald's, "W" for
Walmart, or the whole word)) then progressing to fine tasks (connect the dots,
mazes, etc).
3. Use tracing paper to trace and color simple pictures.
4. Flashlight chases, starting on the floor lying on your backs and having the
child chase your flashlight beam with his/hers. Lying down aids in keeping the
head still and is easier.
5. Have student go through a page of print (according to reading level) and
circle all the a's, etc.

 Visual Memory

Letters made from glue, glue/sand, or puff/fabric paint. Add food coloring to a bottle of
paint/glue (not the washable kind). Stir and keep bottle upside down overnight to mix well.
Write the letter on an index card with a pencil and have child squeeze bottle to form the letter,
making sure the letter is formed properly. When the glue/paint dries, it forms a raised letter for
tactile input. Have child trace the raised letter 3x with index finger of dominant hand.
2. Use glue to write letters on wax paper or glass, let dry and peel off letter. Can add sand
and/or color.
3. Write in sand, putty, pudding, on carpet squares, etc.
4. Wikki Stix over letters written on index cards. Can also form letters out of wikki sticks, putty,
by moving body parts into "letter shape", etc.
5. Write letters on index card with black marker. Make a green dot with marker as starting
point and red dot as stopping point for letter. Then put a thin layer of glue over the letter and
dry overnight.
6. When using classroom triple-lined paper, highlight bottom and dotted middle lines. Top line
is where capitals and tall lowercase letters begin.

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 Reversal

1. Check to see if child has L/R discrimination on self, others and in space.
2. Use HWT method of small chalkboard with boundaries and beginning under
smiley face (placed in top left-hand corner of board frame).
3. Develop consistent use of left to right direction using a variety of media.
4. Bilateral integration activities.
6. For the letters "a, d, g, and q" and the number "9," I cue the child to use "c up
down" as the method of forming these letters. For the number "3" the cue that
seems to work is: "around the tree, around the tree".

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Perception
Visual Perception is the ability to interpret, analyze
and give meaning to what is seen.
Although most children develop the ability to focus
visually and to make fine discriminations in visual
images as they grow, some children will take
longer to develop these skills and may need some
additional help, or additional practice

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Perception Problems

Difficulty distinguishing between similar forms, for example, circle/oval, square/rectangle.

Confuses similar letter symbols, for example, u/v; r/n; p/q/g.
Reverses letters and numbers, for example, b/d.
Difficulty classifying things (struggles to see similarities and differences).
Misreads words, substitutes words or omits words when reading.
Looses his place when copying from the board.
Difficulty looking up words in a dictionary or places on a map.
Difficulty drawing a straight line between two boundaries.
Poor grasp of spatial terms, for example, in, out, over, in between, below.
Poor judgment of spacing in writing.
Slow motor speed in writing.
Reads from right to left, for example, mad for dam, tap for pat.
Confused with the order of vowels in words, for example, oa/ao, ou/uo
Poor drawing skills (parts may be scattered or have incorrect orientation)
Difficulty telling a story in the correct sequence

Perception Activities

1. Make a scrap book with a page for each colour. Let your child cut out pictures of objects of
various shades from old magazines and paste them on the appropriate pages.
2. Discuss and draw various shapes for your child to identify. Look for objects of similar shapes in
your environment.
3. Using construction blocks, press a few together and ask your child to copy the colour sequence.
4. While looking at a picture in a story book, say, I see something that is blue, brown and red. Ask
your child to identify what you are looking at.
5. Draw an incomplete figure and ask your child to complete it. Adapt your drawing to match her
ability.
6. Find a picture book with busy pictures. Ask your child to look at the picture for a while, then
close the book and tell you about the picture.
7. Talk about the use of colours in society red fire trucks, warning signs and danger signs,
colours of police vehicles, ambulances, traffic lights etc.
8. Let your child complete dot-to-dot pictures
9. Let your child match socks while you sort and fold your clean laundry.
10. Place five small objects on a table in front of your child. Ask her to look away while you remove
one and replace it with another object. She must tell you which one you removed.

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