Handwriting: Sizing and Spatial Awareness

Today, in our overview of handwriting for kids, we’ll focus on letter sizing, and we have another great printable writing prompt for your kiddos!

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Today, we’re going to turn the focus to letter sizing.  Do you have a little one who, when given a blank page to write his name, will cover the entire space with huge, giant letters?  Maybe your kiddo is on the opposite end of things, leaning in close and making teeny, tiny little letters.  Or maybe she can’t maintain consistent sizing as she writes – making some letters huge and others small.

These kids are struggling with spatial awareness – a common problem among new little writers.  They don’t have a natural sense for how to make their letters just the right size to fit the space in which they’re writing.

This is developmentally appropriate for preschoolers who are just experimenting with writing their names and other letters.  And as kids move through kindergarten, they’ll start honing this skill and learning how to use the lines on the page to guide the size of their writing..

Not to worry.  There are some easy little tricks and strategies you can use to help kids improve their spatial awareness and to improve the sizing and overall appearance of their writing.

Tips for Improving Letter Sizing

-Try this Handwriting Quick Tip, one of my favorite ways to bring attention and awareness to the sizes of the lowercase letters by teaching them in groups.  This is great for both kids who make their letters too large, and kids who make tiny little letters.

–Provide a visual and tactile cue by cutting a long rectangular “window” (the same width as the writing lines on the page) out of a strip of cardboard and placing on top of the space where the child should write.  The window provides a boundary for the child to bump into with his pencil as he writes.  It also provides a clear visual boundary, showing the child how big his letters should be.

–Handwriting paper with raised lines  – Another great tactile cue for kids who tend to make their letters too big.

-Sometimes, simple visual boundaries drawn on the page work best.  Start with boxes for individual letters and gradually move to boxes to contain words and then sentences.  Almost all younger kids who are learning to write need some kind of visual definition and boundary to show them how to properly size their letters.  Worksheets with big, blank spaces aren’t the best for kids who struggle with sizing and spatial awareness.