How can i help my 7 year old with his handwriting?

[YellowSundress]

He's awaiting diagnosis for ADD and dysgraphia. Just started year 3.

His handwriting is really poor and we try and get him to do fine motor activities but with his ADD if he doesn't want to do something he will meltdown if we push it so if we can make it fun or make up a game around it he is more likely to engage with it - trying to force him to sit down and write lines of handwriting is overwhelming for him after a full day of school and he just can't do it.

School havent been very helpful, they just keep suggesting fine motor games and practicing etc but it doesn't seem to make any difference.

Can anyone suggest any resources i can look at to help him? I know in year 3 they really have very high expectations of a child's handwriting and i really want to help him within the limitations of his probable adhd/dysgraphia.

https://magiclinkhandwriting.com/

This helped my son with similar issues

Maybe fun wider grip pens or pen grips to make his pen/pencil larger.

Things that make himm practise making a fist and then unclenching, e.g. squinty bottles with dye in onto a wall/whiteboard that he then washes off, any cutting out e.g. get a big red cabbage and he chops it using scissors, could he do that next to you every day to "help" cook? Eg peeling skin off onions, peeling carrots all help.
Squishy stress balls, can he squish a novelty one 20 times? Make it into a competition eg time him then you and you let him win

Bear crawling is good for coordination and building up core muscles to sit straight.
Chop sticks
Climbing walls are good to improve gripping muscles if you think he'd be into that

There's a book called "write from the start" it's purple with a dinosaur on I think, that's a good programme to improve writing.
Also have you had his eyes tested recently just in case he needs glasses?

Peeling oranges and stickers off things, scrubbing brush cleaning dirty potatoes or chalk off a floor outside

Also, you could buy the first 100 high frequency words and practise writing them one a week e.g. "the", if he feels confident in these words then sentence construction will feel less daunting. Little and often to build muscle memory and think big to begin with, plain wallpaper on the floor/wall/chair/table, as many novelty post its you can find, novelty pens eg highlighters, grown up biros all make it more fun. Could write it on big plasters with sharpie and stick them on mum/dad, deal is however many "the" plasters he writes you guys have to wear them all evening.
Highlighting can also trick him into holding a pen more, could you photocopy a text and as he reads he highlights? Or scans and highlights "the" or whatever your focus word is, if he is a fluent reader

Try to increase his shoulder girdle strength - fine motor starts from there. Lots of monkey bars and tree climbing. Paddling a SUP, canoe or kayak. 'Heavy' work - digging, pushing a wheelbarrow, etc.

Think about what toddlers are provided with for fine motor development and replicate that at his age level.

Threading beads - try Grimms for small beads

Jigsaw puzzles - added benefit of visual discrimination skill development

Knife work - my 2 year olds started with peeling carrots and then moved onto round tip fixed blade knives for whittling

Play dough then onto real plasticine or modelling clay or beeswax

Cutting - use herbs to create 'purpose' but sharp scissors with round tips

Hammering nails into an old tree trunk - speak to a local sawmill

Using a bow saw to create 'wood cookies' from branches

Tongs - transferring items from dish to dish (prawns work well)

Good knife for children: https://www.springfields.co.uk/mora-safe-pro-carbon-steel-safety-bushcraft-knife.html

Posture being seated feet flat on the floor and back to seat back, fidget cushion, use a writing slope (A4ringbinder sideways on with paper inside). Practice high kneeling, finger exercises (ie.touch each fingertip to thumb in turn), playdoh/putty, soft squeezy ball, craft activities such as bead threading, lego.

Try him with a writing slope (can be purchased on Amazon I believe) - my sister’s dc use them and it has helped their handwriting no end just by virtue of the change in angle.

Watching with interest. My 7 year old doesn't have any diagnoses (though I am going to have a chat go his teacher) but his writing is pretty poor so I am going to try to get him to do a bit at home. He is easily demoralized though so it has to be achievable. I found a Minecraft activity book and he has been quite keen to do some of that as he loves Minecraft. I'm hoping that just sitting down and doing a bit of writing with my full attention to remind him about finger spaces etc might help but we'll have to wait and see.
Does your child have anything particular he's interested in that would lend itself to writing? Eg if he likes Lego maybe there's a Lego activity book. Or if he likes trains maybe there's a notebook with a train on the front and he could write or draw about his favourite trains?
Mine has never been interested in colouring or drawing and I'm sure that must help develop pen control to help with writing.

My DC is 9 but has just received a processing disorder diagnosis like dyscalculia. For years we always thought he had "bad handwriting" but the problem was more complex. The problem was actually the multi tasking involved in writing. Eg thinking about letter placement /shape, at the same time as choosing a word, spelling it right, and thinking about grammar, punctuation etc plus plotting a story.

If you remove elements of your DC 'a writing does it improve? Eg can he do good letters when writing any letter at random or does it all go wrong when asked to do fluent writing?

Your case may just be a question of weaker muscles or motor skills but just sharing our expectations in case something resonates.

All the tips so far about slopes, magic ink etc are all things recommended to be multiple times so are worth investigating too.

How are his motor skills generally? Could he have dyspraxia and/or hypermobility? Might be with seeing a physio or OT.

A cheaper alternative is a wide ring binder to lean on. Then use little bulldog clips to attach the paper / exercise book to the board and have it slanted at an angle.
Etch a Sketch boards are good for practicing letter formation.

Some amazing ideas here thank you so much!

Dot to dot books / puzzles can help with fine motor skills / grip of pens.

Lots of great ideas, as you have acknowledged. However, in what way is school ‘not very helpful’ if they have suggested ‘fine motor games and practice’? Is that not the same as suggested on this thread? If it is difficult for your DS to engage in the activities you ask him to do on a 1:1 basis at home, isn’t it also or more difficult for him to do so at school with a (likely) 30:1 ratio?
Genuinely curious as to why you think school are not being helpful.

I don't want to go into it about the school but thank you for your input. I mentioned school in case anyone said "talk to their school" - i already have. I'm aware that school has less time than i do which is why I'm asking how i can help him outside school.

I think he is dyspraxic - he's on the waiting list for an OT. Thank you for the suggestion.

That's a really interesting thought about why he's struggling might be more than just fine motor. he does struggle with processing sometimes so it's definitely worth thinking about, thank you.

Yes I found that point helpful to consider too. In our case he can answer questions verbally very quickly and his writing is similarly messy when writing one word or a sentence so I think it is more of a fine motor skills situation here but definitely worth bearing in mind if practice doesn't help so thank you.