A well-meaning myth continues to shape early childhood classrooms: “Children need to develop fine and gross motor skills first — before we teach them how to write.” While it sounds logical, this belief delays meaningful writing instruction and misrepresents what research actually shows.
Let’s unpack why this myth persists and why it’s time to rethink it.
❌ The myth: motor skills first, writing later
You’ve probably seen this in practice: children playing with tweezers, threading beads, squeezing stress balls, all in the name of ‘preparing’ them for writing. These activities are valuable – it’s just that they are not a prerequisite for learning to write.
The idea that children must achieve certain motor milestones before writing instruction can begin is not supported by empirical evidence. In fact, delaying writing actually denies children the perfect place and opportunity for them to develop such skills.
✅ The truth: Writing drives motor skill development – not the other way around
Research shows that motor skills develop in tandem with writing – not in isolation before it. For example, in the seminal publication Already Ready, Katie Wood Ray & Matt Glover make a compelling case: children are writers from the moment they enter preschool. Their scribbles, drawings, and invented spellings are not only showcasing their writing development, they also show their motor-skills developing through writing too.
- Children benefit from writing early and often, even before their handwriting is neat or refined. See our article: Debunking edu-myths: ‘Emergent writing’ isn’t necessary before teaching children to write for more details on this [LINK].
- Explicit handwriting instruction is far more effective than motor-skill exercises alone.
📚 What the research actually says
✏️ Handwriting gets better through writing, not just pegboards
It’s easy to see the logic: handwriting is a physical skill, so if a child struggles with it, they must lack the fine motor coordination required. Hence, giving them more motor practice should help, right?
This belief is widespread in both early years and SEND settings, and it’s often accompanied by a suite of activities: threading beads, using tweezers, playing with playdough, or tracing mazes. While these exercises develop children’s general motor development, there’s a crucial problem when it comes to using such practices to ‘prepare’ or improve children’s letter formation and handwriting.
Steve Graham – one of the world’s leading writing researchers – has shown that motor-skill focused programmes do not significantly improve children’s letter formation or handwriting outcomes unless paired with direct handwriting instruction. His meta-analysis concluded:
“Instructional programs designed to improve students’ motor skills were not effective. In contrast, explicit handwriting instruction was.”
— Graham et al. (2016)
Other studies add additional support to these claims (Lopez-Escribano et al. 2022; Ray 2022; Zwicker & Hadwin 2009). For instance, a systematic review of occupational therapy-based handwriting programmes (Hoy & Feder 2011) found that:
- Interventions with fewer than 20 sessions and no direct handwriting instruction were largely ineffective.
- The most effective programmes provided frequent, structured handwriting practice, often through meaningful writing experiences.
🤸♂️ So what you saying? Motor-skill development isn’t important?
This is where nuance matters. Of course, motor-skill development matters. It’s just that these supports work best when paired with handwriting instruction and meaningful writing experiences. For example, fine motor skill activities can impact children’s manual dexterity, visual perception, and visual integration (Eddy et al. 2019; Strooband et al. 2020).
🧾 What actually works? A sensible, integrated approach
If the goal is to support early writers, here’s what the evidence supports:
✅ Effective writing instruction includes:
- Explicit teaching of letter formation and handwriting
- Feedback on legibility and fluency
- Opportunities for daily, meaningful writing experiences (see this article for more details LINK)
✅ Motor-skill activities can complement writing but shouldn’t replace or delay:
- Provide activities that build core strength (e.g. crawling, wall pushes)
- Encourage vertical writing to build shoulder stability
- Ensure whole-body play, especially outdoors
These activities are best seen as supportive, not preparatory. Writing doesn’t wait on them – it happens alongside them.
🚀 Time to bust the myth
Here’s what needs to change:
| Myth | Fact |
| We need to ‘prepare’ children for writing | Children are Already Ready [LINK] |
| Children must develop their motor-skills first | Meaningful writing experiences are a perfect place to help children develop their motor-skills |
| Emergent writing doesn’t count | Emergent writing is essential to children’s future writing success [LINK] |
| We shouldn’t teach letter formation or handwriting | Explicit handwriting instruction is essential to children’s future writing success [LINK] |
💬 Final thought
Children don’t need to be made ‘ready’ to write. They are already ready. They are writers the moment they have something to say through their emergent writing. The idea that they must build their motor skills before they write is an outdated and unsupported idea.
Writing is not the reward for motor readiness – it’s the very thing that helps develop it. Children develop as writers by writing, not by waiting.