how are you 3.5/almost 4 yo LO's writing skills?

KathrynMD · September 2012

DD will be 4 in December. I know all kids develop at their own pace, etc., but she's generally been ahead of the curve (with everything except height!). She colors, but rarely makes anything other than scribble (or a rainbow as she calls it!). I've noticed several of her friends can make a decent stick figure person (identifiable to others) and/or their name.

My DD can't do anything like that at all - she can spell her name, recognize the letters, etc. and can make something sort of like the first letter w/ prompting, but not the whole name at all. Her fine motor skills are good (I think?) but she's just not interested in writing like that. I'm wondering if I should be working on this more w/ her at home (she's in preschool/daycare) and/or if my friends kids are just outliers - significantly ahead in this area.

ridesbuttons · September 2012

Pathetic. My 5 year old DS hasn't even settled on hand dominance yet (though he is clearly right handed for throwing, etc., and clearly right footed as well). My 3.5 your old is definitely left handed and does as good a job as his big brother. Having said that, they both are pretty terrible.

auburnbride2be · September 2012

DD has been in daycare since she was about 9 months old and she is in PreK now. She turned 4 in July. She is doing really well with her writing, but I think that is due to the work she's done with it in Preschool/daycare. She can write her name, write most of the letters upper and lowercase, etc. She does draw more elaborate pictures than some of the kids in her class. She does stick figures with bodies and different "scenes". I wouldn't compare your child to other kids though. It sounds like she's doing fine. I think the teachers would let you know if they thought something wasn't right.

NicoleWI · September 2012

My DD is awesome with knowing and recognizing letters and sounds, but she can't/won't write at all. (I've tried to practice sporadically and she only just started to show a TINY Bit of interest recently). I'm thinking it will come now that she's in preschool. She's been home and the nanny never works on that stuff with her.

I really don't think it's "behind" not to be able to write letters and I'm sure it's fine and your daughter will pick up those skills very soon. We used to not even TRY to start those things until 5K! The base skills (interest in books, social skills, etc) that she sounds like she has are surely more important.

My DD turns 4 at the end of January.

74dragonfly · September 2012

My DD can't draw figure or her name. I'm not worried because like your DD she knows letters, colors, etc

brewcitybride · September 2012

Don't sweat it. All kids develop these skills on their own, and then they work on it in 4k and kindergarten. This isn't something you should be worried about right now!

AgrippaRidesAgain · September 2012

Last November, when DS was 3.5, we took him in to Child Find to have some testing done for unrelated things. They did a full developmental test. At the time, he couldn't write any letters and still scribbled instead of drawing pictures. He passed the fine motor skills section with flying colors.

macchiatto · September 2012

Alex was in private OT since 2y10m and also OT through the school system since he turned 3. He was recently discharged from both since he's supposedly on track now with fine motor. He can draw a circle, a plus sign ("down and over"), and he can sort of imitate an A. A few times he's imitated all the letters in his name. We've just started working on tracing shapes, lines and letters. He has only recently started getting into representational drawing though he still does a lot of scribbling as well.

Will has never received services. He can draw a circle and a plus sign and trace a little, but hasn't yet really gotten into the other things I mentioned that Alex can now do.

JoannaJes · September 2012

His writing skills are pretty much nonexistent. He balks if I try to entice him into writing anything. So we let it lie.

wawa84 · September 2012

I teach a 3yo preschool class, and the abilities are incredibly varied. Some kids can write their name can't write one letter. I wouldn't be too worried. DS doesn't recognize all his letters or numbers, but he does draw stick figures and is pretty good with his name, though not perfect.

If it i'd something that you would like to work on with her then I suggest getting some lined paper for PK. You know, the ones with the HUGE lines to write on. Start out by writing her name or whatever letters you want to focus on. You can have her trace your writing. When she gets the idea move on to dotting the letters instead of writing a solid line, and have her trace that. After she grasps that you can have her copy her name.

Court0026 · September 2012

MY DS can write. He has been writing (uppercase letters, words, etc.) for a very long time...about since turning 3. However, he cannot draw, cannot write lowercase letters, has a wicked grasp, cannot cut, scribbles, etc. I am not sure how he got as far as he did. In his 3 year old class last year, he was the only one who could write his name as far as I could tell.

mrsseguin · September 2012

DS will be 4 in November. He knows his colors. He can recognize about 10 letters. He likes to draw, he scribbles, the only things he can draw is a circle. We haven't really worked on writing at all...I guess I should start eh?

mavs_girl07 · September 2012

Yeah, I think this is just another thing that totally depends on how much they work on it. DD is pretty good with her writing skills. She can write her name, along with most of the letters of the alphabet (uppercase). She can draw a smiley face and other basic pictures like a spider, a flower, etc. BUT this is her second year of preschool and they do lots and lots of writing practice. Every day they do multiple activities involving writing letters and numbers.

jnksmom · September 2012

DD can write her name, most uppercase letters, and some lowercase letters. When she draws people they have no body but the arms and legs are drawn from the head.

