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Fun Ways to Practice Writing & Drawing Skills!

Handwriting is a great way to help your child develop fine motor skills as well as provide them with a multi-sensory opportunity while learning. Handwriting helps with strengthening your child’s hands, improving their fine motor precision and accuracy, as well as improving their visual-motor and hand-eye coordination skills. Handwriting is a multi-sensory activity that involves visually tracking what they are writing/drawing with their eyes and communicating the shapes, letters, and words that they write with their brains. This can also help children learn to read! If your child is beginning to show interest in coloring/writing, begin with simple shapes, lines, and tracing letters. Allow your child to scribble on the paper and explore how coloring/handwriting works while providing them with a multi-sensory experience. Writing is a task that many children find to be difficult or they don’t deem it is as fun.

Here are some creative, messy and engaging ways to have your child practice writing their name, letters, numbers, or pre-writing shapes (vertical/horizontal lines, cross, square, triangle, diagonals, “X”) while having fun!

  • Tracing
    • Add glue, glitter, and/or yarn when tracing/forming letters and shapes
    • Use a highlighter for tracing
    • Trace or write their name with paint and Q-tips
    • Squeeze glitter glue as they trace
    • Use stickers or dot markers to trace name

  • Rainbow Writing & Drawing
    • Child can write their name over and over again in different colored crayons or markers to create a rainbow
    • Use various paint colors for writing their name or drawing shapes

  • Chalk or Dry Erase Board
    • Practice writing their name using chalk or dry erase markers
    • Erase each letter away by tracing over it again

  • Make a Sensory Squishy Bag
    • Fill zip-loc bag with paint, hair gel, etc. to practice writing letters and shapes with their finger on top of the bag

  • Salt Sensory Tray  
    • Fill a cookie sheet with salt, flour, rice, shaving cream, etc. and have child use finger to draw on it

Glue/Salt/Paint Name Writing Activity:

Here is another fun activity to practice writing!

Materials:

  • White or Clear Glue
  • Watercolor Paint (or food color and water to make watercolor paint)
  • Markers
  • Table Salt
  • Pipettes/droppers (or paint brush if you do not have)
  • Water dish if using paint brush
  • Card stock, construction paper, or thin cardboard
  • A tray or baking sheet

Step 1: On a piece of paper (cardstock, cardboard, construction paper), write your child’s name in a light-colored marker, pencil, or pen

Step 2: Have your child squeeze the glue to trace over each letter of their name

Step 3: Have your child sprinkle salt with their fingers over each letter on top of the glue

Step 4: Gently shake the access salt off the paper after each letter is covered

Step 5: Use a pipette/dropper or a paintbrush to drop colored paint/water mixture on top of the salt for each letter. The color should begin to spread along the salt! Try not to push too hard with the paintbrush, just gently brush the top of the salt and watch the colors spread!

Have fun!!

-Kelsey Shanks, OTR/L

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LLA Therapy

Patient Reviews

Crystal Scheibe

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Great place, glad we found them. Been going to Medina over 2 months now and he loves Lauryn and Kyler. Wish they had more ABA therapy places available... live in Wooster and long drive everyday.

Karrie Swan LaRock

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My 11 year old son has dyslexia and has made noticeable gains in working At LLA THERAPY. Katie is strong in her approach toward him and also keeps him comfortable enough to perform well. We will continue visiting both the Fairlawn and Hudson offices and recommend them highly.

Ron Monroe

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My 9 year old just completed about 9 months of weekly speech sessions (due to his stuttering) with Matt Hagge at LLA and we are thrilled with the experience and results. What I thought might be a negative (what kid really wants to go to speech class?) was made very positive by Matt, and my son never hesitated or complained when we talked about class. He really enjoyed it and really took what Matt taught him to heart. His speech has been greatly improved and we definitely recommend LLA. Thank you so much!

Heather Dougherty-Pantoja

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My son’s Occupational Therapist, Jess, is an amazing OT! She gives practical tips on working with my son at home and school!

Terri Apgar

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I cannot say enough good things about LLA Therapy. My daughter was a client of Teal Simmons’ for approximately 2 years and was just released from speech therapy! She was diagnosed with Apraxia in 2015 and worked with Teal twice a week. Through Teal’s application of PROMPT therapy, my daughter had age-appropriate speech after one year. All of the staff we interacted with at LLA were absolutely wonderful. They really care about what they do and making sure your child achieves their goals.

Kelli Geisler Davisson

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LLA Therapy has been an excellent experience for my son as well as my family! My son always asks, "When can I go see Ms. Jeannine again, is it Monday??" He has also made huge gains in only 5 months! I would highly recommend LLA and have already shared my experience with friends looking for services!

Victoria Hansford-Price

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We are so grateful for our Speech Therapist Ms.Teal. We have seen a great improvement with our sons confidence and communication abilities since we have started "Prompt" therapy. What we love the most about LLA and Ms. Teal is that Kohl feels comfortable and relaxed which has played a critical role in his progress. Thank you Ms. Teal for all you have done.

Laura Lee Hogsett

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They have helped in numerous ways. Speech, OT and behavioral. I've had numerous compliments on my son's progress thanks in very large part to LLA. I would recommend LLA before I recommend our local children's hospitals, though they are good, they don't have the staff that LLA does.

Amy Furukawa

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We had a great experience with Matt Hagge at LLA! Our Middle School age son was becoming very conscious of his voice, which is nasal due to a cleft palate. Matt helped him to better form his sounds and project his voice in a way that makes the unavoidable nasality less noticeable.Our son is more confident and outgoing & even took on a speaking role in the church play. Matt has the perfect personality to relate with our son, and we would recommend him to anyone needing speech therapy services!

Jessica Havalotti

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LLA Therapy has been an excellent experience for our daughter. I would highly recommend LLA. Miss Grace was so amazing and I can't believe how quickly our daughter showed improvement. Thank you!
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