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?

Good lord, she is only 5. I think you expectations are way to high.

Do not be tempted by handwriting work books. They don’t work.
Do get paint or felt tips and big sheets of paper and draw swirls and curls and zigzag and patterns.
Don’t get her to write out the alphabet unless you know exactly how their teaching at school they have a start point for each letter and if you start a different place, you’ll just confuse the whole thing

how is her grip? My DS struggled with holding a pencil properly so his teacher gave him a grip to put on the pencil to help. She also gave us one to use at home. It’s helped him massively

This explains a lot. Ignore the pressure from the teacher and focus on keeping it fun and purposeful.

Giant chalks outside, paintbrushes, dough disco (YouTube), whiteboards and pen but all for fun.

Im an eyfs teacher and I think the teacher is wrong 😬.

Oh also there are letter formation games on the ipad that she might be keener on. I wouldn't consider that important or particularly beneficial but if she likes it it won't do any harm.

I think that writing looks ok for a five year old.

I wouldn't worry, but if you can give her opportunities to practice her gross motor skills, it will help her. So climbing frames, etc. People often focus on fine motor, but what she needs is strong core muscles and shoulder stability, so that she can hold the pencil steadily, etc.

I would have guessed she was 5ish.
That's not abnormal we writing for a child in reception.

Woah! Get a grip! She's in reception, not secondary school. Give her a break, she's fine. That is very average handwriting for her age

Its fine but something like Write from the Start would help.

work on fine motor skills and hand strength - play doh, Lego, stringing beans, perler beads etc. lots of children at just five literally don’t have the dexterity and muscular strength in their fingers yet.

Also the paper you are using is weird

Use the stuff with a coloured middle line to help her judge letter heights.

Who has written the words that she’s trying to follow? Joining letters for her to copy surely isn’t the best way for her to learn.

Don't listen to them she will catch up. Honestly you need thick skin up until when your daughter matures. She will get there as long as you encourage her and make it fun for her. The classes sizes are normally between 25 to 30 children its not only your child. Please don't panic do little bits of English and maths with her at home and she will be fine.

The teachers have 25 to 30 children in a class as well as teaching assistants, what does that say about the education system?

She's FIVE. It's completely normal!

Nobody.

She wrote it independently.

No copying. No help. No comments apart from "great writing DD" and the like.

I wrote it after so you could read it.

It has a dashed middle line. Should it be coloured?

She does. She climbs trees and climbing frames and fences, throws, swims, does gymnastics, swings on monkey bars, runs around, climbs rocks, does long walks, scoots, cycles (2 wheels, no stabilisers). She's outside playing a good few hours each day. It's very rare she's not out playing of a day.

She has tried all sorts of grips, chunky pencils, ergonomic pens ... She just holds it how she likes to. Even when the grip encourages the correct grip.

If I try and correct her grip or remind her to do the right tripod she gets annoyed with me and says she's fine. I don't want to make her hate it, so have stopped trying to correct really. She will very occasionally change her grip back

I write lots, so she sees me hold the pen

Well you do have common sense (she’s five), perspective (she’s five) and the understanding she’s only in the first half of reception?

Honestly I do wonder sometimes how people have the time to worry about these things.

Can she draw all her pre-writing shapes and hold her pencil with an effective grasp?

My five year old’s handwriting looks like this, I’m not concerned. My older daughter’s was better at this age but then they are both into very different things. I’ve also noticed a sudden improvement in fine motor skills - we are a family of knitters and my five year old has gone from not understanding it at all to be able to do a few stitches herself so I’m sure the writing will improve soon too. Also people used to stress about my handwriting at school. It’s still shockingly bad but it hasn’t held me back in life! And my career requires a pretty extreme level of fine motor skills and I’ve managed to develop those despite the handwriting

It looks fine to me. DS was similar at that age and is much improved now. It will happen over time, she's only little.

It doesnt need to be tripod grip to get ELG anymore. Just an effective grip. I am a teacher and do not use a tripod grip. Neither does our English lead or her son who is working at greater depth.