DD is 5 and this is her handwriting...

[SwingingCatsAround]

... It's shockingly bad.

She was 5 in December. Her reading is much higher level.

I'm not concerned about the mirror letter/spelling, but the construction if the letters.

We're trying to get her better, but she will resist writing at any opportunity, gets cross if we ask her to correct her grip.

She has strong fingers and good fine motor (sews with tapestry needles, can do buttons up etc) she plays with play doh, tongs, tweezers, loves squeezing anything and everything lolol

What else can we do? It won't magically get better will it?

I shouldn't have thought it was dyslexia, she's actually very good at reading. This I think is the "issue" her reading is ahead of her writing, a D I think they like it the the same?? So she can read words like "hound" or "please" or "stay away", and she's with Year 1/2 for Phonics. But I guess this is what they mean by "behind"?
Anyway,it's all good,I'm leaving her be and encouraging and praising when she writes (making no comment on how she writes)

Looks normal to me, but have you considered getting her eyes tested? I know when my sister was 6 she was given glasses and it changed her writing, as she could then see the board better and the size of her writing reduced!

Who cares about hand writing? By high school all the work will be done on a computer anyway.

I have a PhD and my hand writing is atrocious - can't recall it ever getting in my way.

Good hand writing is like playing the piano - it's impressive but not in the slightest bit useful. As long as it's vaguely legible, that's all it needs to be.

Ignore all the posters who clearly haven't rtft

Most parents would be anxious if told by a teacher that their child is behind in an area of learning.
You've asked for advice, explained all the age appropriate activities you already do with your dd and assured everyone that you aren't criticising her to her face or making her do extra handwriting practice.

Tbh, as you have now received so much reassurance, both from parents whose children have been through this stage and by teachers, and have also been given helpful suggestions of child friendly ways to support your dd if you want to do anything else, I'd hide the thread.

Otherwise you'll just have to wade through unhelpful replies from muppets who have only read your op.

The dyslexia comment made me laugh

By high school all the work will be done on a computer anyway. This is not the case now and I think it is highly unlikely to be the case in the future. Writing is going to remain culturally important, not being able to write would not be good for all sorts of other skills that rely on highly developed fine motor skills.

In some counrties governments are putting additional emphasis on writing skills to ensure they are not lost.

Please stop honing in on your child's writing. She is 5 and is doing well with lots of other things. Give her lots of opportunity to do other things, which you are doing and the fine motor and gross motor skills will come into their own and yes at some point it will 'magically improve ' but who knows when. Anyway what she is writing is far far more important than what it looks like.
(For what it's worth I have a godson with a PhD and a doctorate whose handwriting is still 99% illegible

Thats pretty average for a 5yo I think. Id leave her be. Shes only 5. Yes with time and practice it will in all probability "magically get better" but if you keep pushing trying to get her to practice etc it wont. Leave her be.

She’s only 5, I think you need to get some perspective.

take her outside for climbing, jumping, running, climbing over old logs etc this will build her gross motor muscles which will in turn build on her fine motor skills (writing), everything will come, she will be fine.

most boys write like this in Year 2 (they develop their writing skills slower on average).

It's weird that her teacher said she was behind. Are they a particularly competitive school?
The only thing that jumps out for me is that your ds refuses to form the letters the way she's been taught. My eldest did that and it’s a pain trying to correct it now he's older. He's also autistic so this is a general personality trait, not just a letters thing! She’s only 5 though so this is hopefully just a phase.
There's a good Alphablocks learn to write app where you have to follow the correct path so that might be useful. Also maybe dot to dot would be helpful, so she can see that there's a point to doing things in the correct order!

Really struggling to understand what you mean here. What is a way to get more funding?

Whta do you mean she will be with a teaching assistant? She is in reception so in a traditional setup the TA will be running an activity or provision and so will the teacher and she would do both?

Same to you 🤣

She’s 5, stop being mental

Yawn

Encouraging young children to scribble over windows with pens that aren't easy to clean off seems like the most mental idea I've ever heard! 🤣🤷‍♀️🙄 Can't wait to see what happens when she goes to tea at a school friend's house. Don't let her do this.

Oh come on, she's not feral. She knows there's things she can do at ours that she can't at others, for example, she knows at home she's allowed to take fruit from the bowl.. doesn't mean she'll help herself to fruit at someone else's house.

She's five she writes like a five year old STOP worrying

Please don’t !
This is American Cursive not English.
Also before moving to cursive a child needs to learn individual letter formations. As a handwriting tutor and school handwriting adviser, I would add that it is very important to follow the handwriting letter formations from school and no other methods as it will create further confusion.

She is 5!!! My 5 year old (last September) writes similar, his 6 year old brother writes small and perfect, he didn’t when he was 5 though. A lot can happen in one year. You need to chill out.

Don’t be daft! She’s 5! Perfectly normal! 🙄

She's too young to be worried about her handwriting skills. At that age it does not indicate any real problem (as long as there aren't other issues). We've 4 and the cleverest one (A* & Uni etc) still wrote a little like this when they finished yr1....even now he writes like a doctors prescription 👀😳.
If it doesn't improve or you notice other things ..eg can't catch a ball very well or motor skills a little skewed. Oh, final thought left handed people often start like this if they think they have to use their right hand and it tends to take a while to work out ...but this might be noticeable when she does other things with her hands...even something simple like throwing a ball with one hand.

I'm an infant teacher of almost 30 years and SENDCo, if she can do all the manipulation techniques you describe I wouldn't worry at all, it'll all come together during year one.

My son’s handwriting was never great. He never mastered cursive. By the time they go to secondary they don’t care as long as they can read it. He’s now studying at one of the top 10 universities in the country and never does any handwriting. Everything is done on a computer. Don’t worry about it.

I’d say that’s ok for 5 and yes it will. Magically. Don’t worry.

Former reception teacher here…
She’s doing fabulously, so stop panicking, Mummy!
She’s achieved so much there - she’s done finger spaces to separate words, she’s spelt several words phonetically and had a go at spelling others using her knowledge of sounds. (cinema) She’s also written irregular ‘tricky’ words correctly (like ‘the’) So a big ‘well done!’ to her!
Those little bones in her hands maybe aren’t ready to hold a pencil with a pincer grip yet, so she will hold her pencil however it’s comfortable for her at the moment.