It depends on the child and I would try not to compare her to other kids. DD is 17 months younger than DS and she writes her name better than DS writes his. She is more interested in trying and really wants to do it.

https://www.handwritingworksheets.com/

This website will let you print any letters/words on the lines for your DD to practice if you want to work on it at home. I did this for DD and it really helped her.

sunnyday016 · September 2012

She can make the letter O and attempts an S. But other than that, nope! She can draw stick figures but I have to prompt her and tell her to draw the legs, arms, head, body. If she draws a person on her own, it's a scribble.

Littlejen22 · September 2012

My DD will also be 4 in December and just started preschool last week, I am a SAHM and she was never in daycare. She can write her name without help, the DD are funny looking and capital while other letters are lowercase but I never showed her how to do it, I only sang her how to spell it and she took it from there. She can prett much write all the letters. And she makes stick figures all the time with zero encouragement from us huge round head, big round eyes, huge upside down "U" shaped eyebrows, arms and lets sticking out of our huge heads and one line hands and feet on the end. Sometimes we get ears. And she makes one heck of a funny, um, I mean cute, dog that looks more like fish bones with a person stick figure head and no eyebrows.

DD's stick figures are disproportionate but jast as detailed as my 5yo DS. DS was way more advanced with his writing and sounding out letters at this age but he started school exactly on year younger than her.

FWIW DS is in Kindergarten and his homework was basically the letter M and S and involves figuring out the sounds and recognizing it in words and praying writing them. He is way advanced in reading and the homework is a joke but I am glad to finally have a reason to fix his writing because the last time I tried to tell him how to make a proper letter he told me he would never write an "e" again.

ss+el · September 2012

DS can write his name (well NICK), but generally only the N and I are truly recognizable, the C is usually facing down and the K looks like a stick with a bunch of legs. He can also write MOM Angel

As for drawing objects, forget about it. He is finally showing an interest in coloring different spaces in a picture different colors instead of just scribbling across it, though.

I'm not really concerned, though I did get him a dry erase letter tracing book (Crayola). I figure he'll eventually show some interest in it.

ncbelle · September 2012

Callum has just started writing some letters and really hasn't been interested in drawing at all until the last few months - definitely no stick figures yet!

It's not something we've been really trying to get him to do though. I'm just happy he'll scribble - he has good motor skills but was very hesitant about drawing for some reason.

Jen&Len · September 2012

DS can write his name and I think most of the letters, but I think he does it mostly by drawing the letter, if that makes sense. I guess that is technically what writing is, but he doesn't really have a sense of where the letters should go. so he'll start on the right hand side of the page, write the first two letters of his name and realize he has no more room and will move over to the left hand side to finish it up. In terms of drawing, he can do stick figures (with the arms and legs coming out of the head), rainbow and I think once he sort of did a car. But he was never really that interested in drawing. His cousin, who is the same age, draws remarkably well...probably better than I can.

Harper'smom · September 2012

She can write an H (first letter of her name) very well. When I show her other letters she turns into a sassy pants. Since she has picked this as one of her one zillion triggers I'm leaving it alone and to her pre-school to work on. She can draw stick figure and other things look more recognizable now. She did well with connect the dots this past weekend, it was the first time with that.

lowkeybride2be · September 2012

She might have issues with her small motor skills. I did at that age. In fact, I needed a handwriting tutor in 1st grade at the same time that I was reading at a 6th grade level. I wouldn't worry about it. It doesn't point to any cognitive deficiencies. I don't recall the tutor being particularly helpful, but you can try that. I found some local tutors who are well-versed in the handwriting without tears curriculum in case our 3 yo needs the extra help (as I'm sure he will). BTW, I still write poorly. I can't draw, either. Thank goodness for typing! My husband and I both had problems with our small motor skills, so I think our sons are doomed in that regard. But we both managed to excel academically all the way through graduate school. In my profession, few of us seem to have decent handwriting.

Mrs.RockyM · September 2012

While your LO is almost 4, I think you have to keep in mind that since you're in MD and the cutoff age for the school year is September 1st, she's bascially in the same boat academics wise as the younger 3 year olds. DD is 3 1/2 with a March Birthday so she just entered the pre-k 3 class at her school. She knows the alphabet, can count up to 15 (successfully 95% of the time) and up to 20 with less accuracy and knows how to spell her name, but doesn't know how to write/identify any of the letters (aside from S), what sounds they make, or how to write/identify numbers. her pictures consist of circles with eyes as people, and yet when she colors for the most part it's close to the lines. I think you're in the same area as me, and DD is considered advanced in her school. I think your LO is fine. Different kids have different strengths.

brewcitybride · September 2012

DH is an educator, was a kindergarten teacher, then an 8th grade teacher, now in administration. He said at age 3 or 4 that writing skills aren't prevalent in most children. They should know the alphabet and start to begin to color/draw shapes and things, but that it's totally normal at this age to have virtually no writing skills. It comes in time, during 4k and kindergarten!

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