Telehealth Occupational Therapy: Teaching Letters with Playdough (Familiarization, Formation, Handwriting Legibility)

Playdough is inexpensive to purchase and easy to make.  It is something that most families have at home and can be incorporated easily into telehealth occupational therapy sessions. 

Playdough can be used to encourage a range of fine motor skills, play skills as well as shape, letter and number formation.   Whilst I'm focusing on letter formation in this article, you can apply the same principles to learning shapes and numbers too.  Playdough provides a child with an opportunity to learn these in a hands-on multisensory way. It will help to engage your child in learning too.   This is particularly important when providing Telehealth OT services so that they child is not just a "viewer" of the OT on the screen, but an active participant during sessions. 

Here is an easy-to-make playdough recipe --->  PLAYDOUGH RECIPE
Watch how to make playdough ---> Playdough Recipe You-Tube 

This article is also accompanied by a You-tube video seen below (if you are reading this online) or if you are reading this via my newsletter use this link ---> Playdough and the Alphabet You-Tube Video.

When working on letter formation with my OT children, we are usually working in "letter families".  Letters are grouped to allow children to learn the motor patterns needed when writing.  It is also important to remember that letter formation requires a good foundation of skills including  postural control, fine motor skills , pencil grasp and visual spatial skills to name a few.  
​
For more information: 
Read ---> Letter formation families
Read ---> Fluency patterns and Drawing Pre-writing Lines/Shapes
Read ---> A dynamic pencil grasp: why do we teach it? 
Read ---> Visual Perceptual Skills required for Handwriting
Find all the Handwriting Articles ---> Handwriting Landing Page

Using Playdough for Teaching Letters: Familiarization, Formation, Legibility

1.  Playdough and Alphabet Familiarization.
If your child is learning the alphabet, unsure of letter names and what they look like... they may benefit from using playdough together with a visual prompt.  You can use any alphabet cards or books that you may have to provide assist with alphabet familiarization .  These cards/pages can be placed in a plastic display folder or even a ziplock bag to provide a surface for placing playdough on top.  Young children can simply tear off pieces of playdough to cover up the letters.  

You may also incorporate:

• singing the alphabet
• naming letters or starting sounds
• finding certain letters of the alphabet and placing a small blob of playdough over the letter
• matching lower and upper case (capital letters) 

2. Playdough and Letter Formation (Starting Points and Direction). 
Once your child is familiar with the alphabet, you may want to reinforce starting positions and direction of letters to assist them with writing. Playdough "sausage shapes" of various sizes are ideal for letter formation and can be placed down on the table (or printable) in the direction of formation. 

Children can make the letters on top of a visual prompt, alongside a visual prompt or by copying a model.  They can trace the letters they have made with their finger, pinch or poke the letters.  You can also add manipulatives such as buttons, beads, push pins, toothpicks to help mark out the starting points and direction of letter formation (with a extra benefit of working on fine motor skills simultaneously).  "Letter roads" provide a great visual prompt to be used with playdough, cars or other items to help with starting points and direction. 

A "clockface" from the "Spalding Method" is a wonder multi-sensory way to provide visual and verbal prompts with letter formation. I have incorporated the use of playdough and a plastic lid to help mark out the starting points and direction of letters.  I also find the use of a clockface especially useful when teaching magic c letters, z and e.  This may involve initially working on where numbers are positioned on a clock before working on letter formation. 

Here's what I do with playdough... 

