Handwriting instruction is a vital part of our schooling. Writing skills include basic handwriting skills that have a specific learning hierarchy starting with the use of vertical lines to combining circular strokes with horizontal or diagonal lines.
The Lighthouse Project staff recognizes that the act of writing involves both cognitive and motor skills. The process of learning handwriting fosters letter recognition, word awareness, and sentence formation. Important areas to address include development of a well formed grip, wrist positioning and arm and shoulder placements. Desk and chairs or the use of sensory modalities are all set in place before positioning a child to write. All these interventions help decrease fatigues and increase focus and alertness.
Without appropriate interventions, children simply draw letters, but their efforts are not efficient or automatic. When the letter formation is not automatic, a child approaches the handwriting using an unsuccessful strategy by placing the energy in thinking about letter formation rather than using automatic and instinctive hand strokes. As a result, the child is robed from the free flow of imagination and the creation and expression of thought. Integration of the motor planning of letter formation makes writing an automatic rather than a cognitive act.
At the Lighthouse Project, our staff use the "Handwriting Without Tears" program. Our program is combined with sensory strategies to improve tactile and proprioceptive deficits, teach positioning of body and hand, and motor planning. It motivates the children to want to learn, and makes writing a fun experience. Children gain confidence and their fear of writing fads away.