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Instant Results With Multi Sensory Strategies For B And D Reversals

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b and d reversals

A common challenge for many children is letter b and d reversals. When kids first learn to write, is is very common for them to reverse letter b and d. Here, we are talking specific multisensory strategies to address reversal of these tricky letters.

Letter b and d reversals and multisensory strategies for teaching letter reversals.

b and d reversals

Letter b-d reversals are very common among children. We see these letters interchanged in reading, in writing, in isolation, and in words or sentences that contain both letters. But why are the letters b and d reversed so often?

Oh, those dreaded letter reversals and the need to change them, what to do, what to do, what to do.

Why are b and d reversals so common?

These two letters are the most commonly reversed letters, and it can even be a normal part of development.

It’s important to know that it is common for young children such as preschoolers and kindergartens to reverse some letters.  However, by age seven and at the latest age 8, children should be infrequently or not reversing letters at all. If they are doing it frequently and with little success despite remediation, you should consider testing to determine if there are other issues that need to be addressed first. 

If b and d letter reversal is an issue for a student consistently above the age of 8, a visual processing problem, or dyspraxia, dysgraphia or dyslexia may be present, impacting letter confusion in written work or reading.

Read about more information on dyslexia and occupational therapy.

How to Correct b and d letter reversals

Let’s go over various ways to help young learners by correcting letter b and letter d reversals. 

Children need to always be taught HOW to form letters, not given worksheets to trace and left to figure it out on their own as this just leads to them piecing letters together with no instruction in proper sequence or stroke direction.  

This is a PROBLEM! 

Lowercase b is formed from the top down with a vertical line. Then the round part of the letter is formed. Kids typically get that process. 

But then, lowercase d is introduced. Sometimes, children also form letter d from the top, down, by starting at the top of the line. They make the vertical line down because that motor plan is established. Then, they need to add the curved portion of lower case d and they have confusion about which way to go. That’s when you see a letter reversal. 

Part of the issue with common letter reversals like the b/d issue is that the motor plan for each letter isn’t established fully. This occurs in young children as they begin writing and learning correct letter formation. 

Another issue is that letters are not formed correctly (starting letter d at the top rather than forming the “c” part of the letter first. You can get a better understanding of letter formation in our blog post on how to teach letters and the order of letter formation.

Children need to be TAUGHT from the beginning how to form each letter with the correct start point, sequence, and stroke directionality. Repeated errors in formation only further reinforce reversals and leads to more difficulty with repairing them down the road.  Don’t allow repeated formation errors, but do seek to work toward good habits in formation.  

Multi-sensory strategies for b and d  Reversals

But if you need ideas to assist a child in repairing learned reversal behaviors, take a look at this varied list of ideas and pick what you think will work best for your children. 

Some intervention strategies will work better for one child while other strategies will work better for another, so always use the one that works best for each child.

Choose a multi-sensory activity and work on letter recognition as well as formation using visual cues, verbal cues (auditory cues), and kinesthetic input to practice lower case b and lower case d in isolation as well as together.

  • Ensure a child first has solid left and right discrimination on themselves, others, and in space. Incorporate visual spatial relations with movement. Understand that spatial awareness impacts handwriting in many ways. Letter reversals are just one aspect.
  • Teach letters in groups. For example, teach the letter that have similar stroke patterns.  Take a look at how the Learning without Tears™ program does this. For example, they call the first group the “magic ‘c’ letters” this includes: ‘c’, ‘a’, ‘d’, ‘g’, ‘o’, and ‘q’. They all begin with a letter ‘c’ stroke. Then they have a group called the “diver letters” and this group includes: ‘b’, ‘h’, ‘r’, ‘n’, ‘m’, and ‘p’. They all begin with a line down and then swim up and over strokes. Using this approach coupled with the visuals provided helps a child to build a better mental image of some commonly reversed letters. 
  • Connect a frequently reversed letter to another letter of the alphabet that is similarly formed and that the child never reverses, like letter c. Lower case c can be connected to lower case d in formation.
  • Use your finger and form the letter on a child’s back. Have the child guess what letter it is. Follow with having the child air write the letter. End with the child writing the letter on paper. You can place a textured material under the paper such as sandpaper, plastic canvas, window screen material, etc.
  • Create textured letter cards for letter d and letter b. Have child finger trace over the letter forming with correct sequence and directionality. Have them try to do so with their eyes closed and then their eyes open. This builds the motor plan and muscle memory of each letter for the child. 
  • Use the Handwriting without Tears materials to include a small chalkboard with boundaries and have child begin forming letters under the smiley face located in the top left corner. 
  • Mark all of the p’s and b’s red to show that the loop is formed on right (both red and right start with the letter ‘r’) and then mark all of the q’s and d’s green to show that the loop is formed on the left. 
  • Develop consistent use of left and right direction using a variety of media and intervention activities. 
  • Have child first trace a really large letter on the board, form the letter independently, write the letter with eyes closed, and write the letter with eyes open. This increases interest and provides increased feedback. 
  • If a child reverses multiple letters such as: b/d, m/w, p/q, u/n then be sure to address one discrimination at a time. Be sure one set is solid before moving to the next. Note: Be sure to over-teach one letter in each set before addressing the next letter in the set.
  • Use multisensory materials to teach letter formations such as play dough, shaving cream, wikki sticks, puffy paint, hair gel, glitter glue, rice, sand, and yarn.  Be sure the child associates letter forms with the actual letter name so as they form the letter have them state the letter name. 

Cognitive Cues to addressing b and d reversals

Use cognitive cues to help a child distinguish letters such as:

  1. The lowercase letter ‘b’ is formed like the uppercase letter ‘B’, but without the top loop.
  2. The lowercase letter ‘d’ is formed with the lowercase letter ‘c’ first and the lowercase letter ‘c’ comes before the letter ‘d’ in the alphabet.
  3. The lowercase letter ‘d’ is formed with the lowercase letter ‘c’ and then add a line to form the letter ‘d’.
  4. The uppercase letter ‘E’ faces the number 3. 
  5. For letters ‘a’, ‘d’, ‘g’, and ‘q’ and the number 9, cue the child to use “c up down” as the method to form these letters and this number. 
  6. Use the b e d image. Show children how the b starts the word bed and d ends the word bed. This can be a positioning imagery that helps with adding a visual to correct reversals.
  7. Use the imagery of lowercase d having a diaper and lowercase b as a ball and bat. This can be confusing for some children as the images can be reversed, but for other children, these images can be motivating. After all diapers can be funny for some kids. Other kids are motivated by the sport of baseball. In this case, it’s about using what motivates the child.
  8. For the number 3, cue the child to use “around the tree, around the tree”.
  9. Consider ‘b’ and ‘d’ eyeglasses formed with fingers (like o.k. signs with final three fingers closed and standing up straight) or draw a ‘b’ and ‘d’ headboard and footboard of a bed as a fun visual cue. This is the order they come in the alphabet as well, ‘b’ before ‘d’. 
  10. Consider using a thumbs down sign on both hands to refer to the letters ‘p’ and ‘q’ as this is how they come in the alphabet, ‘p’ before ‘q’.

