Is this typical handwriting

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For an 8 year old trying their best to be neat?
Can't tell if I am going insane or what

What is your DS with things like throwing and catching a ball and riding a bike? And it’s a hard one at 8 but how organised is he? Does he daydream seem away with the faries a lot?

Have you had his eyes tested?

No, that is poor for an 8-year old.

It’s not dissimilar to our grandchild’s, who is 5 next month.

That said, my husband is extremely bright but his handwriting barely legible so I’m not sure that it indicates much?

This, sorry OP. My daughter’s the same age as your child and her handwriting is far neater than mine or her dad’s. Her classmates are similar.

I would wonder about dyslexia or dyspraxia.

My handwriting has always been awful.I genuinely cannot read my own writing.I am now 60+ but very intelligent and successful! Really don’t worry and compare.

Hi OP.
That writing looks like my son's who has dysgraphia and is autistic.

As difficulty with writing may be contributing to his dislike of school and other struggles, it's definitely worth looking into the cause. YANBU to think it's unusual for his age, and it's disappointing the school is not taking your concerns seriously.

My DS wrote similarly to this in primary and constantly complained writing hurt his hand even with special pens etc. By secondary he was using a keyboard as he just couldn’t write legibly or enough. His writing is still awful but has otherwise done very well academically (he has a degree and a very good job as an adult). He wouldn’t have if he had carried on trying to write. It was really affecting his progression, in English especially. If you can’t write legibly how can you learn spelling and all the grammar rules etc. He caught up by year 9.

He has diagnosed with ADHD and ASC in early secondary (not because of his writing, because of many other difficulties he was having). Looking back I suspect he also has dysgraphia. But not sure it was diagnosed much/known about if at all back then. I only heard of it a few a years ago.

Ummm all of that together is suggestive of dyspraxia (also called DCD).

Also a pp mentioned hyper mobility. My DS was also diagnosed with that but not until adulthood so that could also have contributed.

I am a teacher
Children with handwriting like that do not alway catch up.

All of the young men in my family have dyspraxia and they all have handwriting that looks like that.

Dysfunctional handwriting really makes school hard. Work never gets finished and producing it is actually painful.

School needs to be offering strategies as his normal way of working.

The writing is not legible. He is likely to feel self conscious about this.

It looks like he has not been taught and then given practice opportunities in letter formation (the ‘a’, for example, is a classic that shows that he has copied an approximation), or taught and given practice opportunities in the habit of sitting the letters on a line.

His spelling appears to be good for his age, but it may be that he is dictating a sentence and the TA is writing it out for him to copy.

I would avoid jumping to conclusions about things like dyspraxia and various forms of neurodivergence. Regardless of SEN, he deserves teaching, opportunities to practice and a chance to catch up.

Can he read?

I recommend getting in touch with the school and asking if they’re helping him to catch up with his writing.

My DD is in her 20s now always had bad handwriting. Some kids do. During gcse exams they were alowed to use a computer also at college too but they didn't need to.

Can you self refer to occupational therapy in your county?

My child has been under OT since he was about 3. He's diagnosed autistic (at a young age, moderate-high support needs) and his fine motor control is one of his biggest challenges in school. He has various adaptations, over the years he's used various pencil grips etc. alongside therapies to help develop hand strength and coordination and it has helped. He writes much better on lined paper than plain, and uses the paper which has the lines and then the kind of intermediate line to help him correctly form letters, ascender and descender length etc. He also writes much better after he's had a movement break where he's been able to do some heavy work with his arms beforehand. He also had adaptations that he's not expected to write full sentences where it's not necessary, has a scribe where and/or use of IT where appropriate. He's in year 1 for context.

In terms of cutlery we use I think it's called KuraCare cutlery (on OT advice) and that's really helped him get to grips (literally!) with proper use of a knife and fork.

He also has OT delivered at school (he does have an ehcp with a full time 1:1 LSA) and we do OT activities at home to develop his fine motor skills, hand strength and coordination without him realising it.

Looks like my sisters handwriting… she is 47 years old and high achieving professional

Just a suggestion but, is he generally clumsy, does he struggle to tie his laces, button shirts etc? My son has the same sort of handwriting plus the aching hand and, he has dyspraxia.

My nearly 8yo writing is like that, but he has adhd and is just trying to write so fast!!

I teach 8 year olds - this isn’t uncommon these days but it isn’t what is expected and I would be doing intervention sessions with him based on this. The letter size is good, but he has poor letter formation overall, seemingly poor pencil control (going over letters several times, jerky shapes) and has reversed his ‘s’ letters. He isn’t dotting correctly and is using capitals and lower case interchangeably. If this is him truly trying his best, I wouldn't jump to dyspraxia immediately but I’d assume he hadn’t been being taught best writing practice in his formative writing years (EYFS, Y1).

Also to the PP who says writing isn’t important anymore, that may be true in the wider world, but by Y6 they are assessed in being able to write legibly and in cursive and it informs their SATS. Also, examiners in GCSE, A Level need legible clear writing to be able to read exam papers. And unfortunately unconscious bias also exists; they will be more likely to run with a student’s idea who writes like someone intelligent and educated than someone who writes like the above. Perhaps unfair, but that’s life. So I wholly disagree that we can just dismiss 8 year old’s handwriting as it doesn’t matter these days.

Mind you, the child is on the way to a promising career as a GP 🤔😉🧑‍⚕️🩺📝✍️

Both my DS’s have DCD and had handwriting like that at that age. We had them privately assessed for a diagnosis. The report gave some helpful strategies to help them and the school and then the diagnosis enabled them to use laptops in lessons and exams later on. It’s really important to get things in place as early as possible so they don’t lose confidence.

No I don't think it's typical, we had similar issues with my step daughter who is 9 (yr 4) her writing is eligible and she can't spell even the most simple words (your son's spelling is better than hers) and it often doesn't make any sense even if you can decode the words. The school eventually listened to our concerns and had someone from the learning disability team come to assess her, they found several areas of difficulty and things have been put in place to try and help her catch up.

I’d say that’s below average for an 8 year old. I think by that age the writing should be clear enough to read fluently?

I think I am going to save for a private assessment, the waiting lists for nhs are so long and school just don't want to hear anything I say atleast if I have something to back up what I'm trying to say they might actually focus on the real reasons he dislikes school instead of dismissing everything and saying it's because my fault that he doesn't like school. at the moment it's just going around I circles meanwhile ds gets more behind and hates school more and more.

He is generally very bright but his school reports have him as working below for most things other than maths- I think maybe he's getting frustrated with knowing the answers and what he wants to write and do but there being a bit of a disconnect between what he wants to do and what he physically can do possibly.
Ive been trying to work on perseverance with him but it's a bit of a struggle he gets fed up and gives up easily

No, it likely points to dyslexia or dysgraphia. Both mine have similar handwriting, both dyslexic. There are many supports school can use such as speak to text technology. Worth saying, both mine are fluent readers; dyslexic profiles can vary widely but I’d prompt school to diagnose. Think year 5 is when they start ☺️