What age would you say this writing was?

[blessedbethechocolate]

Just wondering really.

• read out loud at home

And compared it to speed of DD reading same thing out from same distance

Bearing in mind DS had been reading from a young age so never saw an issue till yr 7/8

‘I’ll make sure he does. —— have a shower tomorrow morning. A —— or you say hi in sign language’.

That looks like my writing. The reason my writing is so bad is because I can’t spell. So with a long word I could make the first letter clear enough but it was a vowel sounds where I would find it tricky. So I would make the vowel sounds illegible so an a looks like an e or and i.

I could read almost all of it and there's nothing much wrong with the spellings or sentence structure, especially when you consider that it's just an informal note. The writing is untidy but that looks like it's down to sloppiness rather than an inability to write. How would he feel about writing the individual letters instead of joined up handwriting?

Hi OP I haven't time to read the whole thread I'm afraid (off to bed now up early tomorrow). Apologies if this has already been said, but it looks like my son's and he is dyspraxic.

I see your son is autistic - quite often there's an intersection with additional needs.

If he is, It is entirely not his fault that his handwriting looks like that. So I hope he's not being punished for it in school.

I'd advise speaking to your local NAS group and checking out resources to empower you to advocate for him.

Can the school provide a scribe? At the age he's at he's unlikely to improve much with his handwriting so he will most likely need alternative ways of recording- laptop, voice recognition software or a scribe (but using a scribe is a skill in itself).

It’s very difficult to read regardless. If writing like this in exams there could be massive issues

Could he also be dyspraxic? I'm autistic and dyspraxic and my handwriting is god awful. I hold the pen very tightly and very, very low down, which causes a lot of pain and muscle fatigue in my hand and arm, resulting in sloppy writing.

I do print when I have to write anything because when I use cursive it looks like I wrote it with my feet

Don’t know about age but has to be a doctor 😁

@BurntO

It’s very difficult to read regardless. If writing like this in exams there could be massive issues

I work in a university and a few years ago we had to get a student back in to type up his exam because the handwriting in his paper booklet was so bad, the module leader wouldn't even attempt to mark it!

Could be an NHS doctor of any age.

He'll probably resist because it's Not The Rules, but it would be neater and easier to read if he got rid of the extraneous twiddly bits.

You don't need the joining strokes at the beginning and end of words. His final-s, in particular, looks a mess. Remove all those and it will vastly improve.

I wouldn’t have said a young child as it’s rushed but still readable! Seeing that it’s a 13 year old, would it be better if he didn’t use cursive? Or took his time a bit?
If it’s an ongoing problem at school, would you be able to talk to learning support and get him working on a laptop in classes instead?

I'd say it's someone struggling with hypermobile hands or something similar, whatever age they are. Reminds me of how my DD can write

That looks like my handwriting. I managed my GCSEs, a level and degree somehow (I tried my best and it would be better at the start of the exam but be worse than this at the end).

Then I was doing professional exams that involved writing 15+ sides of paper. I was pulled aside by a tutor and told I was going to miss out on marks because the examiner wasn't going to be able to pick up on all my arguements. As I didn't have dyslexia or any other identified LD or neurodiversity diagnosed, I wasn't able to use a computer. So they suggested I write in capitals. I can now write in very legible capitals almost as fast as my drunk spider scrawl. It might look like I'm shouting but at least other people (and me!) can read it.

If the school are concerned, can you ask them for a solution beyond 'just improve your handwriting'. With any luck they'll suggest laptop, or capitals, or printing and as it has come from the school and is therefore THE RULES and not mummy who can't possibly know what she's talking about (I don't have a child with ASD oh no not me) maybe he'll accept that he is allowed to deviate in this instance?

1st class Dr

looks like my Dr

Mine is messy because I can't get my thoughts on paper fast enough sometimes. I still got GCSEs, a levels and a degree
My dads is messy because he's left handed and they tied his left hand behind his back at school

It looks like my handwriting now. It also looks like my handwriting when I was in secondary school. I did lose marks in exams because of it and I because I was slow (trying to write neatly) I never had a chance to finish written exams (like English, History etc). So I ended up doing a lot of practice papers both to practice handwriting and to get better at getting my point across quickly. The upside of this was I ended up knowing the subjects really well, and became very very good at drafting ideas concisely (a skill I have now lost alas). The downside was it was a lot more work for me than necessary - extra time/the option to use a computer would have been great. Much later on I was diagnosed with dyspraxia and my mum said that the school had suggested I had it at the time but she "didn't want me labelled"
So, if your son is really struggling he has the choice of accepting the offer of a computer from the school or just putting a LOT more work in to even the odds for him. I know what I would have chosen given my time again but I was quite lazy.

The top line is a lot clearer than the others, but yes it does descent into being illegible. It's tricky at secondary school isn't it because it sounds like he has been offered help in the form of the laptop, but can absolutely see why he is hesitant because fitting in feels more important at that age doesn't it. Perhaps someone at the school can offer advice, it can't be the first time they have encountered it.

I was going to say doctor too

When I was 12 or 13 my school offered different extra curricular activities. One of them was calligraphy. I found that learning calligraphy actually improved my hand writing in general and was fun to learn.

@blessedbethechocolate

Thanks everyone you will cheer my son up who has a real complex about his handwriting. He's 13 and says no one can understand it and often doesn't get his work marked because of it.

Ask SENCO for him to use a laptop, should be an easy process and he will be able to use in exams.

Looks like my nans writing
(she was 80+). I am dyslexic and dyspraxic mine is terrible.

To improve his cursive writing, maybe it could help to do some little things to get it clearer, like warming up his hand before writing, or practicing the most common words with handwriting sheets?

I'm not sure if that would make enough difference for exams, but perhaps it could get the improvement to give him more confidence.

It looks like my late Husbands, he had his first stroke many years ago, and was paralysed down his left side for many months, and could not write with his right hand, so for some time he had to write with his left hand, and it was like a childs writing, and totally different to his usual right hand style.