Struggling readers may revers b and d when reading. And, studies have shown that children who made more errors in the letter writing task went on to become poorer readers.

In this case, continue to work on the multisensory strategies listed above, but also use some of these tips during reading tasks:

  • Show the student how to make a letter b with their left hand by pointing their index finger up and making the round part of the letter with their closed fist. They can then use their right hand to make a lowercase letter d by pointing their pointer finger up and making the round part of the letter d with their closed fist. Then, when reading, show the reader how to use their left hand to point to letter b and to use their right hand to point to the lower case letter d’s. They can do this throughout the reading passage.
  • Encourage the reader to correct sounds when they read a letter incorrectly. Go back and re-read the word and feel the positioning of their lips and tongue as they say the word with the correct letter. Ask them to repeat the sound of letter b and the sound of letter d. This auditory practice will help to instill writing the letters correctly. It’s all about repetition and handwriting practice.

How to correct b and d reversals

If a child is still reversing letters after the age of 8, or continues to reverse letters no matter the visuals or tricks that you’ve tried, try some of these strategies listed below to correct letter confusion: 

Offering visual cues can help!

  • Provide a model of frequently reversed letters on the desktop for the child to reference in the classroom.
  • Provide an index card with straight line down the middle and then write the letters on the card based on where the straight line is positioned within the letter. 

For example:

  b d p q

  • Provide visual cue cards for the desktop that has pictures of fun reminders such as hands for a pair of eyeglasses or a bed for the letters ‘b’ and ‘d’ or a thumbs down sign with both hands for the letters ‘p’ and ‘q’. 
  • Try multisensory activities like rainbow writing with different materials.

Take your time to teach the formation of letters and numbers as well as using a multi-sensory approach when teaching the letters. It will always pay off in the end for the child!  

letter reversal strategies Handout

Want a free PDF of multi-sensory letter reversal strategies? Enter your email address into the form below to access this printable handout. Use it in your handwriting toolbox to help kids write b & d!

Letter b and d Reversals Strategies

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    Regina Allen

    Regina Parsons-Allen is a school-based certified occupational therapy assistant. She has a pediatrics practice area of emphasis from the NBCOT. She graduated from the OTA program at Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute in Hudson, North Carolina with an A.A.S degree in occupational therapy assistant. She has been practicing occupational therapy in the same school district for 20 years. She loves her children, husband, OT, working with children and teaching Sunday school. She is passionate about engaging, empowering, and enabling children to reach their maximum potential in ALL of their occupations as well assuring them that God loves them!

    Fall Cootie Catcher Template

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    Fall fine motor cootie catcher template

    Working on handwriting with kids? This Fall cootie catcher template is a Fall writing prompt activity that builds fine motor skills. Just print off the cootie catcher templates, pick the one that works best to meet the needs of the child you are working with, and work on copying letters, words, and sentences. This cootie catcher PDF is a fun way to work on so many skills!

    Fall cootie catcher for a fine motor writing prompt activity

    We shared this Spring cootie catcher earlier this year and it was a huge hit, so this Fall themed printable will be loved as well.

    Add this printable activity to Fall fine motor activities and Fall writing prompts.

    What is a cootie catcher?

    A cootie catcher is a folded paper game that includes squares and triangles that can be opened to contain written words or pictures. Cootie catchers are often used as a paper fortune teller game. A cootie catcher is an form of origami that kids can make, using a cootie catcher template. Once they practice using the blank template, children can learn the motor plan to create paper fortune tellers on their own.

    In our case, we are using a cootie catcher as a fine motor tool for kids.

    This one in particular includes writing prompts to make handwriting skills motivating and engaging for kids, with a Fall theme.

    When you use this cootie catcher, kids can develop so many skills:

    • Bilateral coordination– When children fold paper, they use both hands together in a coordinated manner.
    • Hand strength– Pressing the paper into folded shapes requires strength in the hand to create a sharp crease.
    • Separation of the sides of the hand– Opening and closing the cootie catcher requires both hands to open and close at the thumb web space, and is a separation of the sides of the hand activity.
    • Arch development– Using fingers to fold paper develops arch development in the hand, which is needed for endurance in fine motor activities.
    • Finger isolation– Using a finger to fold and crease paper focuses on finger isolation, a dexterity skill in fine motor tasks.
    • Eye-hand coordination– Using the eyes and hands together to create and use the paper fortune teller develops and refines eye-hand coordination skills.
    • Letter formation– copy the words on the printable.
    • Spacing between letters and words– Copy the words and sentences and work on spatial awareness, letter formation, and legibility.
    • Letter size– Write words on the spaces on the blank template to work on fitting letters and words into the given space.

    And those skills are just developed with kids use and play with the cootie catcher!

    Cootie Catcher Template

    This Cootie catcher printable includes four templates.

    1. You’ll find a printable fortune teller template pdf with instructions to write a word, sentence, or number.
    2. Next is a cootie catcher with sentence writing prompts in a Fall theme.
    3. There is a cootie catcher with Fall images which kids can write the name of the image.
    4. Finally there is a blank cootie catcher template.

    This free printable cootie catcher worksheet is another Fall freebie in our Fall week.

    Be sure to grab the other Fall printables that work on various skills:

    Want to print off this free cootie catcher? Enter your email to the form below and you’ll receive this printable in your inbox.

    Fall Cootie Catcher Writing Prompts

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      Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

      Memory Card Games

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      memory card games

      Occupational therapy professionals know the benefit of using memory card games to build skills in therapy sessions. OTs love to use games in therapy sessions to address a variety areas in novel and fun ways…and kids love the gaming aspect of therapy!

      Memory card games as an occupational therapy activity to work on working memory, attention, concentration, spatial relations, visual motor skills, and handwriting.

      Memory Card Games in Occupational Therapy

      There are so many reasons to play memory games in OT! Areas like executive functioning skills, to working memory, attention, focus, to fine motor skills, visual motor skills, visual perceptual skills, and even handwriting can be improved through the use of memory card games.

      It would be easy to incorporate some handwriting games into a memory card activity.

