My DD refused to write even her name until she was 5. What helped her was watching me write out the words. She closely watches how I form the letters on my page and then she copies 'my words'. I mostly use this technique when she asks about spelling. I never spell out a word verbally. I always write it on a separate piece of paper. It has helped her hand writing tremendously. To this day she will not 'practice' using writing work sheets, due to perfectionism she needs to use a pencil so that she can erase mistakes. The coloured pencil/marker approach didn't work for her at all. I tried many different things but in the end something as simple as this helped her.
