ASFSC Early Head Start

Ironically, ripping, tearing + crumpling the worksheets builds far more developmentally appropriate foundations for writing than the writing practice we so often put on the worksheets themselves.

Here’s what children are actually working on:

• Bilateral coordination: Using both sides of the body together while each hand performs a different role, an important prerequisite for stabilizing paper with one hand while writing with the other.

• Intrinsic hand strength: Repeated gripping, pinching, squeezing + crumpling recruits the small muscles within the hand needed for controlled manipulation of writing tools.

• Motor planning: The brain must plan, sequence + adjust movements to initiate and continue a tear or manipulate the paper into a ball.

• Graded force control: Children learn to regulate how much muscular force is necessary to grip, pull, tear + compress materials, a skill later used to control pencil pressure.

• Hand separation: Manipulating paper encourages differentiated use of the thumb, index + middle fingers while the ulnar side of the hand provides stability, supporting more refined hand function.

• Visual-motor integration: The eyes guide and continuously adjust hand movements as children locate an edge, follow a tear + manipulate the changing shape of the paper.

• Proprioceptive feedback: Resistance from pulling, tearing + squeezing provides sensory information to the muscles and joints, helping the nervous system calibrate force and movement.

Writing is an incredibly complex motor task. Before we repeatedly ask young children to produce letters on paper, it makes sense to give their developing hands + nervous systems plenty of opportunities to build the underlying capacities that make writing possible.

Pathways to Prosperity Scholarship Pathways to Prosperity Scholarship Purpose The Alabama Community College and Paths for Success Foundation have partnered to offer the Pathways to Prosperity Scholarship. This scholarship is available for Alabama residents to be applied toward qualifying educational expenses associated with enrollmen...