      We’ve talked about using games in a variety of ways…today, we’re covering the use of a Memory Card Game to work on various skills in OT. Here’s why this simple game is such a powerful tool for impacting function:

      Memory games are a powerful way to work on sort term memory, working memory, and executive functioning skills such as attention organization planning prioritization organizational skills.

      Memory games are fun way for kids to work on short term memory and other skills that are beneficial for learning in the classroom and at home.

      When kids play memory they can work on holding short term information in their memory In their short term memory. This allows them to use visual attention and visual memory while they remember where pictures are located playing a classic memory game.

      Kids with other executive functioning issues me to be struggling with the same challenges in the classroom or at home. By playing a game such as memory kids can work on these executive functioning skills in a fun and low-key manner.

      When they play memory kids can work on prioritization such as choosing which card to pick first.

      When you play memory you pick a card and if you seen it before you you need to remember where you’ve seen that location of the card. This scale requires time management self-regulation and self-control. You don’t want to pick up the next card in a rush without thinking through your your process of where you saw that picture last.

      Memory card games can be used to address visual motor skills.

      Playing a game of memory can help with short term memory and retention of information as well. When kids need to recall where they saw a card in a previous play they need to think back and use their mental memory skills in order to recall where that card is located in the board. This visual component of working memory skills carries over to the classroom when kids need to remember to do it to do their homework or what skills have worked in the past in order to solve problems on tests or in situations of game or learning at school.

      A memory game also helps with multitasking and helping kids to stay and complete a task through to completion. All of these executive functioning skills are powerful skills to develop through play such as using a memory game.

      “Grading” Memory Card Games to Meet Different Needs

      When therapists add a toy or game to their “OT toolbox”, they need to use the material in a variety of ways to meet the needs of different levels of children and while addressing different skill areas.

      This refers to grading activities.

      Grading, in occupational therapy, means making an activity more or less challenging in order to meet the needs of the individual. This can also refer to changing an activity in the middle of the task, depending on how the client or child is responding. Grading is important when it comes to finding the “just right” amount of support or adaptations that need to be made to a task that challenge the client while also allowing them to feel good about doing the therapy intervention.

      If the activity is too easy, you would grade it up to make it a greater challenge.

      If the activity is too hard, you would grade it down to make it easier to accomplish a sub-goal or skillset, while also challenging those skills.

      Memory card games are a great tool to use to challenge a variety of skill levels and abilities.

      • You can help to boost skills by changing the number of matches that you are using in the memory card game. If a child who struggles with attention, focus, impulse control, visual perception, eye-hand coordination, or working memory, you might play the memory game with only two matches or four matches so that there are four or eight cards total on the playing board.
      • You can further adapt this game by giving clear and concise instructions or hints in other words. Try to help the child use their memory, attention, working memory, and recall skills by defining the match that they are looking for and details that are on that image. This can be accomplished by saying things like, “I’ve seen that card before. Have you?”
      • Work on turn taking skills for use in conversation and play with different modifications and adaptations based on the individual’s abilities and areas of development.
      • Another strategy to grade memory games is to ask the child to talk through their moves. This self-reflection can build self-confidence, and it’s a helpful way to remember where they seen a matching card before. And, this self-talk skill also translates over to functional tasks. When a child performs a task such as a chore or a homework assignment they can talk through the task at hand. This allows them to recall what they’ve learned and what’s been successful. They are able to use skills they’ve established in the past. Self talk skill is a great strategy for kids who both struggle with executive functioning skills and anyone in general.
      • Another modification to memory card games include offering visual cues or verbal cues of what the child has seen. You can support this by asking the child “Have you seen this picture already?” Ask them to recall what the image was near on the board and see if you can picture in your mind where that card is in relation to others on the board. This involves a spatial-relations component as well as other visual perceptual skills.
      • Finally it’s helpful to reduce distractions while playing memory game. Sometimes the aspect of attention is limited by other things happening around a child which can’t be addressed in a situation such as a classroom or a community situation however you can work on specific skills such as showing the child how to self regulate like taking a deep breath or preparing themselves before they make their move. This can help with over feelings of overwhelm and stress the kids sometimes get.

      How to play memory games in therapy

      When kids play memory they are playing the classic memory game that you’ve probably played in your childhood.

      1. The game uses matching cards which are placed facedown on the table.
      2. Players take turns selecting to picture cards they turned one over at a time and see if they’ve got a match. If they’ve got a match they can go again.
      3. If the player doesn’t have a match they turn the cards back over so they were they are facedown on the table.
      4. Then the next player goes. The second player selects two picture cards and turns them over one at a time. It’s important to turn the cards over one at a time because if you have a card because if the first card that is turned over is a card that you’ve seen before then you need to remember where that match is on the board. This aspect of playing the game of memory really works on attention focus and impulse control.
      5. Players continue finding the matches until all of the cards are selected.
      6. The player with the most number of matches wins the game.

      What’s missing Activity with memory cards

      “What’s missing” is also another great way to use a memory game to work on specific skills of executive functioning including the ones listed above.

      How to play what’s missing with Memory Cards

      1. To play what’s missing you would set out a spare set number of memory cards on the table face up.
      2. Then the player gets to look at the cards for a set amount of time.
      3. The player tries to memorize every card on the table.
      4. Then the player closes their eyes or looks away from the table while another player removes one or more cards.
      5. Then the first player looks back at the table and tries to recall and identify the missing images.

      What’s Missing games address a variety of visual perceptual skills, visual memory, visual attention, spatial relations, form constancy, and visual discrimination.

      This activity can be graded up or down in a variety of ways by adding more cards shortening the amount of time to look at the cards and remember the cards or to add more matches and to remove more or less cards. To make this harder you can have two all different cards or you can have matches and some without matches.

      Memory games in sensory bins

      Memory cards make a great addition to sensory bins. Children that especially enjoy specific themes can use memory card games in a variety of themes with specific characters or topics such as vehicles, princesses, sports, animals, ect.

      To use memory cards in sensory bins, you need just a few materials. This can include a dry sensory bin material, the memory cards, and possibly scoops, tweezers. Dry sensory bin materials include such as dry beans, rice, sand, shredded paper, etc. Then memory cards can be added to the sensory bin and hidden away, much like we hid sight word cards in this sight word sensory bin.

      Another bonus is then building and refining fine motor skills through the scooping and pouring of the sensory bin materials.

      In the sensory bin, children can look for the matching memory cards. This activity builds skills such as:

      • visual discrimination
      • form constancy
      • visual memory
      • attention
      • sensory tolerance through play
      • fine motor control
      • transferring skills
      • bilateral coordination
      • controlled movements
      • MORE

      Memory Card Games and Handwriting

      Therapists are often looking for short and functional means of working on handwriting skills through play. Memory games are a great way to address this need.

