Handwriting - resources for improving it?

[AMumInScotland]

My DS's handwriting is very hard to read, does anyone have any suggestions for how he can work on improving it?

He's going to be doing GCSEs soon, and I'm worried he's going to be losing out on marks if they have to struggle to work out his scrawl!

I've just left him to it for ages, vaguely assuming that it must have got better by now...

If his handwriting is illegible he may need a scribe. Have you asked the SENCO?

Practice
Practice
Practice

He's currently home educated, and doesn't have any SN - he just writes very badly! I guess I'll just have to get him to practice and see if he can get the hang of it, I was just wondering if there were any books or similar which would point him in the right direction...

Just plain old boring practice.

Get him to write as normal, analyse what is wrong/lacking and then work on those.

It is what i am doing with my 8 year old.
Every night.
It works.

How old is he amuminscotland?
It's very difficult to change handwriting style when they reach secondary.

15!

Okay - just how illegible is his writing? Out of say, 100 words, how many would be legible?

Well, I can make them all out ok, but it takes more effort than it does to read my own writing, and more than reading print. I don't think that the examiners will be unable to read it, but I'm not sure how much time and effort they put into reading it IYSWIM? Do they take as long as they need to with exam papers, or are they trying to get through a big stack and won't give people the benefit of the doubt if it takes a bit of effort?

Okay, well in that case he probably wouldn't qualify for a scribe. Obvious question but have you tried different pens, or writing on a slope?

I've not really tried anything yet - he's just been doing some trial questions and that's what made me aware of the writing issue - I'll maybe try buying a range of pens and see if that helps any. I don't think a slope would be available in the exams so I think something which helps on a flat surface will be more use. Sounds like a trip to buy pens is in order, and some time spent just practising. He's been doing most of his work on a PC the last couple of years, so he's out of practice .

I'll try suggesting the spacing, and get some pens... looks like he's going to have some extra homework between now and the Spring

cat64 that's a good tip. Get him to put a paper clip between the words so that he can 'see' how much space to leave.

Many thanks all, you've given me some great suggestions there - I'll get him working on these when he's making notes, and have him try out some different styles of pens. Hopefully a few small things will make enough of a difference. Thanks again