Three year old won’t write.

[NLW08]

My daughter is 3 and a half and absolutely refuses to write. She hates holding a pen (she seems to be left handed) and flat out will not learn to write her name. Is this bad at her age or should I not worry? I’m not concerned about her intelligence she’s very good at maths and is starting to try and read, her teachers have said she’s very bright. Its just writing she’s adamant is a no go and I’m trying not to get frustrated but other children we know her age are all writing their names.

@baubling

Then I have no doubt he is very biased

"Learning music has been proven over and over again to improve children's mathematical ability, and singing also improves language and co-operation skills."

Very very true. My teenager sight reads music as if reading a book, it comes natural to him. All other academic abilities seem to follow suit.

Lots of maths involved in music, you have to follow rhythm and that's not easy for lots of people.

🙌 to all music teachers. Very important to pass on music to the next generation.

[quote littleharissa]@baubling

Then I have no doubt he is very biased [/quote]
No he isn't biased, and I don't know why you've got such a bee in your bonnet about it. He doesn't teach in a school, he teaches an instrument privately.

Among his pupils he has taught some with various learning difficulties over the years, and has had parents come to him and tell him that their child's school has said how much the child has improved in class recently. Not only with regard to behaviour and concentration, but academically too. And the parents say it is since the dc has been having instrument lessons.

There are lots of ideas here for helping to improve hand strength www.rch.org.au/uploadedFiles/Main/Content/ot/InfoSheet_E.pdf

Please don’t push her to hold a pen correctly and ‘write’ more than mark making and letters. She may do it, she may not and either is fine. Pushing her to hold a pencil before she is ready can lead to awkward pen grips that become hard to change later on. Young children haven’t always got the muscle strength in their hand just yet and so end up wrapping more fingers around the pencil to hold it. Sure, show her how to hold a pencil & work on letters but ease off on extended writing if she’s not ready.

@baubling

No bee in my bonnet at all.

Maybe research causation vs correlation?

She's 3. My kids could just about recognise their name at that age, couldn't write at all. They're at grammar school now.

Let your child be a child