      With a memory card game, children can write down the matches that they’ve found when matching cards. The same is true when playing “what’s missing” games. They can write down the words of the images that they’ve found on the playing board. And, by writing down these words, they can then work on letter formation, letter size, spacing, and legibility. This occurs in a in a short list format that is motivating for kids.

      Yet another benefit of working on handwriting skills with a memory game is that children are excited to find matches. This excitement can translate to the handwriting portion. Kids will want to write more words because that means they are finding more matches. This is a very rewarding and positive way to work on handwriting skills, which can often times, be a challenge for kids.

      Memory Card Games for Therapy

      Memory cards are a powerful tool to add to a therapy toolbox! This is especially true if memory games are focused on an interest of the child. You will really enjoy a new series of themed memory cards with handwriting pages that I have coming to the website shop.

      First up is our Back to School Memory Game and List Writing Prompts!

      Back-to-School Memory Game and List Writing Prompts
      Back-to-School Memory Game and List Writing Prompts

      Work on attention, memory, focus, visual skills, executive functioning skills, visual perceptual skills, concentration and a variety of other skills. PLUS, the themed cards include handwriting pages with a variety of lined paper options.

      This Back-to-School resource is a great way to quickly assess your caseload for handwriting, coloring, cutting, motor skills, midline crossing, visual memory, visual perceptual skills, motor planning, executive functioning, and more. And, such a fun and motivating activity to quickly and informally reassess each child on your caseload at a “just right” level.

      This memory card activity can be printed off, laminated, and used again and again.

      Click here to add the Back-to-School Memory Game and List Writing Prompts resource to your therapy toolbox.

      Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

      Left Handed Writing Tips

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      left handed writing tips

      Handwriting for lefties is a common concern among parents and teachers who work with children who are left handed. Here, we are covering left handed writing tips to address common concerns with teaching left handed handwriting. Be sure to check out all of the handwriting resources here on the website.

      Left handed writing tips and tricks from an occupational therapist. Perfect for teaching a lefty to write.

      Left Handed Writing Tips

      I am use to working with the occasional left handed person but at the moment I have SIX left handers on my caseload. This motivated me to review some of the recent research on left handers and put together some tips on how to support left handed learners in the classroom.

      While most people believe that a person is left or right handed, there are many different types of handedness (1). True handedness When a person uses one hand for more than 70% of tasks this hand is considered their dominant hand. This means a child can still use their non-dominant hand for some tasks.

      Below are some common terms that come up when addressing left or right handedness, or the mixed use of hands in tasks. These are important terms to be aware of when it comes to using a set hand in handwriting tasks.

      Read this article on ambidexterity vs. mixed handedness for more information on these two concepts.

      Ambiguous handedness

      Ambiguous handedness refers to when a child changes from one hand to another hand during the performance of a task. This can be seen in younger children as hand dominance can become established anywhere between the ages of three years and five years.

      Mixed handedness

      Mixed handedness is the term for when a person uses either hand for a specific task. An example would be a left hander being able to use their left or right hand to use a computer mouse. Most left handers have some degree of mixed handedness.

      Ambidexterity

      Ambidexterity is the ability to use both hands equally well for all tasks. This is extremely rare and only 1% of the population are considered truly ambidextrous. Getting more information on ambidexterity will help to encourage hand dominance in children for functional use.

      Using the Left Hand in Handwriting

      So most of us in the world fall into either the right handed or left handed category. A recent worldwide study confirmed that 10.6% of the world’s population are left handed (2). Left handedness is found in more boys than girls and it appears to run in families. There has been much debate on the exact role that genetics have to play in establishing handedness.

      There seems to be a hereditary element but handedness does not appear to have a simple pattern of inheritance. Cultural and social factors have an important role to play in the development of handedness (3).

      Left Hand Dominance- Development

      Hand dominance can emerge anywhere from 14 months to three years and by the age of five most children have settled on a hand of preference for gross and fine motor tasks. In left handers this establishment of a dominant hand can take longer and there is also a greater tendency for them to use one hand for fine motor tasks and a different hand for gross motor tasks (4).

      One a more practical note left handers typically experience difficulties in a world that was designed for right handers. I had been aware of some of their struggles but was further enlightened when I went on a course a few years ago. The lecturer described how everyday tasks like handshakes and giving someone a hug could feel so unnatural for a left hander.

      In these instances left handers have to go against their natural instinct and reverse the hand that they would naturally use to shake some ones hand with or change the direction they would naturally step in to hug someone.

      Left Handed Writing Tips

      In the classroom there are a number of ways we can help left handers complete the tasks expected of them. Try these left handed writing tips and tricks to help your lefty use and hold a pencil when writing in the home or classroom so they can write at a functional level.

      1. Left handers should sit on the left hand side of the table if they are sharing a table or on the left side at the end of the row. This ensures there is no elbow bumping if they are sharing table space with a right handed person.
      2. Students who are left handed should be encouraged to tilt their page to the right when they are drawing or writing. The page can be tilted at 30-40 degrees clockwise. This allows them to have a clearer view of their work and prevents some of the smudging that typically happens when a leftie moves their hand across the page.
      3. Encouraging a left handed person to hold their pencil slightly further up the shaft of their pen or pencil will also assist in their ability to see their work and prevent smudging. A pencil grip or elastic band wrapped around their pencil can provide a guide of where to place their fingers when they start developing their pencil grip.
      4. I have found that working on an inclined surface can also be helpful for left handers. Slant boards prevent the flexed / hooked wrist that typically develops in left handers. Slant boards are commercially available or a lever arch file can be used to create an elevated surface.
      5. Use these toys and games to develop wrist stability to address a hooked or flexed wrist that commonly occurs during left handed writing.
      6. Directionality can be challenging as the natural inclination for left handers is to work from right to left. Place stickers in the top left hand corner of the page as a reminder to work from right to left.
      7. When copying words, number, letters or pictures ensure that the model /example is on the right side of the page. This prevents the left hander from covering the work that they need to copy with their left hand.
      8. Finger spaces are difficult for a left hander to incorporate when they develop their writing skills. I have found that using an ice-cream stick or strip of paper to mark out finger spaces can be helpful in the early stages of writing. We usually decorate our ice-cream stick or strip of paper with a stick figure who becomes Mr/Mrs Space.
      9. Additional advice regarding cursive writing for left handers can be found in the following blog on cursive handwriting for left handed students.
      10. Other products that may make a left handers life easier are left handed pencil sharpeners and a left handed computer mouse.
      11. For a comprehensive resource on teaching handwriting skills, use The Handwriting Book. This resource includes tips and strategies for all aspects of handwriting and the book breaks down each underlying skill that impacts functional handwriting skills.
      the handwriting book The OT Toolbox
      The Handwriting Book

      Left Handed Scissor Skills

      Using scissors can be another difficult task for left handed students. Try some of these tips to teach lefties to use scissors functionally.

