I have worked with many parents who have been surprised to discover that their 9 or 10 year old couldn’t correctly write the alphabet. Once this has been covered in kindergarten/Year 1 you would expect that it would stick, right? For many children, it does, but for others there may be blockages preventing this from getting into their long-term memory.
Ask your child to write the alphabet, either in lower or upper case. If they make mistakes or can’t do it, don’t panic. There’s plenty of fun activities you can do together to master this.
1. Creating alphabet letters out of clay (you make a letter to model it and then ask your child to make it. It’s best to work on 2-3 letters at a time, and add to this over time). This is not only a lot of fun but it works on a whole lot of skills!
- Measurement – your child needs to work out how to get their clay letter the same size as yours (e.g by placing their letter over yours and adjusting as needed), and needs to line up the letters before cutting the length of clay to the right size
- Visual work – ask your child to check not only the size but the shape. When laying ot the letters it’s also a good way to teach your child about tall letters (like ‘t’) and letters with tails (like ‘y’) that need to sit on the line.
- Fine motor skills – rolling out, cutting and moulding the clay all works on fine motor skills
- Memory – once you have made 4-5 letters together, the next step is having your child touch and say the letters, then close their eyes while you mix up the letters. When they open their eyes, they try to put the letters back into the correct sequence. You can turn letters backwards or sit them incorrectly (eg a y sitting with the tail on the line) to make this more challenging and to sort out any reversals.
Eventually, the aim is to get to the point where your child can say the alphabet forwards AND BACKWARDS without looking (yes – it is possible!). This process could take weeks or longer, so don’t rush it and have fun!
