How can 12yo DS improve his handwriting?

[BreakingUpWithMyPhone]

DS is 12yo, and has relatively poor handwriting. He seems to be doing well at high school so far, but I really don't want him to lose marks due to illegible writing.

If I sit with him, he starts writing at 700 miles per hour, so that explains part of this I think. It is better (but still far from perfect) if he takes his time.

I hope I don't sound like a nightmare 😄 - I really just want him to get the marks that he deserves in written tasks, rather than to have perfect handwriting. So, does anyone have any ideas about what might help? DS would be reasonably open to most things. Thanks!

Your son sounds nice if he isn’t throwing a fit about you nagging him. Could you buy him a handwriting textbook and get him to work through it. You might have to check to start with that he can follow the instructions and that he does form the letters in the correct way.

😄 he is nice (and long suffering too).

I did buy him a book to practice with, but he'd probably need some support to do that regularly.

Would telling him to stop joined up :m/ cursive handwriting help?

When I started at secondary I wasn’t doing cursive writing so my writing was appalling. My mum went and bought a bunch of little kids cursive practice books and I had to sit and do them. It did work to an extent. My writing was neater because it was cursive, but also because the books couldn’t be rushed I was slower and neater.

I’m surprised this wasn’t picked up in primary, they are generally obsessed with neatness. If it was, presumably he had support with it at some point and it hasn’t worked? If he got through primary with no one suggesting support, it can’t be that bad surely? Unless he can write neatly and is now just rushing in which case it’s not new learning required, just to slow down. Generally secondaries aren’t so bothered as long as it’s legible. I realise that’s your goal too but I’m surprised he’s got to this age without intervention if it’s literally illegible.

Handwriting is much less important in secondary school than it is in primaries - and I say that as an English teacher. Beautiful is nice, but legible is better. I've taught kids with beautiful handwriting I've struggled to read. If his writing is legible and presentation is OK, I'd be happy with that. It's different if it's illegible or really untidy. Some children have poor fine motor control and struggle with regular letter formation, underlining etc, so I always make allowances there. Much less tolerant if it's messy just due to lack of care and attention.

If his handwriting is legible, I'd leave him be unless he wants to do the practice. If his writing is horribly messy or illegible, he needs strategies. I've had students that have produced better writing if they printed letters, others writing in cursive script. Some better if they miss a line after writing a line. Some better with pencil.

Magic link handwriting massively helped my son. He was struggling to write using cursive as he still wasn’t forming his letters correctly.

Any age can do it and it just goes back to basics so that the letter formation is correct and then able to flow easily.

Transformed my sons handwriting.
If you google you can see examples of before and after.

Don't panic, teachers are used to terrible handwriting!

Get him to plan what he's going to write in bullet points before he starts and check how long he has for each section/question/para.

Speed is actually a really important factor in getting top marks at GCSE. If they can't get all the info down in the time then they won't get the marks. Maybe just ensure there is some thought about what is written before pen meets paper!

So, basically, nobody is going to help him with this. There isn't a space for this in the curriculum beyond primary. Maybe, if he's SEN and dropping some subjects, then yes it's possible- but only if that's considered valuable.

It's either going to have to be you (and by you, I mean him), or you get him a computer. He will have to want to do the work and then practise through the day. He gets loads of writing time every day. If he's not practising what you're doing at home during his lessons, then he's just compartmentalising the skill and reinforcing bad habits.

Alternatively it's worth considering why his handwriting is so bad. Is it legible? If it's legible then there isn't an issue. I'm a GCSE examiner and I can say messy handwriting really isn't something we're bothered by. But if it's illegible he needs to start using a computer in lessons instead of writing. This shouldn't be a problem. It's common everywhere.

Thanks everyone, lots of interesting points for me to think about.

This was picked up to a certain extent in primary school - he had extra handwriting practice etc. But then he was told Oh well, no one worries about this in high school, and I think he took that to heart a bit too much. His primary school teacher said he wasn't at the level of needing extra support at high school for this.

I think it's both rushing (as he has lots of ideas that he wants to write down immediately) and slightly poor motor control.

I'll encourage him to slow down for now, as he can definitely write legibly when he does.

Handwriting needs to be easily legible. Here are some reasons why it might not be:
Inconsistent size ( so a,e,i,o,c,r,s etc all need to be the same height)
Ascenders/descenders not long enough
Writing doesn't stay in a straight line
Letters are incorrectly formed ( often the case with b & d)
Capital letters are not big enough ( should be same height as lower case h/b/d) or they are joined when they shouldn't be.
Get him to identify what he thinks his issues are.

Frequent practice is the answer. You can download handwriting sheets and print them out.
If letter formation is the issue, go back to basics and practice doing it big-style in the air, or on a whiteboard.
Getting a teenager to do this is going to be difficult, I know.

With Primary aged children, if fine motor skills are an issue, we get them to practice tracing and then doing detailed mindful colouring on printed paper., to work on pencil control. You could also do things like creating repeating patterns on squared or lined paper. Also playing peg games like Solitaire, Chinese Checkers, Mastermind or anything fiddly.

magiclinkhandwriting.com/
This is it. We did steps 1-20 over the summer holidays.

Use a metronome app to help him pace his handwriting speed. Google a few metronome activities to help him learn to listen and respond to the speed of beat.

My mum made me copy out books every night to improve mine. It worked.

Unfortunately it eventually developed into a rather wild cursive though people say it's pretty it can be hard to read.

And by unreadable I mean being called into my uni department to decipher certain words in my exams 😂

My 18 year old got told at 10 that his hands hadn't the correct muscle tone to write properly, he got to do all his written work & exams on a laptop. His writing even now is frankly awful but it hasn't held him back, he has a good job but just doesn't write he either uses a laptop or if he is in meetings records it on his phone & types it up, he can type faster than I can & I'm a trained typist.

Me, and multiple nhs colleagues have appalling handwriting I oft look at the ot ward notes and handwriting and have such envy!

@MichelleScarn

Me, and multiple nhs colleagues have appalling handwriting I oft look at the ot ward notes and handwriting and have such envy!

Yes, I definitely see this at work 😄! We pass around handwritten forms and try to decipher them collaboratively.