      1. Left handed scissors are essential for left handed learners. The leading blade of left handed scissors is on the opposite side to that of right handed scissors making it much easier for the left handed person to line up the blade and the line they are cutting out. Ambidextrous scissors tend to be misleading as the lead blade has to be on the left or the right side.
      2. Left handers should be encouraged to cut to the left and in a clockwise direction. This enables them to comfortable feed the page with their right hand and ensures that they can see the line they are cutting throughout the task. For more information on cutting skills and additional advice for left handed cutting get the resource The Scissor Skills Book, a comprehensive guide on using and cutting with scissors.

      I hope some of these suggestions will be helpful for the left handers that are in your lives. The 13 th August marks World Left handed Day so take some time to acknowledge the left handers that you know and the adaptations they have had to make to fit into the very right handed world we live in.

      References

      1. Left hand Learning: Teaching the preschool and foundation phase learner (Workshop byTracy van der Merwe, 2008, Durban, South Africa).
      2. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-asymmetric-brain/202004/the-world-s-biggest-study-left-handedness
      3. McManus, Chris (2003) Right hand, left hand. Great Britain: Phoenix publisher. ISBN 978-0753813553
      4. Sara M Scharoun and Pamela J. Bryden – Hand preference, performance abilities, and hand selection in children. Frontiers in Psychology Published online 2014 Feb
        18. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00082

      Contributor to The OT Toolbox: Janet Potterton is an occupational therapist working predominantly in school-based settings and I love, love, love my job. I have two children (if you don’t count my husband!), two dogs, one cat, two guinea pigs and one fish. When I am not with my family or at work I try to spend time in nature. The beach is my happy place.

      Mermaid Sandcastle Activity

      by
      mermaid sandcastle

      Do you know kids that love all things mermaids? Or, are you heading to the beach this summer and want to add a sandcastle activity to your skill building? This mermaid sandcastle is going to be a hit this summer! Kids can decorate the mermaid and build a sandcastle in an interactive slide deck for therapy goals!

      Use this mermaid sandcastle activity to work on therapy skills- decorate a mermaid and a sandcastle and then complete the mermaid writing prompts and sandcastle writing prompts.

      Mermaid Sand Castle Activity

      Did you ever see a kiddo or little girl who loves all things mermaids? Using mermaid themes in therapy activities can be a fun way to engage kids in something that interest them like mermaids.

      In this interactive slide deck children can move the pieces to add accessories to create a decorated mermaid.

      This mermaid slide deck is mirrored off of our popular disguise a turkey slide deck from Thanksgiving and our fun decorate a gingerbread house from Christmas time. Both free slide decks were really popular during the pandemic when all therapy was virtual. Just like those interactive slides, this mermaid sandcastle activity allows kids the freedom of expression and creativity to decorate a mermaid and a sandcastle with movable pieces right on the slides.

      This slide deck is a great summer occupational therapy tool to work on several areas.

      Skills like eye hand coordination, visual motor skills, visual memory, visual attention, and visual discrimination can be used to move the different necklaces and crowns for the mermaid.

      On the first slide children can select accessories for the mermaid by clicking and dragging on different accessories. They have to work on mouse control or finger isolation to click and drag.

      Mermaid Writing Prompts

      Next the slides prompt kids to write about what they selected to create their mermaid.

      Depending on the child’s individual goals or needs they can work on hand writing and write out the sentence prompts on paper or they can type right on this the scrub slide deck.

      The slide asks kids about the accessories they used to decorate their mermaid, so the prompts work on using visual memory and working memory skills as part of executive functioning. Children can try to recall the specific details about the accessories that they selected like the color the shape the form and other details.

      This helps with awareness skills and recognition as well as discrimination and visual memory. All of his skills are essential for hand writing when copying materials or writing from memory to form letters and numbers.

      Decorate a sandcastle activity

      Next the slide deck continues with the sea theme with an interactive decorate a Sandcastle slide. On this slide, children can decorate this the Sandcastle using features such as colorful and fun windows, doors, and flags.

      Sandcastle Writing Prompts

      Then the next slide continues with a handwriting or typing prompt and asks about details that they selected for their Sandcastle.

      Children can again work on working memory skills and attention to detail.

      Both of the slide decks both of these slides are fun ways to use a mermaid and sandcastle theme in therapy.

      Free mermaid sandcastle slide deck

      Would you like to add the slide deck to your therapy Toolbox? Enter your email address into the form below to access the slide deck. You will receive an email with a PDF that you can click to cook to connect the slides to your Google Drive. When used in the edit mode the clickable pieces on the interactive slide deck will be movable. Note please consider using a personal email address as school email addresses and work email addresses may block the delivery of this PDF via email.

      FREE Mermaid Sandcastle Slide Deck Activity

        We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at anytime.
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        Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

        How to teach number formation

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        number formation activities

        Learning to write numbers is a big deal for youngsters and learning number formation correctly is an important handwriting skill to master in the foundation phase of school. As with most of the skills taught at school some children pick it up really quickly while others need a little bit of guidance before they are writing their 1,2,3’s. Much like letter formation activities, there are lots of fun, creative ways to reinforce correct number formations and methods to ensure that forming numbers correctly becomes second nature.

        number formation activities for teaching kids how to correctly form numbers

        Why correct number formation is important

        It’s always rewarding to see a young child start to recognize numbers and to attempt to copy what they see. Is it really that important how they form the numbers?

        Surely if a 5 looks like a 5 it doesn’t have to be formed in a specific way? It does seem very prescriptive to insist on forming the numbers one way. But it is important to teach correct formations when children begin to write their own numbers.

        Teaching number formation with the correct staring points and the correct path to follow when forming a number allows a motor memory to be effectively laid down in the brain. You can read about motor planning and motor planning’s impact on handwriting in previous posts.

        Following the same pattern each time you form the number allows this motor memory to become strengthened more quickly and the child’s ability to form the number automatically develops. This frees up their brain to focus more on the content of what they are working on as opposed to using brainpower to figure out how to make the number.

        How to teach number formation

        There are a few tips that will really help when teaching number formation. These include:

        • using correct starting points
        • incorporating sensory input
        • repetition
        • rhythm / song

        Number formation starting points

        The most important idea for me to get across to children learning to form numbers is that they must start from the correct place.

