How to Teach Children to Print Their Name

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Laura from youngwritersworkshops.com and I'm going to talk about how to teach a child to write his or her own name. And the first step in learning to write is how to hold a pencil, so, whether...if you're child hasn't learned that specific skill, you'll want to start with holding a pencil. And just a little basic thing to know about that is that the pencil usually points toward whatever shoulder their writing hand is. So, have them become comfortable. It rests on their ring finger, and they hold the pencil with a slant towards their shoulder. And then you can begin by helping them to learn the form that each letter in their name has. So you'll begin with the first letter of their name. They can practice it often. And teach them to make it in the proper way. And a book like this, that helps them to learn their letters, is really helpful. So, the practice of letters and then helping them to know which letters are in their name is the way to begin this process. You can also point out the usefulness of knowing how to write your name. They can sign their own papers, they can put their name at the bottom of their artwork. They can get a library card when they learn their own name. So those are some of the ways that you can motivate a child to learn to write their name. And then just practice, lots of practice on forming the letters and holding the pencil and interacting with paper. And those will all be things that will help them do a good job at writing their own name."