Handwriting help for 8 year old?

Magentasue

kathc, if your experience is anything like mine, you'll find that things will be easier in primary school. When my son started secondary school, it was a nightmare. He ended up in bottom sets for everything apart from Maths, feigned illness to avoid PE and couldn't keep up with written class work, or record homework properly.

I did make a fuss and seemed to be constantly on the phone to the the Head of Year, SENCo etc. When he did his Year 9 SATs we jumped through numerous hoops to get him a scribe and he got a Level 6 for English and 7s for Maths and Science. He was put in top GCSE sets for Maths and Science and used PE lessons for catching up with coursework and we never looked back. There were times when the school made me feel I was being difficult but when he was assessed he came out in the bottom 1% of the population for motor skills but with above average intelligence. School then had to acknowledge that he would be expected to achieve above average results and had to do something about it.

Once he got to A' Levels, he was OK because he did Maths and sciences and continued to have extra time and a scribe for exams. I'm not saying he hasn't struggled but he has a part time job, manages his university course and is generally happy and confident.

tw1nklestar

perhaps you could do some arts and crafts with him- collage is a brilliant idea as it involves cutting and painting on glue - threading beads is another good idea as it improves fine motor control. dyspraxia is quiet hard to prove but paediatricians tend to label dyspraxic tendancies rather than dyspraxia. there is also a pen and pencil i believe they r called euro pens?? that help with correct pencil grip - hope this helps

Kitikat

Magentasue - Despite his problems my son has always managed to stay in the top set for everything in a very good school. One of my worries has always been that because of his handwriting, other areas of his work could suffer eg. his maths because when do problems he has to write the whole problem out before solving it (this is something that I will tackle the school on next week). It would be very easy for a teacher to look at my sons work and decide that he isn't clever enough to be in the top set, which I know would be a major setback with his confidence.

Now that I know for certain that my son has dyspraxia I will be a lot more careful in which secondary school we choose for him. When I decided to send him to the school he is at currently, I simply found the best school in the area. Looking back I can see this was a mistake as he needs special help which his current school seems unable to offer.

I feel it must have been difficult for you to deal with your son's dyspraxia at that time, as even now I speak to the teacher's and they don't know what can be done to help my son, they just don't seem to know very much about dyspraxia.

I know what you mean when you say the school sometimes made you feel that you were being difficult, I sometimes think when they see me arriving at the school gates the teachers hide. Having said that now that I know for definite he has dyspraxia I think that they will see me even more often. In my experience my son has had very little help of the professionals so I will keep pushing wherever I can because if I don't get him help nobody will.

I am interested in your son being able to use a scribe (is this some kind of tape recorder) for his SATs, perhaps I will look into this. My son does his year 6 SATs next year, perhaps they would consider this too early to use a scibe. Also, do you know at what stage the extra time you mention for exams is allowed? Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Magentasue

By scribe I mean an amenuensis - someone to write for him.

My son was in top groups in primary school, the problems started in secondary school when he had 10+ teacher who would see him for 1-4 hours a week. They just judged by his written work - some were a bit more perceptive but in general they weren't. Once the assessments were done and reports sent to school I made surehis IEP included use of worksheets and print outs instead of him having to write things out.

Unless things have changed, use of a scribe in SATS is at the school's discretion, they don't have to apply for special arrangements like they do for GCSE and beyond. Same for extra time, standard is 25%. My son found this adequate but I have taught kids who got more - think you'd have to have a professional recommending it even for SATs but not sure. Check with the SENCo, they'll have the gumpf with current regulations.

HTH

Swan_2

Magentasue wrote:

http://www.dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk/index.htm

My son wasn't diagnosed until he was in secondary school - when I first found out about it, everything fell into place. And I'm a teacher! Dyspraxia was never mentioned when I trained and I was forever explaining what it was at my son's parents' evenings.

I have an 18 year old dyxpraxic son & one of the most frustrating things has been explaining to people what dyspraxia is ... it's often seen in conjunction with dyslexia &/or ADHD, both of which are much more well-known & publicised

also, the 'symptoms' of dyspraxia can be so different, both in manifestation & severity, that it's often difficult to spot straight away

my boy's fine motor control is excellent, his handwriting's fine, if a little eccentric. his gross motor control is moderately affected (used to be called 'clumsy child syndrome') but his biggest problem is severely affected speech, people assume he's stupid because he can't always articulate well, which can be very frustrating

I could go on & on, but won't because I'm hi-jacking this thread


anyway, back on topic ... I did see on another thread on this site HERE that you can download a free font which consists of 'dotted' letters for you to print out for a child to trace/write over & I'm presuming you can vary the sizes. maybe that would be helpful?

bylromarha

You've got lots of great help on here...loads of good ideas.

If, from descriptions on here, it sounds like your son may be dyspraxic, can I advise you to start jotting things down which you feel may point to dyspraxia, so you have something to show OT? e.g, could not maintain balance on beam 20cm wide.

Also, to loosen his hands up, the idea about getting outlines and drawing in them is fab HW practice. E.g. the scales on a fish/dragon, zig zag lines on a witches hat.

Also, if you still have a little bit of play sand lying around, put it in the bottom of a washing up bowl and wet it and get him to do similar patterns in the sand.

Also, if it's the size of letters that he's finding difficult, look at your palm. Teach him that some letters, such as a, o, i, e, s all fit in the palm. Add the fingers to give the stalks on letters such as d, l, h, and to go down your wrist for letters with tails. Can help some kids formation.

devoncat

Sorry if this is repeated, dont have time to read the whole thread. When I was little, my handwriting was terrible. My teacher sat me down and made me cut paper to build up the muscles in my hand. I thought it was great! Very fun to cut paper and make things. Hope this helps!