        We call this the starting point or the starting spot. I tell the children when we are learning to write numbers that we are always going to drive the same way on the “number road’’ of whichever number we are learning to write. We will always start at the same place and drive the same way – no reversing, changing direction or starting in the wrong spot!

        All of the numbers start at the top so we make sure that we always start ‘up there’. I have permission from the children to tickle their feet if I catch them starting any numbers from the bottom!

        Then I use a visual cue to show the children where we are going to start. This visual cue could be a sticker, smiley face, star, small picture, anything that is going to remind them of the correct place to start that number. Below is a picture of how to use round stickers to demonstrate where to start the number. You can also add arrows to indicate the direction you must travel from the starting point.

        • In the early stages of number formations allow children to trace over numbers or dotted lines making up the numbers.
        • Work on numbers 1 to 5 first and once we are feeling confident and happy about starting in the right spot we move on to number 6 to 10.

        Using sensory input for number formation

        Once children have started grasping the concept of how to form the numbers correctly you can use sensory input to pin down the map of how the number is formed.

        I have found movement and tactile inputs a sure fire way to reinforce correct number formations. Movement often involves forming large numbers on a blackboard or white board or ‘drawing’ these numbers in the air with your hand.

        Painting– Forming numbers in paint on an easel or drawing large numbers on the driveway are also ways to incorporate movement when learning number formations.

        Air Writing– By virtue of the big bold movements performed by the arm and hand more parts of the brain are activated in the process of laying down the motor pattern for that number. Children can get a real feel of how the numbers should be formed when their whole body and arm moves to make the number.

        Writing Trays– Tactile input is an equally powerful tool when it comes to reinforcing number formations. Forming numbers in sand trays and sensory bags reinforces the correct way the number should be written and makes learning numbers lots of fun. Try these writing tray ideas to work on number formation.

        Here are more ways to incorporate sensory input into formation of letters and numbers.

        Using repetition in writing numbers

        Like so many things that we learn practice makes perfect. And number formations are no different. A huge part of achieving success with number formations is repetition repetition repetition. Look for fun ways to encourage the repetition of the number you are working on.

        • Select a number to practice. Use a dice to see how many of that specific number you need to draw
        • Draw rows of each number
        • Draw the number on a chalk board, wipe it clean with a sponge and repeat
        • Turn each number into a rainbow number. There are some lovely ideas on rainbow writing that can be adapted for numbers.

        Rhythm and Songs for teaching how to write numbers

        Nothing sticks in your head like a catchy tune and using rhythm and song can be an effective way of cementing number formations in your brain. A simple example of a number formation is given below.  

        Here is more information on using rhythm in handwriting skills.

        e.g. Whoa its high up here but down I go. I’m number one I told you so (video 1)

        Here are a few ideas of number formation songs from youtube. I did notice quite a few sites form their zero in a clockwise direction. I always encourage anti-clockwise circles to prevent letter reversals with children start writing.

        It’s important for the child’s school, therapist and parent to use the same number formation stories to increase the effectiveness of the story being committed to memory.

        For more resources on number formation, grab a copy of The Handwriting Book, a comprehensive resource on development of handwriting, and specific strategies to promote legible and effective handwriting.

        Now you know your 1,2,3’s next time you can write with me!

        Contributor to The OT Toolbox: Janet Potterton is an occupational therapist working predominantly in school-based settings and I love, love, love my job. I have two children (if you don’t count my husband!), two dogs, one cat, two guinea pigs and one fish. When I am not with my family or at work I try to spend time in nature. The beach is my happy place.

        Kindergarten Learning and Play Activities

        by
        kindergarten activities

        Below are kindergarten activities that promote development of skills needed during the kindergarten year. These are great activities to use for kindergarten readiness and to help preschool and Pre-K children build the motor skills in order to succeed in their kindergarten year. You’ll find kindergarten letter activities, Kinder math, fine motor skills to build stronger pencil grasps when kindergarteners start to write with a pencil and cut with scissors. You’ll also find kindergarten sight word activities for when that time of the Kinder year comes around. Let’s have some fun with 5-6 year old activities!

        Be sure to check out our tools to support name practice for kindergarten to work on name writing skills!

        Kindergarten activities and kindergarten readiness activities

        Kindergarten Activities

         What you’ll notice is missing from this massive list of Kindergarten activities, is handwriting, writing letters, and even writing names. (And writing letters in a sensory bin falls into this category too! Before kindergarten, children should not be copying letters into a sensory bin. You’ll see letters formed incorrectly, letters formed from bottom to top, and letters formed in “chunks”. The same rule applies to tracing letters and words and even “multisensory strategies” for writing. It’s just too early. Unfortunately, we see a lot of preschools and standards doing the exact opposite. You’ll even find online sites sharing preschool and Pre-K writing that is just in poor advice.
         
        Here’s why: prior to kindergarten age, kids are not developmentally ready for holding a pencil, writing with a pencil, and writing words. Their muscles are not developed, and asking them to write letters, copy words, and trace with a pencil is setting them up for improper letter formation, poor pencil grasp, and weak hands. 
         
        What children aged 5 and under DO need is play! They need exposure to sensory experiences, sensory play, coloring, cutting with scissors (even if it’s just snipping), puzzles, games, beads, blocks, stamps…there are SO many ways to help pre-K kids and preschool children develop the skills they need for kindergarten and beyond.
         
        Kindergarten is such a fun age.  Kids in kindergarten strive when they are given the chance to learn through play and hands-on activities.  These are our favorite Kindergarten activities that we’ve shared on the site, with Kindergarten math, reading and letter awareness, Kindergarten Crafts, and Kindergarten Play.   
         
         

        Kindergarten Functional Tasks

        Kindergarten is the stage when children go off to school for perhaps the first time. That’s why prior to kindergarten, it’s great to “practice” a lot of the functional tasks that children will need to do once they go to kindergarten. Some of these may include:

        Now…not all of these functional skills will be established for every kindergarten child…and that’s OK! Kindergarten can be the year to practice these tasks in the school environment. 

        Kindergarten Letter Activities

        Kindergarten is all about letters, upper case and lower case letters, and sounds.  They learn how letters go with sounds and work on decodable reading.  These letter learning activities will help your kindergarten student with identification, sounds, and beginning reading skills.

