{"id":96,"date":"2026-07-08T19:51:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T23:51:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/heycoramay.com\/playground\/?p=96"},"modified":"2026-07-10T13:26:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T17:26:34","slug":"whats-with-all-this-tracing-in-board-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/heycoramay.com\/playground\/whats-with-all-this-tracing-in-board-books\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s with all this tracing in board books?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Cora Astin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you ever read a board book and noticed the raised or textured objects that little ones can trace with their fingers? Those elements aren\u2019t randomly placed there by accident! They are actually designed to help support early pre-reading and pre-writing skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As littles begin to trace different shapes and objects, they begin creating synapses related to fine motor skills, hand\u2013eye coordination, and muscle memory for letter formation. (That\u2019s just a fancy way of saying these actions help build important pathways in a child\u2019s brain that link to the foundation of writing.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As littles begin to trace different shapes and objects, they begin creating synapses related to fine motor skills, hand\u2013eye coordination, and muscle memory for letter formation. (That\u2019s just a fancy way of saying these actions help build important pathways in a child\u2019s brain that link to the foundation of writing.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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That\u2019s just a fancy way of saying these actions help build important pathways in a child\u2019s brain that link to the foundation of writing.<\/p>— Cora Astin<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

While a few of these benefits are very obvious to see. Fine motor development and hand\u2013eye coordination make sense because children are actively using their hands and fingers to follow the shapes on the page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The less obvious benefit is how tracing supports pre-writing skills through muscle memory. Many of the lines and shapes found in board books for littles to trace are actually the building blocks of letters and numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you take a deeper look at how letters and numbers are formed, you\u2019ll notice they\u2019re made up of simple motions: curves, circles, and lines. These are the same types of movements that authors and illustrators intentionally include in board books for little fingers to trace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By practicing these motions early on through tracing in board books, children begin developing the muscle memory they\u2019ll rely on when learning to write in the years ahead, long before a pencil ever enters the picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to practice these skills with your littles? Here are some suggestions from our CLEL Bells books:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CLEL Bell Blog<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As littles begin to trace different shapes and objects, they begin creating synapses related to fine motor skills, hand\u2013eye coordination, and muscle memory for letter formation. (That\u2019s just a fancy way of saying these actions help build important pathways in a child\u2019s brain that link to the foundation of writing.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/heycoramay.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/heycoramay.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/heycoramay.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heycoramay.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heycoramay.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/heycoramay.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":141,"href":"https:\/\/heycoramay.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions\/141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/heycoramay.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heycoramay.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heycoramay.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}