Business Park Rd, Lisnenan, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal
www.justrewards.ie
© Just Rewards 2024
978-1-913137-73-1
Author: Dr Sinéad McCauley Lambe
Design: Audrey Kavanagh
Images:
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the written permission of the publishers or else under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Irish Copyright Licensing Association.
The Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration was first published in 1989 by Beery & Beery. It is a pencil-andpaper measure that involves 24 geometric forms of increasing complexity that the child being assessed is required to copy. Research in the area suggests therefore that formal handwriting training should be delayed until the child can successfully copy basic geometric shapes, including a vertical line, a horizontal line, a circle, a cross, a right oblique line, a square, a left oblique line, an oblique cross and a triangle (O’Connor, 2012). Learner
Move Write Book A (Print) is a developmentally designed handwriting practice book that supports the introduction of print style handwriting.
Research suggests that there are a variety of ways to group letters in relation to the of teaching of handwriting. The approach taken in Move Write Book A follows on from the Move Write: A Whole-body Approach to Handwriting programme. It is a child-led, sensory-rich developmental approach that can be used in the whole-class or in one-to-one settings with individual learners.
Learners are invited to look carefully at all the letters on the page and to examine the distinguishing features of each letter. This activity is building on the visual discrimination skills developed in the Move Write: A Whole-body Approach to Handwriting programme. In this way, the children themselves will develop their own ideas about letter characteristics and which letters should be grouped together, which will make them more likely to be able to remember how to form the letters correctly. This method is based on Marie Clay’s (1991) work on teaching of letter formation.
Building on the sensorimotor focus of Move Write - A Whole-body Approach to Handwriting, a tactile alphabet is included at the beginning of the book. It is suggested that this page is used as the starting point for learners to decide what letters should go together.
Possible questions / prompts that you could use to facilitate the conversation are as follows:
• Can we try to find all the short letters? Put a cube on all the short letters.
• Can we try to find all the tall letters? Put a cube on all the long letters.
• Can we try to find all the letters that hang down? Put a cube on all the letters that hang down.
• Now, can you find a tall letter with a cross near the top? (f, t). Put a cube on those letters.
• Can we find letters that have a dot on top (i, j)? Put a cube on those letters.
• Can we find letters that have a ‘c’ hidden in them? (c, a, d, g, o, q) An example of possible groupings is as follows: Curved letters: a, c, d, e, g, o, q, s Straight letters: i, l, t Tunnel print letters: b, h, n, m, p, u Diagonal line print letters: k, v, w, x, y, z Letters that have hook: f, j, r
As a class-group, as a small-group or in a one-to-one setting, decide what groups or ‘families’ the letters belong to. Decide which letter you are going to begin with, and encourage learners to find the correct practice page. This process promotes the development of critical visual perceptual skills as learners use visual discrimination skills to find the correlating page in the book. The process also supports a child-led, developmentally appropriate approach, as well as the professional judgement of educators.
The practice pages also include one line of capital letters for learners to practise. While the focus of the book is on the development of lower-case letter formation, exposure to the upper-case version of each letter can be beneficial at this stage. For some learners with specific learning needs, capital letters may not be a learning priority. In this case, it is suggested covering this part of the page with a blank piece of paper or card.
For learners with specific or additional sensory needs, it is suggested to put a strip of sand paper or any other textured paper under the ‘Finger Trace’ and ‘Give it a Go’ sections of the practice book. This will provide additional tactile feedback which may support learners’ development, as well as increasing their motivation.
Move Write Book A includes a pre-writing checklist based on Beery’s Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration (1989). Research suggests that formal handwriting training should be delayed until the child can successfully copy basic geometric shapes, including a vertical line, a horizontal line, a circle, a cross, a right oblique line, a square, a left oblique line, an oblique cross and a triangle. For this reason, Book A (Print) provides multiple practice activities for learners to develop competence and confidence in mastering these geometric shapes.
Use a bingo marker or dot stickers to practise making vertical lines. copy this example!
Rainbow write to practise making vertical lines.
copy this example!
Use a bingo marker or dot stickers to practise making horizonal lines
copy this example!
Rainbow write to practise making horizontal lines.
copy this example!
Rainbow write to practise making the circle shape.
copy this example!
Rainbow write to practise the cross shape. copy this example!
Rainbow write to practise the square shape.
copy this example!
Use a bingo marker or dot stickers to practise making a diagonal line.
copy this example!
Use a bingo marker or dot stickers to practise making a diagonal line.
copy this example!
Rainbow write to practise the X shape.
copy this example!
Rainbow write to practise the triangle shape.
copy this example!
Trace and copy
Give
Trace and copy
Give
Give
Trace and copy
Give
Trace and copy
Give
Trace and copy
Give
Trace and copy
Give
Trace and copy
Give
Trace and copy
Give
Trace and copy
Give
Trace and copy
Give
Trace and copy
Give
Trace and copy
Give
Trace and copy
Give
Trace and copy
Give
Trace and copy
Give
Give
Give
Trace and copy
Give
Trace and copy
Give
Trace and copy
Give
Trace and copy
Give
Trace and copy
Give
Trace and copy
Give
Trace and copy
Give
Trace and copy
Give