Handwriting Without Tears® (HWT®) is a therapeutic curriculum that teaches pre-printing, printing and cursive writing skills to children of all ages and abilities. HWT® was developed by an Occupational Therapist using child-friendly language, child development concepts, and fun teaching techniques. All of the HWT® techniques are developmentally based, which means that a child builds upon the skills he has mastered. It is a multi-sensory approach that incorporates posture, strength, grasp, coordination, perception, and writing.
Kids can benefit from HWT® even during the pre-kindergarten years. In fact, HWT® has a program made just for that age group that includes music and fun activities and targets grasp and finger strengthening, trunk strengthening, pencil grasp, pre-writing shapes, learning to write name, and drawing a picture of a person. Specially designed HWT® workbooks and other materials also support skill building.
As a child grows, he can transition into the other HWT® programs for lowercase printing, uppercase printing and cursive writing.
Kati Berlin, MS, OTR/L, Melissa Petcu, MS, OTR/L, and other members of the occupational therapy team at Child and Family Development, offer individual and group services with the HWT® approach.
Visit the Handwriting Without Tears® website for more information at www.hwtears.com.