        Kindergarten Letter activities for letter learning
         
         
         
         
        Name Soup Writing Your Name | Building Letters Cotton Swabs | Fizzy Dough Letters | Handwriting Cookie Cutters
         
         
        Learning Letters Push Pins | Letter & Writing Travel Kit | Letter Formation with Styrofoam | Upper & Lower Case Letter Seek
         
         
        LEGO Letter Stamps | Color & Letter Sticker Match | Name Building Sensory Soup | Sensory Letter Play
         
         
        Letter Identification Bin | Upper & Lower Case Letter Match | Decodable Reading With Nature | Pressing Too Hard When Writing
         
         
        Visual Motor Letter Learning with Bubble Wrap | Rainbow Writing Handwriting Practice | Winter Letters Outside


        Kindergarten Math Activities

        Kindergarten students work with manipulating items to discover and explore numbers and patterns.  They solve simple addition and subtraction problems, more or less, comparing amounts, and shapes.
         
        These Kindergarten math ideas will be a fun way to discover math ideas with playful learning.
        Kindergarten Math ideas

         
         
        Caterpillar Math Craft | Math with Checkers | Cardboard Tangrams | Play Dough Math
         
         
        Lego Shapes | Styrofoam Cup Math | Cardboard Building Shapes | Art Worksheets
         
             
         




           
         
         
           
         
        Easy Shapes Big Rig Craft | Rainbow Color Sort | Apple Math
         
          
         
        Sugar Aunts Counting Nature | Snowball Math | Penguin Themed Math Counting
         
            
         

        Kindergarten Sight Words and Reading:

        Kindergarten students learn sight words throughout the school year. These sight word activities are fun ways to learn with play while reinforcing sight word skills.
          
        Sight Word Scavenger Hunt | Sight Word Scooping
         
           
         
         
           
        Sight Words with String | Sight Words Ping Pong Bounce | Sight Words Sensory Bin | Bottle Cap Sight Words Stamps
         
         

        Sight Words Manipulatives | Outdoor Pre-Reading Letter Hunt

        Kindergarten Books and Activities

        Extending book ideas with crafts and activities are a fun way for Kindergarten students to become engaged with reading.  Listening to an adult read is a powerful tool for pre-readers.  They learn language, speech, articulation, volume, and tone of voice.  These book related activities will extend popular stories and engage your Kindergartner.

        Book ideas activities for Kindergarten
         
         
         
          
         
         
         

         
        Ten Apples Up on Top Baked Cotton Balls | Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons Snack | Activities Based on Books | Bears on Wheels Letter Match
         
         

        Snowball Fight math activity
        Press Here Sensory Bin
        Harold and the Purple Crayon Play Dough
        Little Blue and Little Yellow Puffy Paint
         

        Kindergarten Fine Motor Play

        Fine motor skills in Kindergarten students are essential for effective pencil control and handwriting, scissor use, and clothing and tool manipulation.  Kindergartners may have little experience with tools like scissors, pencils, hole punches, staplers, and pencil sharpeners. In fact, there are MANY fine motor skills needed at school. All of these items require dexterity and strength.  
         
        In-Hand manipulation play for fine motor skills: We had so much fun with water beads.  This post shares two ideas for improving in-hand manipulation skills which are so important for dexterity in self-care, handwriting, coin manipulation…and so much more!
         
        Finger isolation, tripod grasp, eye-hand coordination, bilateral hand coordination…Fine Motor Play with Crafting Pom Poms has got it all!  We even worked on color identification and sorting with this easy fine motor play activity.
         

        What play ideas can you come up with using common tools? These items are GREAT ways to build hand strength and dexterity that will be needed in kindergarten for pencil grasp development and endurance in handwriting. 

        • tweezers
        • tongs
        • beads
        • toothpicks
        • hole puncher
        • peg boards
        • lacing cards
        These fine motor activities will engage your student in fine motor skills for effective hand use in functional school tasks.
         
        Kindergarten Fine Motor activities
         
         
         
           
         
        DIY Light Box | Rainbow Beads | Beads & Feathers | Fine motor Color Match
         
           
         
        Fine Motor Color Sorting | Fine Motor Pom Pom Play | Play Dough and Rocks | In-Hand Manipulation Water Beads
         
           
         
        Icicle Scissor Skills | Lacing Cards Carry Out Container | Flower Pretend Play Fine Motor | Color Sorting Scissor Skills
         
         
         
        Pipe Cleaner Box Fine Motor Play | Christmas Pencil Control Sheets
         
          
         
        Tripod Grasp Fine Motor Color Sort | Fine Motor Pom Pom Play | Fine Motor Lock and Keys
         

        Kindergarten Play:

        Play in Kindergarten is essential for so many areas.  Kindergartners are young students who need brain breaks from desk work.  Not only for that reason, but for turn-taking, language, social interaction, self-confidence, problem-solving, and interaction, play is an important part of your Kindergarten student’s daily lives.  

        Play builds skills! Check out this post on the incredible power of play. Play helps kids learn and develop cognitive experiences and the neural connections that impact their educational career, beginning right now! Occupational therapists know that play is the primary occupation of children, but what’s more is that play builds the very skills that kids need to learn and develop.

        Kindergarteners can gain valuable input through play:

        • Cognition
        • Problem Solving
        • Executive Functioning Skills
        • Attention
        • Strength
        • Balance
        • Visual Motor Integration
        • Visual Processing
        • Sensory Integration
        • Self Regulation
        • Language Development
        • Self-Confidence
        • Fine Motor Skills
        • Gross Motor Skills
        • Social Emotional Development
        • Stress Relief
        • Behavior
        • Imagination
        • Creativity

        Try these play ideas in the classroom or at home for fun learning (through play)!

           
        Teaching Spatial Concepts | Bugs and Beans Sensory Play | Back to School Story Stones | Butterfly Life Cycle Activities
         
         
         
        Outdoor Small World Play | Painting Toys in the Water Table | Sticks and Stones Simple Sensory Play
         
           
        Farm Sensory Bin | Water Bead Tea Party Pretend Play | Monochromatic Water Bin Sensory Play | Corn and Cookie Cutters Sensory Bin
         

        Kindergarten Crafts

        Crafts in Kindergarten are a great tool for so many areas.  Students can work on direction following, order, patterns, task completion, scissor skills, fine motor dexterity, tool use, and more by completing crafts in Kindergarten.  

        Kindergarten crafts can have one or more of the areas listed here to help and build skills:

        • Scissor practice (placing on hand and opening/closing the scissors)
        • Exposure to different textures and art supplies
        • Practice with using a glue stick and bottle of squeeze glue
        • Practice cutting strait lines and stopping at point
        • Practice cutting simple shapes
        • Practice cutting complex shapes
        • Coloring
        • Painting with finger paints and paint brushes
        • Experience washing hands after crafting
        • Opportunities for creative expression
        • Opportunities for rule-following and direction following
        • Multi-step directions
        • Experience copying a model for visual motor benefits

        Try a few (or all!) of these Kindergarten crafts for fun arts and play with your student. 

