7 year old with handwriting issues

shop-to-drop

My son has writing issues and was allowed to type his GCSE's he got 1A* 8A and 2B so hasn't held him back academically. 7 is very young to worry my other two sons have struggled with writing in primary school too but in secondary seem to be doing fine.

jellyhead

onlyroz wrote: »

My son struggles with his writing, and his teachers have found that it is much more legible when he writes joined up - mainly because it forces him to separate one word from the next. Without it, his writing just looks like a mass of disjointed letters. He has also been given a notebook with lines ruled to assist with joined up writing - so he writes over three lines with a segment for each part of the letter. His writing is significantly improved since the start of the school year.

My youngest's teacher says the same, and I agree with her - I find it easier to read his joined-up writing. This teacher has introduced handwriting practise books for a few minutes at a time and it's making a huge difference. She also gave us one to practise with at home. He is in year 4 now, and is getting more help with writing than he did last year. My eldest's joined-up writing was worse, despite there being a handwriting 'club' for the worst 'offenders' in year 4 - they're all different.

It's worth asking the teacher if they can give you copies of anything they use in school.

Also, Marisco's ideas are brilliant. We used some of them with the youngest, and he also liked to write on the bath and tiles using bath crayons, and on one of those wipe-clean books that you get for preschoolers. I think it's less stressful when it's not permanent and they know they can wipe it away.

At the end of year 3 my lad successfully learned how to correctly form two letters that he'd been doing 'wrong', so there is hope even though some teachers might say that the bad habits are set in stone by that age. We chose one letter at a time and used lots of fun and low-stress techniques to stop his panic - panic is a problem for both of mine.

At 17 now my son is hand writing in college and seems to be okay. Getting a diagnosis letter and being given extra time in GCSEs did wonders for his confidence because he felt like there was a 'reason' why he needed to try so much harder than others, rather than his just being 'rubbish at everything'. It made him feel like he could do things that he found hard, if he calmed down and practised a bit. He learned to play guitar

Noonar

There is a child in my form who struggles to write coherently, we have been encouraging him to colour printed pictures and making sure he stays within the borders, this really seems to be helping his fine motor skills and has helped with his writing without upsetting him by making him to handwriting exercises.

mustbemad

Thank you so much for the replies, the tips have been great! It's wonderful to read of others that have had issues but worked though them, we will get through this!

MBM x

earthmother

All three of my boys (12, 10 and 7.5) have hypermobility/HMS, the elder two are also dyspraxic, and the eldest is borderline/suspected dyslexic, so I know what you're going through.

I don't have any miracle fix, wish I did. We've found it's just a matter of perseverance, and retraining teachers and TAs each time the boys get new ones (hypermobility is not a widely understood condition). I'm not sure eldest will ever escape the drunken spider stage, but thankfully now he's at high school, he can type more of his work. The other two are getting more legible, though their handwriting is often comparable to others a couple of years younger.

As to the cursive issue - it will depend on the child - eldest just can't handle it, he gets lost mid-word, and the effort of keeping his hand and wrist moving for longer words does cause problems, so he prints more often than not. Middle one can go either way, but youngest does seem to get on with cursive - though we do tend to find each word takes on a triangular shape if he doesn't have lines to guide him - successive letters getting larger as the word progresses.

I remember when I was at primary school, handwriting practice was a handmade book of alternating regular paper and tracing (greaseproof) paper. The teacher would set a task on the regular paper, and we would trace it and copy it on the tracing paper ... maybe worth considering.


Oh, and I'll add another vote for the Stabilo pens - they've been a great help, not just for my boys, but for other family members who have grip problems for other reasons too. There's a ballpoint version, and a pencil, in the range too, so plenty of options to try.

Saffagal

Although working on the actual handwriting is good, spend some time doing gross motor activities to strengthen his shoulders too as this will help to improve his handwriting.
When you write, you stabilise your hand from your shoulder, so if your shoulder girdle is weak your handwriting will be affected.
Some activities for this include lifting his bottom off the chair using his arms (sitting on chair, hand either side of his bottom, lifting his weight onto his arms), catching/throwing balls, holding a stick (rolling pin) in both hands and using it to bounce a ball back to you.