12 year old with terrible handwriting

[manonmoonah]

Hello,

Just wondered if anyone had any tips or advice. DS12 is about to start high school, but has always had abysmal handwriting. When he was younger I wasn't too worried, as i assumed it would improve as he got older and wrote more, but it just hasn't happened. It can be difficult to understand what he has written at times, and I'm worried what this will mean for him in high school. I imagine the teachers in high school may be less inclined (or have less time) to persevere to read his work if it is untidy.

I have spoken to him about it countless times over the years, and tried to help him improve it with no success. He says he just can't make it neater.

I just wondered if anyone was aware of any resources for this kind of thing, or methods to help him improve it. TIA!

DS is hypermobile so I'd get that checked out OP.

I've got absolutely terrible hand writing and so has one of my children. Mine is so bad even I have trouble reading it. During exams I remember having to take more care and time and my child did the same. He's very successful now in his career so it's had no impact on him.

DS2 has just sat his last set of handwritten exams, A levels. He has always had messy, inconsistent handwriting, not always sat on the line etc. He did improve a little when it was pointed out that he could lose marks for correct answers if they can't read what he has written.

However, his teachers can read it, if you took one word out of the sentence you might not know what it is but in context you can tell.

He really tried to improve it, we have worked on it for years but in the end he just tried his best and made the effort for exams and tests.

@manonmoonah hope it helps! I'm a teacher and we use it as targeted support when needed.

My DD used to write in beautiful cursive in lower primary. Turned out she was dyslexic and could never read anything she’d written - it was just art.
She has used a laptop since Y5 and is now in Y10. Prefers to write (print) for exams but could use a laptop if she wanted.

Possibly dyspraxia if struggles with other fine motor skills. I would get a referral to an OT & go from there. If diagnosed he will be entitled to laptop for work & also extra time in exams.

Thanks again to everyone for your replies. It's been really helpful to have ideas on how we could try to improve it, things to think about in terms of the possible causes, and steps we can take to try to make it easier for him in high school.

I will definitely speak to the school to see if any support is available to help him. I don't think hypermobility is an issue - none of the other signs/symptoms fit. Dysgraphia is a possibility. I'm hopeful the bubble writing may help, and I'll get some triangular pens.

Thanks all

High school gave ds a laptop to use because his handwriting is illegible despite years and years of interventions and games and fancy pens and writing boards etc.

Hello all, just wanted to report back. I downloaded the bubble writing sheets, and have had great success while using them. It's amazing how much neater his writing is! It's also made it easier to show him where he's going wrong, such as not having proper 'tails' on his g and y, and his t and similar letters not being tall enough (if that makes sense - as in, his n and h look the same).

It does make his writing slower though. It's too soon to say if it will make any difference when not using the bubble paper, but fingers crossed! School starts back here on Thursday, so we'll see how it goes!