• Ask your child to place the playdough on a small plastic lid.  Ask your child to push the playdough out and flatten it so that it covers the entire lid. 
• Ask your child to place a marker (eg. a bead) in the playdough along the edge of the circle (anywhere is fine).  Ask your child to turn the lid so that the marker is straight in front  of them  (in line with their belly button).  Ask your child to put another marker on the opposite side of the circle.  This marks 12 and 6 on a clock.  Your child can practice drawing with their finger from 12 to 6 to write the letters l, t, h, b, k (tall line letters). 
• Ask your child to place markers along the edge of the circle to represent all of the numbers of the clock.  They may need assistance to do this as well as help to count out 5 extra markers on each side.  You can practice counting from 1 - 12, pointing to each marker. 
• Ask your child to find 2 on the clock. They could mark this position with a different colour marker or a different type of marker (eg. change the bead from pink to purple or use a push pin instead of a bead). You can work on "c" starting at 2 and going up to 12 and around to 5 on the clock using a finger to mark out the playdough.   (Note: depending on your specific font you may switch up the starting and finishing points).  You can also work on other magic c letters such as o, a, d, g, q, s and f (however I don't tend to do these within the lid suggestion). 
• Ask your child to find 9 on the clock and go straight across to 3.  This is the starting position and direction for writing "z" and "e". ​

Watch letter formation using playdough ----> Playdough and the Alphabet You-Tube Video
Watch how to use letter roads ----> Letter Roads You-Tube Video
​Read ---> Letter Roads
Shop ---> "I can learn the Alphabet" Bundle
​Shop ---> Letter roads

3. Playdough and Handwriting Legibility 
As children develop skills for letter formation, they may be working on letter size or alignment to the writing line.  I use "Earth paper"  writing lines to assist with letter size and alignment.  I use the single Earth Paper Lined page with a clear visual prompt of three coloured lines - blue (sky), green (grass) and brown (earth/dirt/mud).  I use this to encourage children to place their playdough on particular lines (eg. small letters stay on the grass).  I also use this together with the letter outlines flashcards on my screen so we can write the letters during OT sessions also. 

Watch ---> Playdough and the Alphabet You-Tube Video
Read ---> Earth Paper Writing Lines
Shop ---> Earth Paper Writing lines and Earth paper letter outlines

Additional Tips:

• You can reduce the size of  letters in the aforementioned printables by selecting several pages to be printed onto a single piece of paper.  You can either print this or "print to pdf" which lets you create a new pdf of the letters you are targetting.  Eg. you may group the letters in a child's name or focus on "letter family". 
• For Telehealth OT;
  • Provide modelling of using the playdough rather than just verbal instruction.
  • Use the printables on a screen share and draw over the top to help mark the starting position and direction for letter formation.
  • Use the printables on a screen share and have your OT child use their mouse (if on a desktop) /finger or stylus (if on an ipad/touch screen) to draw over the worksheet on the screen. 
  • Randomize letter formation using a dice or use "Wheel Decide".  I created 2 new wheels to work on lower case letters and capital letters. Find these "wheels" HERE. ​

Do you use playdough to engage your child with the alphabet? Have you found some new ways to incorporate these ideas in your Telehealth sessions? Let me know! 

Cindy is a registered occupational therapist practising in Sydney, Australia.  She has two growing children who are a constant source of inspiration and learning.  Cindy loves working creatively to help children to reach their potential, finding opportunities in everyday living and making learning fun. She is also addicted to making printables (even when they take a long time to complete).  Cindy is the author of the Occupational Therapy website and blog  Your Kids OT and Sensory Diet Activity Guidebook (ebook).  

Cindy is a member of the Functional Skills for Kids Therapy Team.  They have together published THE HANDWRITING BOOK, THE SCISSORS SKILLS BOOK and THE TOILETING BOOK.

​The information on this site is general in nature. The activities are safe for most children, however, you should consult an Occupational Therapist or health professional to address specific movement, sensory or other medical conditions. Affiliate links are used throughout this website to promote products I love and recommend. I receive a commission if any purchases are made through these links. Please see my disclosure policy for more details.

Your Kids OT blog - https://www.yourkidsot.com/blog
Your Kids OT shop- https://www.yourkidsot.com/store/c1/Featured_Products.html
Your Kids OT Teachers Pay Teachers -  www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Your-Kids-Ot
Your Kids OT Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/yourkidsot/
Your Kids OT Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/yourkidsot
Your Kids OT Pinterest - http://www.pinterest.com/yourkidsot
Your Kids OT Amazon store - https://www.amazon.com/shop/yourkidsot

---

Watch Playdough and the Alphabet You-Tube Video

You may also like: