I need help on teaching my 4 year old how to write her name?

Question

She has been in preschool for 1 1/2 now, all her school mates are writting their names & we practice at home alot. She has a simple 6 letter name, but cant seem to grasp it. Sometimes she gets it although none of the letters are quite right & it looks like chicken scratch. She often mixes all the letter up when she does put them all in. She has kndergarden roundup in 3 1/2 months & needs to legibly write her 1st & last name to get in. Does anyone have any tricks to teaching a 4 year old to write there name w/o bribbing (my hubby has tried that, it didnt work). Serious answers only please, thank you in advance for your advice.

Answer 1

I don't understand why your school district reqires her to write it perfectly in order to "get in." If you are really concerned about it, call the school district and have her evaluated by the special ed team. Maybe she can qualify for some OT. They can give you ideas what you can do to develope the muscles in her hands to help her with it. Have her do some activities, like puzzles, but don't let her dump the pieces out. Make her take each piece out one by one with her fingers. Have her play with play dough. Have her pinch little pieces of play dough off. Have her track. Draw straight lines on a piece of paper with a high lighter, and have her trace over them with a pencil. After she conquers straight lines, make them curvey. Always have her start at the top and go all the way to the bottom, or go left to right everytime. You can print her name with a high ligher and she can trace it. Do it over and over again. When she wants to do something fun, make her practice writing her name before she can do the fun activity. Make sure she can pick her name out, when it's with other names. Have it printed all over the house and practice spelling it and tracing the letters with her hand.

There are many things you can do. If you are still having problems, I would deffinently get her evaluated. But keep in mind all kids develope at different rates. One day all of the sudden, she may just start writing it.

Answer 2

Don't sweat it, I am not sure why your 4 year old has to write her first and last name to get in..sounds to advanced and too much pressure for a little one they all learn at their own pace!!! Honestly I have 4 children 9,5,4,2..older 2 girls younger 2 boys...my 5 year old is in kindergarten and advanced in her grade always going to the 1st grade room for reading...and sometimes her name looks like chicken scratch and it is Alex...now my 4 year old is Cody and he can't write his name yet and just got tested for kindergarten for the fall of 2007 and the counselor said a lot of children can't write their name very well at this point because they are still learning their fine motor skills and some can't write it at all, but they all catch up usually by 2nd grade...don't let your child feel pressured to do something she can't it will only make her re bell and get stressed about it...so let her relax and it will come....good luck and I hope this helps...

Answer 3

try writing her name with dots and let her connect them and only work on 3 letter at a time her whole name at 1 time is very overwhelming my daughter learned her name in about 1 1/2 weeks this way good luck

Answer 4

Has your daughter got good pencil control? (e.g) can she hold the pencil and draw shapes etc? If she isn't able to hold a pencil well enough to draw shapes then I think that expecting her to write her name may be a bit too much. My son (who is almost 5½ years old) has only just managed in the past few weeks to write his name legibily, prior to that he couldn't hold a pencil properly even circles weren't the greatest nor did he show any eagerness to draw so I left him to his own devices, pencils and craft bag nearby if he wanted to colour and/or draw pictures.
If you just let her play around with pencils and pens then she may develop the confidence to attempt things that are more than just random lines on a page but don't push it, as you may end up making her feel more stressed and as such less likely to attempt again in the near future.

Other things to do are (YOU) write the letters of her name out and cut them up (jigsaw style) and allow her to make it up then try asking her if she'd like to try and copy them if she doesn't let her break up the jigsaw and make it up again without any frustration. If she knows her letters you could try getting her to write smaller words first too, things like "me", "mum" and "dad" perhaps and sometimes simple tracing practice can help with pencil control.

One main thing DON'T compare her to what other children can and can't do, our children learn to do things are different speeds which is sometimes the beauty of them. As I said above my son couldn't write or hold a pencil till recently but he could read most childrens books and early readers if I sat with him with them (Green Eggs and Ham etc).

Answer 5

does she know her left from right, and understand that words are written and read from left to right?
you could make forming letters more fun by making them out of different things around the house: beans, beads, etc.
you could put flour on a baking tray and let her write the letters in it with her finger.
make up a song with the letters of her name, and sing it for her until she has it memorized, then she'll be able to refer back to it:
L is for a lovely girl
I for intelligence, she's smart
S is for a super kid
A is for always in my heart.

that's what we did for my son, and because of that he's known how his name was spelled since he was two.

you could let her practice "writing" it on a text editor on the computer until she can do it correctly by herself, so she can get that part down first then work on the motor skills part of writing later.

Answer 6

you have been utterly wasting her time and her self-esteem on such a silly task. this is a totally serious answer. it is completely inappropriate for so many children to be working on such fine motor control issues.

she should be playing with playdo to develop finger control, coloring, doing other crafts. she should not be working on her name.

this school is totally inappropriate for her learning needs.

don't try to squeeze her into their boxes. you've already done that for 1.5 years and it's failing her. i can't believe such a ridiculous goal for a little girl. really. don't accept their stupid goals for your girl.

she is also far too young for 'kindergarten roundup.' best idea - be home with her. that's what kids her age need. a one on one relationship is the context for all learning under age 6 - this is what the research shows. that's what your daughter needs. that's how she'll get a real education. all she's getting now is her goals and her originality pounded out of her.

if you can't accept that you are hurting your daughter if you persist, then have her trace her name in sand, rice, finger paint, over and over.

Answer 7

I turned the letters of her name into a song. my daughters name is cortnie.
it was somethind like
the c comes first and its a half of circllllle
the o is next and its complete then theres R ohhhh just listen pleaseee next is T! now we are going to slow for mmeeeeee lets finish it with the N the I and theEEEEE!

Answer 8

Our children learned it in kindergarten...it is one of the first things they teach. You can get an early start on it by doing what they do in kindergarten. They start out with the name printed in dotted letters, then repeatedly giving your child their named printed in dotted (outline) letters, have then trace it.

Answer 9

If I were you I would talk to her preschool teacher about it. For all you know, she might be dyslexic or something. You might also try taking the pressure off of her for a couple weeks, and then trying to teach her again.

Answer 10

Be patient and always be excited about her "trying" to write her name.