Why is there emphasis on writing their names in reception?

[Numberfour]

one of DS's targets is to write his name. i don't understand why such emphasis is placed on that - it is to further develop a sense of identity while practicing writing? is it to encourage writing because each child's name is unique to them so they are keen to learn to write it?

why not get the children to learn something that they have in common - name of school or nature words - or the like?

not worried about it, just don't understand it!

You can get some books at WH Smith or Waterstones to help them. Some are letters and numbers to trace. And some are just squiggly lines to help develop the control. If you do them often but only a little bit at a time that should help a lot. If he gets fed up, quit and try again the next day.

or something like this

My DD decided to change her name to Spot!
Her name is 8 letters long but she decided that M. (or M spot) was a lot easier.

Thank you have put in an Amazon order for a couple of those books

Please Please PLEASE don't encourage your child to trace letters and numbers [begging smiley] they pick up lots of bad habits which mean it takes longer to learn to write correctly.

What sort of bad habits? My DS is a bit bbehing on fine motor skills because he is a "bendy boy" as the paediatrician put it. Basicaly, he has longer ligaments than most people (as do I) and so his muscles have to develop a bit more for him to get the control. He gets annoyed at just having to write numbers. But, he has fun tracing them and is definitely progressing.

starting in the wrong place and not making the correct sequence of movements. Many children will start at the bottom and move upwards - curved numbers such as 2 & 3 have a clockwise movement whereas d & a have an anticlockwise movement.
Don't get me wrong tracing is a great activity for developing fine motor skills but isn't great for learning to write letters and numbers correctly.

The tracing I am talking about shows him where to start (ie top of the 0). He starts on the dot and follows the arrow.

You put a dot where they have to begin ,Teach !

Or you could leave a four year old alone and let them progress at their own pace and not put a whole heap of pressure on a small child.

My DD2 is in reception. I tried for over a year to get her to sit and write her own name, letter, numbers well anything really. No luck at all. Now she is at school she has developed the interest herself and now loves doing her reading books and writing stuff down.

No pressure and she loves it!

DD! was able to write in sentances and read the oxford reading first stage all by the first half term. Each child is different and learns in their own time.

It is not pressure. My DS has the problem of his mind being more advanced than his fine motor skills. So he wants to more with math (counting mostly) but he is held back because his hand can't write the answer. This is frustrating him. So we are working on writing the numbers so he can do more on the level of his mind. If he has to write without tracing he hates it. But he likes tracing and it is helping him. So it is a good thing. If he hated it I could understand. But his hand needs to catch up.

I am sorry but four is still a very young child. Why do we want our children to become adults so very quickly now?
It certainly doesnt help them get a better education or every country in the world would be forcing babies into school at four, just like our over achieving educational system.

You think 5 minutes a day of tracing numbers is going to force my DS into adulthood? I don't think so. Life is all about Ben Ten Alien Force and "Mario Wii!".

I dont specifically mean you and your DS.
I mean generally is seems to have become acceptable to tutor very young children in this country. I know it is only a few mins of tracing but next year it will be something else, then the year after that more extra lessons.
I signed up for the student support scheme. DD1 hates it. We have fought over it and so far she is winning. I dont know why I did it as she is in the top 5 in her year!

It really doesn't matter how many dots there are to show where to start children will happily start somewhere else once your attention moves to another child in school or the phone ringing at home and you aren't focusing on reminding them that is what the dot is for. They will often develop the habit of joining each dot to it's neighbour too

okay, so how would you teach a child to write letters and numbers?

Firstly I would "air" write the letter using both hands ... child standing up and grasping hands together make the sequence of movements required to form the letter correctly (crossing mid line so the pattern is established) while repeating the movements being made eg: for /s/ we say "round and round the other way" in time with actions. Then using the index finger of the writing hand write the letter (again repeating the "round and round the other way) on the table over and over to establish the sequence. Finally write the letter on paper (continuing to say round ... until the movements become automatic)
and I would repeat for each letter of the name.

mrz, can you please tell me more about this "crossing the mid line so the pattern is established"? my DSis is a primary teacher and has been for about 4000 years. She has mentioned this to me, but i cannot remember how she explained it (she is in South AFrica and me in England so we don't talk that much)

The theory is that children need lots of opportunities to cross the midline (imaginary line separating left and right sides) to establish/ build pathways in the brain. There are claims that it is required for cognative skills such as reading and writing.
Occupational therapists use midline crossing exercises for children with bilateral delay.

I think it's actually quite interesting that you should ask. My has never been terribly comfortable with handwriting (I quickly moved him onto a computer and now that he's in 4th grade he pretty much types everything except in class assignments.) But when he was in nursery they kept trying to get him to learn how to write his name and he saw absolutely no purpose in it and in fact kept asking to write his sister's name instead. Dopey teacher didn't get it, but I quickly figured out that his name is 8 letters long and his sister's is only 4. Ds, by the way, is a genius (has been tested as such) and still finds more meaning in things like the big bang theory and water on the moon than writing his name.
Please remember that some children just have a terrible time with the mechanics of writing....it doesn't mean that they are not clever or won't do well at school.

Interesting, SofiaAmes - my brother is almost exactly the same. He has dyspraxia, which complicates writing, but he didn't like doing it because he just did not see the point at school. He's a whizz with a computer now but needs a dictaphone or scribe to get stuff down 'on paper'.

That sounds very like my son. He didn't write in school until Y6.

i childmind a 6 yr old boy who is G&T in Maths & Science and a "free reader" but has an IEP for both fine and gross motor skills. Sad thing is his mum refuses to accept that the teachers have picked up on something Not Quite Right. she refuses to take him to physio or OT saying that she would only take her DS if a GP told her to. she cannot see that the loser in this whole denial scenario is her son who has no choice in the matter.....

And no, I cannot talk to her about it at all. I have tried, to the detriment of our relationship.