        Kindergarten Craft ideas
         
         
         
         

        Grand Old Duke of York Craft | Process Art Monster Cupcake Liner craft | Shoe Charm craft | Caterpillar Math Craft

         
         
         
        Easy Shapes Backhoe Craft
        We’ll be adding more to this resource soon, so stop back to find more Kindergarten learning ideas.  

        Camping Writing Activity

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        camping writing

        Going camping this summer? This free therapy slide deck is a camping writing activity that kids can use to work on handwriting skills this summer. Use the camping activity as a tool to work on handwriting skills in therapy sessions or at home this summer.

        Use this camping writing slide deck to work on handwriting skills this summer, with a camping theme.

        Camping Writing

        When you think of camping and writing, you might think about writing letters home from a summer camp. Or, maybe you think of writing out packing lists before you head off to tent in the woods for the weekend.

        Both are actually really great natural writing tasks that kids can use to put pencil to paper this summer and work on writing skills without the boring rote practice that thoughts of handwriting typically bring.

        However, to expand on that theme a bit, this camping writing slide deck is great for building specific writing skills over the summer months.

        You can use this slide deck in teletherapy sessions, in home programs, in extended school year, or at home to work on writing skills such as:

        • copying skills
        • letter formation
        • size awareness
        • line use
        • visual motor skills

        The camping activities include visual forms that children can copy without admitting details so that they are working on visual perceptual skills such as form constancy, visual discrimination, visual closure, and other areas.

        There are several simple camping images that build up to more complex camping images that kids can copy to build visual motor skills and attention to detail.

        There’s also a part of the activity where kids can copy specific terms related to tenting and camping.

        Kids can copy these words right onto the screen using an Google Jamboard or they can copy the words onto paper. Several slides have lined portions where kids can copy the words onto the screen. You’ll find a link to access this resource once you access the file in the form at the bottom of this post.

        When kids copy words they need to work on they are using visual perceptual skills such as visual scanning, visual attention, visual memory, and visual shift. These tasks this skills are important for tasks such as copying written material from a chalkboard or smart board in the classroom.

        This handwriting active activity can also be expanded to ask kids to copy the words into alphabetical order or to expand the activity by asking them to write a sentence including the words.

        Free Camping Writing Slide Deck

        Would you like to add this camping hand writing activity to your therapy tool box? Enter your email address into the form below to access this free therapy slide deck.

        FREE Camping Writing Activity

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          More Ideas for Summer

          Want more ways to play and build skills while camping or with a camping theme in therapy sessions or at home? Check out these fun ideas:

          Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

          Handwriting Quick Check Self-Assessment List

          by
          handwriting self assessment checklist

          This handwriting checklist is a great handwriting assessment for kids to use when writing. Many times working on handwriting skills leads to frustration when kids struggle to carryover writing skills from occupational therapy sessions. This writing self-assessment can help!

          When kids have been introduced to different techniques for beating their handwriting blahs, been provided with accommodations for handwriting difficulties, and even provided with modifications to written work requirements, a quick check can help with legibility.  A child can use this quick check list to self-monitor and self-check their handwriting for neatness.  

          This activity is part of our month-long handwriting series where we are sharing creative and easy ways to address common handwriting issues in our 30 Easy Quick Fixes for Better Handwriting series.  

          You’ll also want to join the Sweet Ideas for Handwriting Help Facebook group where you can find support and resources for handwriting.   

          Handwriting Self-Assessment Checklist

          A self-checklist should have questions to monitor letter formation, size, spacing, line awareness, upper case and lower case letter formation/size, letter positioning, speed, neatness, and legibility.   

          Self-analysis involves retrospection and an awareness of self, as well as the actions that one performs. This handwriting analysis observations post explains a bit more.

          Print this checklist out for classroom use.  It is available as an 8x 10 inch Free printable here.

          This is a printable that can be printed and laminated for use at the student’s desk. Allow them to use a dry erase marker and check off each item after a handwriting task. Use the printable with the whole classroom, too!

           
          Kids can self-monitor their handwriting with this quick self-checklist for home and in the classroom.
           

          You can find all of our handwriting posts here.

          You’ll also love this cursive handwriting assessment checklist.

          Handwriting Self-Assessment Quick Tip:
          Print off the printable in a sized down format to create a smaller, wallet sized check list that can be stored in pencil boxes or in the front of a binder.

          Fine Motor Quick Tip:
          Encourage kids to use both hands when writing! The dominant hand should always be the pencil holder, BUT that other hand has a job too. Holding and moving the paper with the non-dominant hand has an important job in written work. Read more about paper placement and using the helper hand during written work.

          handwriting self assessment checklist

          Free Handwriting Assessment Checklist

          Handwriting checklists can include questions the student asks themselves after a writing task. They can look back over their work and self-assess the writing. Handwriting checklists can include questions such as:

          • Am I writing my letters like we practiced?
          • Am I writing on the lines?
          • Am I spacing between letters and words?
          • Are my upper case letters bigger than my lower case letters?
          • Do my tall letters touch the top line?
          • Do my tail letters fall below the bottom line?
          • Am I taking my time?
          • Can I read my writing?
          • Did I start at the left margin an stop at the right margin?

          For another version of a handwriting assessment that is used as a handwriting checklist when completing written work, grab this printable resource in our Handwriting Printables series. The printable handout is great for using with kids to work on self-assessment of written work.

          Join our Handwriting printables series to access this and five other handwriting worksheets.

          handwriting handouts
          The Handwriting Book is a comprehensive resource created by experienced pediatric OTs and PTs.

          The Handwriting Book covers everything you need to know about handwriting, guided by development and focused on function. This digital resource is is the ultimate resource for tips, strategies, suggestions, and information to support handwriting development in kids.

          The Handwriting Book breaks down the functional skill of handwriting into developmental areas. These include developmental progression of pre-writing strokes, fine motor skills, gross motor development, sensory considerations, and visual perceptual skills. Each section includes strategies and tips to improve these underlying areas.

          • Strategies to address letter and number formation and reversals
          • Ideas for combining handwriting and play
          • Activities to practice handwriting skills at home
          • Tips and strategies for the reluctant writer
          • Tips to improve pencil grip
          • Tips for sizing, spacing, and alignment with overall improved legibility

          Click here to grab your copy of The Handwriting Book today.

          Handwriting Assessment Tips

          What happens when an occupational therapy provider completes a handwriting evaluation? Check out our video covering just this:

          Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

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