How many summer-born 4 yrappear olds can write their name unsupervised?

[sharesinNivea]

I'm noticing many references in threads to Reception children age 4 even the summer-borns being able to write their first name, although it doesn't specify whether that's unsupervised.

Is this normal?

My June born Reception starter can recognise his first initial but he certainly can't write his whole name supervised or not.

Of course, it will be impossible to hear honest replies I suppose. Still, I'm curious.

[lougle]

DD3 is April born. She can write her name but it is 4 letters. She has quite a good pen grip now, but hasn't dropped her her third finger down below the pen to make the tripod grip yet.

The stages are:

"Pencil grip follows a predictable pattern. This develops from:

the basic palmar grasp, where the child wraps all his fingers round the pencil and moves his whole arm to make marks,
to the digital finger grasp, where the hand is above the pencil and the child uses the whole arm to manipulate it,
to the tripod grasp, with fingers placed near the tip of the pencil with the thumb opposing the fingers, and movement controlled by the fingers."

DD3's teacher found a top tip on Pinterest - apparently if you hold something in the palm of your hand (like a tissue) with the fourth and fifth fingers, you have no choice but to use a tripod grip to hold the pencil.

[Taffeta]

MN children are not the norm, op.

[Spottybra]

Mine can and does....even on walls, then blames it on his little sister!

[TheRobberBride]

My summer born DD could write her name before she started Reception. It wasn't neat but it was legible. Her name is only 4 letters long though!

[Moofins]

4 months ago my DS couldnt and wouldn't write a thing - didnt even like drawing and when he did it was still all scribbles. I bought some basic poundshop shape and letter writing books which he really got into.

On his 4th birthday he wanted to write his name on all his thank you letters (it took ages but for the first time he was completely focused!) Since then he has hugely improved. he can write his name and all letters but needs quite a bit of promting from me as to which letter goes where. He also tends to write the letters all over the place if I am not watching him rather than one after the other.

As others have said - his pencil grip is not great and his writing is wobbly and sometimes huge sometimes small!

I think they all get it at different stages - my 2 year old DD is already drawing shapes rather than scribbles and I didnt do anything different between the two. Infact I do alot less with DD than I did with DS. (lol! now I feel guilty!)

I really worried about it before he started school and as the youngest in the class he is definately behind his peers but his teacher is very encouraging. I have been amazed at the difference a few months have made.

[TheRobberBride]

And I should say that was unsupervised-as in she would go off and do it independent of me or anyone else.

[Taffeta]

And of course some children like writing and others don't. My DS, for example, loves writing, always has, was first in his year to get a pen licence etc. DD, OTOH, hates writing but has excellent fine motor skills if her recorder playing is anything to go by.

Please don't worry op, it's one of many many things, and as someone else said, he will get it, and when he does you will have moved on to the next thing to worry about.

[DeWe]

But also some of those who learn earlier will do it the "easiest" way. They'll hold the pencil lin full grip, and write (eg) an "a" as a circle then a line coming out of the side.
When they teach them in reception they may well be requiring them to hold the pencil correctly, and form the letters properly. That does take a little longer to learn.
And those who have done it the "easy" way, will often have to relearn how to do it too.

[WowOoo]

Mine can, but only just and this is with help.

He's July born. We had an October born friend over the other day and her writing was amazing. She wrote his name in such neat writing I've put it on the fridge to inspire him!

Her mum says it's all she ever wants to do, whereas mine runs away if I bring out the pencils

[BlinkQuenelle]

DS was 4 in June. He could hold a pencil in his fist and write his name with supervision before he started school.

In his Reception class the children's first task every day is to write their name. Some of them write over dotted lines, others write freehand. Now DS can hold a pencil properly and write his name without supervision.

His fine motor skills need developing though, some of the letters are MASSIVE.

[LydiaLunches]

DD2 could write her very short name in a precise mirror image right to left given at least a page of A4 to work with

[noramum]

DD (summer born) has 8 letter in total, 4 in her first name, 4 in her surname.

The nursery made it a goal that all children starting Reception should be able to write their first names. They did but all in printed capital letters.

DD's school started teaching cursive from Day one and it took around a month for DD to write her name but she got into the habit in using only lower case letter.

[Hersetta]

I have a 31/8 DD. She started reception and could independantly write her 7 letter name - not her surname though.

[thegreylady]

My dgs isn't Summer born [Feb] but could write a short form of his name before he started school.

[jerryfudd]

Aug born two with 6 letter names can\do write their own names and have done since nursery. If they draw a picture they usually put their name to it without prompting

[legoplayingmumsunite]

My girls both have short names and went to a nursery that taught letters from 3 and have several artists in the family so are good at drawing which is the same skill set as writing so yes, they could write their names before they turned 4. However, there are plenty in DD2's reception class who don't have good fine motor skills yet and struggle with writing. It's really not something to worry about at this stage. Oh, and you are unlikely to get many 'my child couldn't write in reception' posts because even though that is normal it's not a good boasting opportunity.

[Scoobyblue]

My ds2 (born July) could but his name only had three letters.

[mammadiggingdeep]

My 3 year old can write her shortened version of 3 letters unsupervised. She was doing this at 2.5 but although she knows the letters in the proper version of her name she can't write it unsupervised yet.

I'm a twin and at 4 I was writing my name...my twin brother couldn't hold a pencil yet he turned out to be some kind of a maths genius, speaking 3 languages fluently!! Just shoes its a marathon not a sprint :)

[mammadiggingdeep]

• shows not shoes!!!

[FlirtyThirty]

My summer born DS could write his name unspervised from about 3.5yrs. I encouraged him to learn to print his name (5 letters) and he grasped it quickly. Occasionally 1 letter was back to front at first. He was proficient by starting school and now writes it in his school's cursive script on all his work. He is proud of being able to write it like this but initially really wasn't keen on changing style. He has always had good find motor skills though. I was under the impression the majority of his class were similar.

[RueDeWakening]

DS1 (preschool, age 3y8m) can write his 6-letter name beautifully. I think it comes from copying his sister, and from a phonics app on DH's phone that he plays on.

He can also write the rest of the alphabet, and will happily write eg birthday cards for his friends just asking me what letters to write, one at a time.

I think this is fairly unusual at this age, though - he's always had very good motor skills.

[Xochiquetzal]

Summer-born DS(9) could write his full name by the time he was 3 and a half, he does have a very short name though (5 letter first name, 4 letter surname). DD(5)s been able to write her name since just after she started pre-school, although its only just stopped having random capitals in the middle, she has a fairly short name too.

I'm summer-born and couldn't write my full name til midway throuh year 1, I blame my parents for giving me a stupid name that no one can spell, I still did very well at 11+/GCSEs/A-levels though so not bein able to write in reception clearly wasn't a major problem