Pre-Writing Skills

Children learn new tasks in stages, or developmental steps. If they don't learn the basics, youngsters later become frustrated when expected to perform the complex steps. When children are frustrated they quickly lose interest in learning. This workbook is for parents, preschool teachers, special education teachers, therapists, and anyone else who is interested in teaching pre-writing skills. This useful 120-page resource first takes a look at prerequisite abilities and then examines the developmental stages children go through in acquiring these skills. Author Marsha Dunn Klein, M. Ed., OTR/L, reviews how children normally acquire new motor skills and then applies that information to how they learn to write. For example, Ms. Klein shows how an activity such as coloring pictures teaches children important skills. The control that children learn in coloring complements the control they are also learning in pre-writing activities. The book provides checklists for evaluating children's pre-writing and coloring skills, discusses appropriate materials and tools, and presents some classroom activities. Additionally, Ms. Klein gives guidelines for creating individual pre-writing programs and preparing a week's series of activities that help children to develop a particular skill. She shares teaching tips and adaptations, and provides guidelines to help parents, teachers, and clinicians create innovative programs and checklists. Throughout the text, Ms. Klein provides frequent probes-questions that help parents, teachers, and therapists reinforce the information just discussed the child. The workbook is designed to be a tool for independent study. It begins by listing specific objectives and illustrations throughout the book help the reader to visualize the activities being discussed. This valuable resource ends with a test to help parents, teachers, and clinicians assess what they have learned.