He is 3 and a half, he is still a baby. If his playschool teacher is saying he is mischievious because he won’t write it is time to change his kindergarten. The emphasis nowadays seems to be on children growing up too fast. Allow your little boy to enjoy his childhood, he has plenty of time to learn to read and write when he goes to school. The important thing at his age is that he has access to books, usually from parents reading to him. Don’t push him too hard as you may totally alienate him from learning. Have some strong words with his teacher, she should not be pushing children of this age to write. Encourage them yes, force them NO!

Awww. Sounds like a cutie! He is just not developmentally ready. He’ll grow into it. Provide activities for him that he will enjoy and that will support fine motor development and attention span. Play dough is a good choice. In fact, let him help you make it! Then play with it together. Squishing the dough around will help develop fine motor control and strength. Let him color on paper with crayons or markers. Just be sure you clearly state the rule that we only color on this paper! Get him a little pair of child-safe scissors and let him cut colored paper into bits. Then show him how to use dots of glue or a glue stick to glue the bits on another paper to make a collage-style picture. Put shaving cream on the table while you make dinner and let him draw in it with his fingers. It’s just soap, and when you wipe the table down for dinner it will be all clean, and he will have exercised his fingers and had fun too! It’s really not developmentally appropriate to expect a child this young to be writing. Some do, but most are just not ready yet. Don’t worry about it. He’ll get there!

Hopefully some preschool teacher will jump into this one to explain the developmental aspects of why a 3-year old “doesn’t like writing”. The hand-eye-brain wiring develops routinely, and a 3-year old isn’t yet “wired” to the point where he can correlate sounds & letters & meanings together and make anything out of writing, per se, nor does a 3-year old possess any decision-making apparatus about liking or not liking writing. No need, since no expectation on the part of loving parents or ambitious preschool or daycare “teachers” can change normal development. Knowing colours and shapes of letters & forms prepare little kids for the bigtime…and not listening is part of everyday kid behavior at that age. My final word on this one? RELAX.

The program should not be expecting three year olds to write on command, or at all. Most threes simply aren’t ready. It takes a lot of stress and effort at that age while if they wait until he’s approaching 5 it may prove easier. It makes me wonder if he isn’t reacting to being in an inappropriate program. They should be giving him lots of opportunities to develop his small muscles with crayons and clay and markers and lego and other more appropriate activities Your son sounds pretty healthy to me .

You say your son is 3 1/2? Give him time! If you try to push him into writing before he is ready then he will learn to dread it. Take it slowly, make it fun and don’t put stress and pressure on him at his young age. Spend time reading picture books to him and making reading a positive experience for him. If he learns to enjoy and look forward to reading, then wanting to write will progress naturally at the right time.

Children develop their fine motor skills at different rates too. Does he like drawing? Encourage him to draw pictures and tell you about them. Then you can ‘scribe’ for him. That is, you write down what he says about his picture and then read it back together. (Keep it short and simple) Praise him!

When he is ready to start writing letters and numbers, make it fun too! Do it together. Write letters in the air, in the sand pit or dirt, on the chalk board, make them out of play dough, find them on the computer keyboard. Don’t scold him if he is wrong, just show him again, patiently. When he is right, hooray! Children have short attention spans. Don’t make the sessions long enough to bore him. Keep them simple, short, and fun. If you want him to be successful, make reading and writing positive experiences!

I am a teacher of 4-5 year olds and had this problem with some children in my class last year.

I found a few ways of encouraging children to write:

1. offer a range of writing tools in a variety of colours (pencils, pens, felt tips, chalks, paintbrushes, etc)

2. watch shows such as “Look and Read” and “Words and Pictures” that demonstrate letter formation

3. give him a range of things to write on: birthday cards, invitations, postcards, letters, notebooks, shaped paper, etc.

If it is his confidence that is discouraging him from writing give him some pencil control sheets to practise on (I laminate mine and use a dry-wipe pen so they can be used again and again). I got mine from www.senteacher.org click printables and then select handwriting.

As he is only 3 I wouldnt worry too much as he could become more interested in writing as he gets older. You could start by encouraging him to write his name and maybe use a reward chart for when he attempts writing or actually writes his name. Give him a star sticker each time and set him a target of getting 10stars then he gets a treat, I’m sure he will respond to something like this.

Good luck!

My goodness gracious! Why are you so anxious ? Believe me when he’s ready he will learn in his own time. But to tell you the truth, I didn’t like what his teacher said about him…how dare she? If he was my son, I ‘d have her fired or I’d have him removed…how can somebody, much less a teacher, in her right mind say that a 3 years old child is the most mischievous boy in his class??? He isn’t my child and I’m upset already, I’m a Toddler teacher and God forbid me to talk like that about one of my children…much less to the parent!!!

The teacher says he doesn’t listen?

Tell her to say something that interests him. (Ok…don’t really say that. But you understand my feeling on that one)

He’s the most mischievous boy in the class?

She needs to learn how to talk to parents about their children.

I put blame on the teacher for this one. It’s not a matter of not liking to write – it’s a matter of the teacher not knowing the child is not ready to write yet. Learning to write doesn’t begin with letters … it begins very free form with the pen. Back and forth is often normal at this age as are various shapes when he writes. Sometimes, it’s a combination of shapes and scribbles.

Pre-writing activities would include such things as:

–Seeing the differences in stuff. (Example: Find pictures or objects of cats that look similar with one of them different in a small way. Have him find the different one). This helps him to see the differences in stuff which, in turn, helps him to see the differences in letters.

–Very tactile activities. Get a tray of sand. Have him trace the letter on paper then trace it in the sand to try to write it that way.

–I spy is a great game. “I spy with my little eye something that begins with ‘mmmmmmmmmmm'”

Teachers should not compare who is the most mischevious or any other attribute and share that with the parents. That’s completely unprofessional. If she’s asking the child to do something he feels he’s not ready for, it’s terrible technique.

Said it…believe it…google it. Yeah. Take it or leave it.

My 2 cents.

Matt

Hello,

Each time your little lad undertakes a writing project by himself without being asked be sure to praise his work lavishly. When he has done some little work of writing and he has either aunts, uncles, or grandparents visiting, be sure to mention to them in his hearing so they can praise him too. Positive re-inforcement works on everyone, from little ones to adults, from humans to creatures. Good luck. I am sure this is only a temporary set back and he will soon be producing more than you will have room to display on the honour boards.

Warm regards

Lisa

I would say 31/2 is still young to be pushing things like writing, esp. for a boy. Some boys (and girls) are very high energy and need a more hands on and active learning environment. Try talking with the teacher to see if there is anything she can do on her end. Make sure he is getting lots of time to play outside and run to burn off that energy.