Pre-Writing Skills: What to Practice Before Tracing Letters

By the Print and Learn team · 4 min read

Before children can form letters, they need to be able to draw the strokes that letters are made of. Occupational therapists call these pre-writing strokes, and they tend to appear in a predictable order.

The usual order of strokes

• Vertical line (top to bottom), usually around age 2 to 3.
• Horizontal line (left to right).
• Circle, starting at the top and going counter-clockwise.
• Cross (+), around age 3 to 4.
• Diagonal lines and the square, around age 4.
• X and the triangle, often closer to age 5.

If your child can copy most of these, they have the building blocks for nearly every capital letter.

Building a comfortable grip

• Offer short, chunky crayons. Short crayons naturally push children toward a pinch grip rather than a fist.
• Work on a vertical surface sometimes: an easel, a window with washable markers, or paper taped to the wall. It strengthens the wrist and shoulder.
• Play games that use the thumb and first two fingers: picking up pom-poms with clothespins, tearing paper, squeezing play dough.

Making tracing a success

Dotted tracing lines are helpful because they show the starting point and direction. Show your child where to start, trace slowly together once, then let them try. Two or three good attempts are worth more than a whole page done in a rush.

When your child is ready for letters, start with Trace A to E. LKG children can move through A to E, F to J and on to U to Z. For numbers, try Trace 1 to 5.

A note on left-handed children

Let your child choose which hand to use. Left-handed children often find it easier if the paper is tilted slightly to the right and they hold the pencil a little further from the tip, so they can see what they are writing.