Tips for helping 9yo child improve handwriting

[Monvelo]

Has anyone got any tips on helping a 9 year old (just finishing yr4) improve his handwriting? I've tried to help him in the past, so feel I do know some stuff, like the relationship between gross and fine motor, letter families etc. I'm thinking to get him doing cutting and drawing etc. But he's not actually forming the letters correctly, so has some bad habits to unlearn, which he's resistant to. School tell me his writing is not bad enough for an intervention. But I can see evidence that his written work is holding him back.

It's interesting that you say he's drawing a circle and then adding the stick for letters like p and d because in the samples of writing you uploaded, it looks like he is forming them in the "proper" way at least some of the time, e.g. in "Pools" on the last image.

Anyway have a read of these articles by an OT. First of all she says if they have got to the point of fluent writing without forming letters correctly, don't worry about it as such because they're unlikely to take it on as it would slow them down, and as long as their writing is functional (ie, readable) it doesn't ultimately matter unless they themselves want to develop neater writing.

She does also say about working outwards from the core, so lots of "big" play - gross motor and core strength - all will help writing fluency and fine motor control. If he's already constantly engaging in gross motor play then it might help to try some fine motor activities (of which there are 1000000 ideas on the internet many aimed at more stereotypical "boy" interests).

https://www.occuplaytional.com/motor-plans-letter-formation/

https://www.occuplaytional.com/core-strength-the-power-of-play/

Is he slow at writing and does he find that it makes his hand ache? Those are the issues it might make sense to target if they are a problem, in preparation for when the expectation of how much they need to write increases.

Thanks @BertieBotts , yes he is slow at writing, about 8 words per minute, which is about half the expected rate for going into year 5, if what I've read is correct. I'm more worried about that than the attractiveness of his writing, as it will hold him back from getting his brilliant thoughts down on paper. He also frequently adjusts and readjusts his grip.