Handwriting is an important skill that helps early learners build strong brains, strengthen fine motor control, and reinforce foundational reading and spelling skills. Learning to handwrite also supports emotional growth and self-regulation. The muscles needed for handwriting stamina are built from the core outward. A strong core improves posture and helps keep the body stable. To build a strong core, your child needs to be physically active every day.  

In this article, we will explain what the research says about the importance of handwriting for early learners and how core strength influences handwriting. The last section is filled with fun, practical ways to help your child develop core body strength for handwriting success.

Why Handwriting is Important for Early Learners

Handwriting strengthens muscles, improves hand-eye coordination, provides practice in self-regulation, and supports social relationships. Handwriting requires your child to pay more attention to information. This leads to increased processing, understanding, and storing of information for future recall. 

When your child practices writing letters, they pay closer attention to the formation of the letter and produce multiple variations of the letter which actually provides practice reading a variety of font types. Attention to detail and the hand-eye coordination required for letter formation helps the brain become more robust by making stronger connections for mapping words into long term memory. 

Handwriting is a fine motor activity. It requires muscle strength and in return it also strengthens hand and finger muscles. These muscles are useful for everyday tasks such as dressing, drawing, crafting, building with blocks, playing with toys, and using tools. Doing these fine motor activities strengthens hand muscles which supports handwriting. 

Handwriting also supports self-regulation. The concentration and effort required to handwrite helps your child build persistence and deal with the challenges and successes of learning a difficult skill. Coordinating movements to produce legible writing provides practice in body control and coordination. Handwriting provides more opportunities for your child to share thoughts and ideas and communicate to build strong social relationships.

From Big to Small: How Handwriting Stamina is Built

Handwriting requires your child to hold a writing tool and make specific movements to form letter shapes. This requires balance, strength, and coordination. Body strength develops from the core outward and is dependent on the muscles in the back, abdomen, and pelvis. A strong core provides a supportive base for maintaining posture and holding the body in a stable position. When the core is weak, physical demands are transferred to smaller parts of the body. Weak muscles make handwriting more challenging and can lead to fatigue, overuse, and injury.  

Building muscle strength takes time and is supported by activities that use both large and small muscles. Strong muscles reduce fatigue and free up cognitive resources for thinking and planning. A strong body gives your child the freedom to focus on expressing their thoughts and ideas through writing. 

When the body is stronger, it takes less effort to write. This improves motivation, making it easier for your child to write more and for longer periods of time. The circular effect of  increased practice and efficiency makes the task easier which makes it more motivating and enjoyable to write. 

Fun Ways to Build Core Body Strength to Support Handwriting Skills

Core body strength is built through large motor activities that involve running, jumping, and climbing. Outdoor spaces and playgrounds are the perfect place to support these kinds of activities. Going outdoors also brings the added benefits of spending time in nature and building social connections. When children gather at the playground, they naturally interact with others and encourage others to be active. 

Body crossover activities are another helpful way to build core strength and support left-right brain coordination. Try doing some cross body toe touches or cross body elbow to knee touches with your child. Adding music and turning it into dance time is energizing and motivating.

Here are some more active ways to build core body strength:

• Pretend to walk like different animals: frog leaps, kangaroo hops, crab walks, bear walks, elephant walks while swinging arm to mimic a trunk, inchworms, waddle like a penguin, baby crawl, and stand on one leg like a flamingo
• Learn to use monkey bars
• Go swimming
• Use a jump rope or Hula Hoop
• Climb stairs, ladders, trees, a rope, or climbing wall
• Ride bikes and scooters
• Play Hop Scotch
• Copy Me: You do a couple exercises or yoga moves (i.e. toe touches, wall push-backs, downward dog, walk backwards on tippy toes) and your child copies you, then switch and they do moves that you have to copy. Continue taking turns. Add music to energize the movement.
• Build obstacle courses with hard objects such as stools, ladders, and chairs and soft objects such as pillows, cushions, and blankets. Make obstacles to jump over, crawl under, and slide through. 
• Use painters tape to create lines or shapes on the floor or use a board to practice walking a balance beam
• Run up and down hills
• Balance on stepping stones or logs
• Lift appropriately heavy objects such as laundry baskets or grocery items
• Play throwing, running, and catching games: Dodgeball, beach volleyball, soccer, tennis, pingpong, frisbee, T-ball
• Bubble Pop: Jump on bubble wrap
• Do Under/Over ball relays: Pass the ball with both hands over the head, then the next person bends and passes between the legs. When the ball gets to the last person, they run to the front and continue the over/under passing
• Rake leaves and shovel sand or snow
• Do activities that require twisting or turning the body: Pass a ball to each other while standing back to back. Switch it up by using different size balls.
• Support body on hands and knees: Stretch out the left arm and right leg at the same time, then right arm left leg, continue alternating these two movements
• Do the Plank by supporting the body on forearms and toes while keeping it aligned from head to toe
• Do log rolls, somersaults, and backward shoulder rolls
• Play music. When the music stops, call out a number from 1-6 or roll a dice. Your child tries to balance on that many body parts (i.e. balance on one foot, balance on one hand and one foot, balance on 2 forearms and 1 leg)

And most important of all, always keep the activities playful and fun and make them a natural part of everyday life!

Summary

Handwriting helps build strong brains, increases fine motor control, and strengthens reading and spelling skills. Handwriting requires concentration and effort to learn which supports emotional growth and self-regulation. Core body strength is essential to improving posture, stabilizing the body, and supporting the coordination of fine motor movements needed for effective handwriting. When handwriting becomes effortless and automatic, learning is improved and it becomes easier for your child to share their own thoughts and ideas in written form. 

Sources

Burnett, R., Cornett, N., Rekart, G., Donahoe-Fillmore, B., Brahler, C. J., Aebker, S., & Kreill, M. (2011). Investigating the associations between core strength, postural control and fine motor performance in children. Journal of Student Physical Therapy Research, 4(2). Link

Fancher, L. A., Priestley-Hopkins, D. A., & Jeffries, L. M. (2018). Handwriting Acquisition and Intervention: A Systematic Review. Journal of Occupational Therapy, Schools, & Early Intervention, 11(4), 454–473. https://doi.org/10.1080/19411243.2018.1534634

Gonzalez, S. L., Alvarez, V., & Nelson, E. L. (2019). Do gross and fine motor skills differentially contribute to language outcomes? A systematic review. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 2670. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02670/full 

Hoy, M. M., Egan, M. Y., & Feder, K. P. (2011). A systematic review of interventions to improve handwriting. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 78(1), 13-25. Link

Santangelo, T., & Graham, S. (2016). A comprehensive meta-analysis of handwriting instruction. Educational psychology review, 28(2), 225-265. Link

Sorgente, V., Cohen, E. J., Bravi, R., & Minciacchi, D. (2021). Crosstalk between gross and fine motor domains during late childhood: The influence of gross motor training on fine motor performances in primary school children. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(21), 11387. https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/21/11387#Conclusions

Trouli, K., & Linardakis, M. (2023). RELATIONS OF GROSS AND FINE MOTOR SKILLS WITH GRAPHOMOTOR SKILLS IN PRESCHOOL YEARS. European Psychomotricity Journal, 15. https://psychomotricity-journal.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/TROULI_31_40.pdf