For us adults, it’s easy – there are 26 letters in the alphabet, and they all have upper and lower cases. But for children just learning about the written language, that’s 52 different shapes and symbols to remember.

To make things easier down the road, familiarising your kids with the alphabet will help them greatly. Only after that will they acquire alphabet knowledge, which includes being able to read and write. (According to this paper, that can take up to five years for children to properly grasp.)

To help them, you can expose them to the alphabet and words from an early age, even if you think it’s too advanced for them. The same paper mentioned before even notes that the earlier a child is exposed to literacy, the more successful they become!

Before you start your kids out with writing, it’s important for them to have a strong understanding of how letters form words, as this research finds. Constant exposure to print from a young age is important in order for them to understand that the words on the page and the words they speak are one and the same.

To better help your little ones become accustomed to written language, the study suggests two mediums: storybooks and labels (including signs).

For books, it was found that they are useful in teaching children about how to read. This means from left to right, top to bottom, and that the spaces between words affect how we speak. You can try this method out and point to the specific words on the page, places to pause and start, and more in order to bring your children’s attention to it!

Labels are another way you can teach your kids how to read – by using what is available around you! This can come in the form of their favourite shop’s display sign or by having eye-catching words or letters put up around the room.

If there’s one thing people always tell parents to do, it’s to make sure that their kids develop good motor skills – and for good reason. According to this scholarly journal, motor skills are important in laying the foundation that helps children learn. This includes manual skills that encourage interaction with objects such as pens and pencils.

Before children begin to write words and sentences they must first be able to hold and use a writing tool. They must also have the strength in their body to sit up at a table or desk for extended periods of time.

There are many ways for you to enhance your children’s motor skills – luckily for them, a lot of this includes playing.

Strengthen their hands and finger strengths by playing with play dough, finger-painting, and construction toys such as lego. Finger songs such as Itsy Bitsy Spider are also great choices to improve motor skills.

For building the muscles that will help them sit up for long periods of time, physical activity such as walking on uneven surfaces and having fun in the playground is very beneficial for them. You can also opt to start table-training them. Have them play, eat, or colour ar a table while sitting upright in a chair.

As with anything, focusing and concentrating are both important to fully learn a skill, writing included.

However, children are known for their short attention spans. Therefore, it’s important to help them learn to focus in order for them to properly study how to write in the future.

One way to help children in this aspect is to teach them to self-regulate themselves. This brief defines self-regulation as helping children learn to cope with overwhelming situations and learning to focus and shift attention. The first five years of a child’s life is especially suitable for kids to learn how to do so because they develop the fastest during this period.

To help your children develop self-control, you can implement a schedule for different activities. It doesn’t have to be studying, of course. Allocate some time for colouring, reading, eating, etc.

You can also play games that require lots of focus such as Simon Says and jigsaw puzzles – no one said you couldn’t have some fun!

Remember to be patient when it comes to your kids! It can be tempting to rush them into being able to write and read – perhaps it’s a reflection of our society that values our children’s education. However, your little ones will naturally pick up the skill of writing as long as you continually expose them to print and encourage them to read.

Keep things fun and exciting so that they will be excited to learn more, and make sure to keep encouraging them (yes, even if their words look more like scribbles than anything else).

A version of this story first appeared in Young Parents.

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