Hand writing in a 5 year old

valk_scot

My son had terrible handwriting when he was five, mostly due to an inability to decide which hand he preferred to write with so he would swap over mid sentence. There was a lot of pressure on him from the teacher (not me!) to settle down with one or other and as a result he almost went on strike with writing, he refused to do much as he was never doing it "right". I had a few opinions about this and shared them with the school, as a result the constant criticism stopped. but it took him quite a long time to get his confidence back, it affected his schoolwork. He had the thoughts, he knew the answers but he didn't want to write them down if the teacher was just going to remark on his "messy" handwriting. So be careful....as long as you can read it, more or less, it's absolutely fine for a five year old.


My DD is a lefthander btw and when she was five her writing was like a drunken spider pogo-ing over the page, complete with reversed letters and deeply creative spelling. She had a more enlightened teacher though and I left well alone, so DD wrote voratiously. She used to write and illustrate little story books, keep a diary, write letters to her granny etc etc, just because she loved writing. She's 11 now, her handwriting writing still isn't as flowing and pretty as some of her classmates but she's fast, accurate, legible and above all confident, she's got no hesitation over producing written work. Unlike her brother, the negative influence of his teacher's attitude still lingers on a bit.

notanewuser

flea72 wrote: »

In yr1 handwriting should be just about legible. I wouldnt expect it to be uniform in size, and letters with tails, will be written on the same level as standard text, with mixing between caps and lower case.

My friend's son has just turned 7 and is extremely bright. At 5 and 6 his writing was amazing. His teacher has now started trying to teach 'handwriting' with tails and whatever, and his writing is now terrible.

I'm 35 and can remember being taught handwriting. I've never ever used joined up writing (left handed).

I just wonder what the point of it is. If a child already writes legibly, what's the point in trying to get them to do it differently?

spike241

My OH was left handed when he was young. Other kids in his class made fun of him for it so he switched to his right.
His handwriting is still awful now

splishsplash

My youngest took a while to settle on which hand to use for writing. He eventually chose his left hand, and I often wonder if I should have encouraged him to choose his right hand instead. He always looked really awkward when holding a pencil. There was a huge difference between my daughters' writing (right handed writers) and his. His writing was absolutely terrible. He is now 15, and while it's much better, I still wouldn't call it halfway decent. His keyboard skills are excellent though.

When he was of pre-school age and early school years, I used fine motor exercises with him, special pens, three lined paper, and every other aid I could think of, without making too big a deal of it. I don't think they made a jot of difference really. I am still of the idea that he is now writing with his non-dominant hand and that's the way it will be.

He has always performed very well in exams, and is consistently in the top 1-2% nationally in all subjects, so it certainly hasn't held him back in any way.

You may be right - your daughter's writing may well be terrible, and she may have to work at it a little more than her peers, but it's not a cause for concern, and I don't think you can change her back if she's made her choice. Encourage her and instill a love of learning in her and she'll be fine.

marisco_2

In her PE lessons you will find that your daughters class will all be doing excresise to strengthen the muscles in their arms, shoulders and hands.

Does your daughter attend a fine motor group? I run one at the school where I work for children who struggle with their handwriting. Getting them to work with putty (similar to playdough). Rolling it into a ball, then rolling it out into a sausage shape, pinching along it, rolling out again, rolling it up into a snail and back into a ball.

Threading beads onto some string, using scissors, sewing. All helps with hand eye coordination and getting that pincer grip stronger.

Air writing is also really good. Encourage your daughter to stretch out her arm and point with her finger then form letters in the air. Use your finger to draw letters on her hand, or on her back.

Get a tray and put shaving foam, sand, rice etc into it and write letters that way. Use highlighters and try out rainbow writing. Let your daughter write over letters that you have written.

There is a fabulous resource known as handwriting without tears. I use it with many of my pupils. www.hwtears.com

Talk to your childs teacher and explain all your concerns. They will want to work with you to enable her to come on.

go_cat

My DS aged almost 6 had awful writing up to a week ago ...it was large letters with massive gaps and not even on the line... however he suddenly seems to have "got" it.

Don't get me wrong its still not perfect but almost legible now.

The spelling just makes me smile tho ... " I rellie love you mummy "

thehappybutterfly

Their writing should be big, scrawly with a scattering of back to front letters at that age! And trailing off and down the paper when they get to the edge of the page and they've run out of paper!

Janepig

DD is nearly 10 and only now is her handwriting becoming okay. She holds a pen in a sort of claw arrangement, the school (and us) have tried all ways to get her to hold it properly but to no avail. She loves writing though, and drawing so I've never been unduly worried. DS's teacher was moaning about his handwriting in parents evening recently, and admittedly it's not good, but he's only 7 and hardly ever writes or draws in the house so again I'm not massively concerned.

My father was left handed until he started school, at which point he was routinely caned by his teacher until he used his right hand instead, which he still does to this day (he's 78 now!). Tom Browns Schooldays! :rotfl::rotfl:

Jx

Wine_of_the_World

grass_is_greener wrote: »

I don't think its a case of expecting too much. It's a case of wanting to help my daughter as I know its not easy to adapt to writing with a non dominant hand. Maybe I'm paranoid because of it but I only want to help her, maybe before its too late to change.

It's not just a case of worrying about 'messy' writing, its the bigger picture of swapping hands and fine motor skills.

At school they don't use lines to write on, only blank note books and I don't think this helps as she doesn't seem to gauge the difference in heights etc or that some letters have tails. I'm not sure that all schools teach like this but I know hers does.

Her left arm is very much redundant, she has bad scarring on it from four different operations and she finds it difficult to even hold things in that hand now. She started swimming and dancing at 4 on the advice of the consultant to help strengthen it but there is still an obvious difference between the two arms.

I do think I may be over analysing but its difficult not to when her arm has caused such difficulties.

If there is such a difference in her left arm I would get a referral for some expert advice - if only to put your mind at rest. But she might need specific help to get her using her left hand/arm again.

The reluctance to use her left arm must also have or start to have an impact on other tasks too like sports where throwing and catching is required using two hands or cutting - using one had to move the paper.

Surely its best to get it checked out now rather than to wait and see whether it gets really really bad when surely it will be harder to improve.

geoffky

I am left handed and my hand writing is still bad.
There is a book that has lots of swirls and letter shapes for improving handwriting a teacher got it me many years ago..
At the age of five i would not be too overly concerned and i do think that it may never be perfect,
I can spot a left handed persons handwriting a mile away..
One good thing.Look at how many people in certain professions like acting and doctors are left handed.