Should Preschoolers Write Their Names With Capital Letters?

As I’ve discussed in the last episode of Elevating Early Childhood, learning how to write your name as a preschooler takes a lot of work and dedication from both the teachers and the students.

Continuing on with the theme, today, I’ll be discussing whether you should be teaching your pre-k students to write their names in capital letters or lowercase letters.

This episode is also for those of you who are wondering why some kids can write their names beautifully, while others cry at the thought of having to do so.

All right, are you ready?

Keep reading to learn more!

Some Basic Facts for You

Facts About Uppercase Letter

Whether you’re a preschool teacher, or you’re teaching your own child at home, it’s important to understand the “why” behind the “what” when it comes to teaching young children how to write the letters of the alphabet.

So first, let’s start with three facts about today’s subject, uppercase letters. This is all information you need to know before you start teaching your students (or your child) how to write their name.

Fact #1: 

Uppercase letters are all the same height on the page.

Fact #2:

We write uppercase letters from the top down – meaning we always start at the top and move towards the bottom as we write –. 

This makes writing uppercase letters easier because children will be rolling a boulder (their pencils) downhill instead of pushing it uphill, which can cause muscle fatigue and even pain when writing.

Fact #3:

Uppercase letters are less sophisticated than lowercase ones. They have fewer loops and curls and more single stroke lines, which, naturally, makes them much easier to write than lowercase letters.

Facts About Child Development

There’s so much more to consider when it comes to writing letters than just which case they’re written in.

You’ll also have to take into consideration who is holding the pencil and writing the letters. In your case, it’s preschoolers, which means young children ages three to five.

This means we have to look at writing letters through a child development lens as well.

Here are some facts about child development:

Fact #1:

Each child develops the muscles required for writing in their fingers, wrists, arms, shoulders, and bodies at different times. In fact, even crawling plays a big part in this developmental sequence.

Fact #2:

The hand muscles required to hold a writing tool must be well-developed before a child even begins to feel confident and successful writing their name.

Fact #3:

Writing is different from identifying the printed letter, and one may happen before the other.

Fact #4:

Writing is different from drawing.

Often, young children will draw the letters instead of writing them. This is why we don’t want children to look at a lowercase letter with their eyes, and then try to create that letter on paper with a writing tool before they’ve been taught how to form the letters properly from top to bottom.

If you don’t show a child how to write from top to bottom with explicit instruction, they can encounter a lot of problems later on. That’s because they weren’t able to develop fluent writing skills.

Their writing may be slow and their hands may become tired from pushing the pencil from the bottom instead of writing from the top down.

Fact #5:

Young children move through the different stages of drawing and writing at different times. They may start by just tapping a crayon on a blank page and they’re delighted to see little dots and lines magically appear. Then, they might gradually start to make larger marks on the page, and eventually scribble.

So, to make this process as easy as possible (for you and for the child), always think of it like a baby learning to crawl before they begin to walk.

Uppercase Letters vs Lowercase Letters: The Verdict

Now that we all know the facts, we can reframe our thinking around teaching young children how to write the letters of the alphabet and which case to use.

So, if we know that each child needs well-developed fine motor skills to hold writing tools and write with those tools, and that they develop those muscles at different times, and that uppercase letters are easier for young children to write than lowercase letters, then it only makes sense to teach young children how to write the uppercase letters first.

This will ensure that we’re setting them up for success.

I discuss all of this in more depth (and do a quick Q&A for you) in the episode above, so make sure to give it a listen when you can.