Handwriting Difficulties

[YourSession]

Although my y12 ds started off with okay handwriting at primary, over the years it’s got worse and worse. He writes quickly and despite lots of nagging and trying different pens over the years, it’s very difficult to read. Some teachers at secondary said it was fine (which was always frustrating at parents evenings) but others refused to mark some of his work.

Looking at his GCSE scripts, one teacher suggested that his poor handwriting contributed to some harsh marking. So what next for A Levels? Is the best route to just keep nagging him? Or get school to speak to him? Any advice would be welcome

I had really poor hand writing in school and it impacted my grades. Was later diagnosed with dyspraxia which makes hand writing harder. I ended up doing my final exams on a computer. Would it be worthwhile seeing if he could be assessed for that? Not necessarily the cause of the issue but could be worth checking out!

Has he ever been assessed for use of a laptop? I'm a bit surprised this hasn;t been raised if his writing cannot be read.

If it's just untidy or poor but readable, that;s fine. I recall a GCSE student mine of whom everyone else said "his writing is so awful Miss, he'll need a laptop". But in fact I could read it fine - it was poorly formed and not in any way stylish but I didn't care about that and neither would an exam marker.

A colleague had a very very bright lad in her class whose writing was completely indecipherable and he used a laptop from the start of year 10 and in pretty much all his exams.

Have you looked at his GCSE scripts? Were there questions or sections that were not marked bc they were unreadable? I mean that's gone now but a laptop for A levels might well be an idea.

DS was always told that his poor handwriting would never affect his grades, unless the marker actually couldn't read it, then of course, marks couldn't be awarded.
Would extra time help so he can slow down / take rest breaks? Or typing exams?

The school really should be getting him assessed to get him on a laptop. It's ridiculous to potentially let his marks suffer due to this and one of the things I dislike most about the British education system. There's absolutely no reason in today's world that a child's education should suffer for an outdated principle.

If the school won't do it, can you afford a private assessment?

I would look at using a computer. You need permission to use them in exams, but not a diagnosis of any sort.

Also hand-strengthening exercises. I used to write all the time, and my hand would still start cramping towards the end of a 3h essay exam. (I had been told earlier in school that I'd fail exams if my handwriting didn't improve.)

And practising penmanship, doing lines of zigzags, loops, waves etc - you can get exercises to print off online. But good luck getting a teenage boy to do that, unless he wants to. Computer for exams is probably most effective.

I appreciate your concern about the next couple of years doing A Levels. Clearly it is a good idea to get him assessed so he can use a laptop. One of the important factors with his studies and future work, though is whether he can take notes that he can read himself.

My writing was pretty rubbish and it is now an incredible effort to make it legible as, if I have more than a few words to write, I just type it. However, despite the fact that when I started work computers were only just arriving in the workplace, apart from taking some telephone messages, it is rare that anyone else had to read my writing. In fact, it's almost unheard of in most modern organisations.

If this is an intractable issue for your son, he will need to think about his course assessment should he go to university and ensure it doesn't involve 'traditional' exams. And also avoid working for any organisation which is still clinging to handwritten notes (I was amazed to find this at my local hospital recently). The only constructive suggestion I have is that maybe he could learn to touch type - which uses different motor skills. This is probably one the most useful skills I ever learnt.

With the best will in the world, poor handwriting will affect marks in certain subjects. If it can be deciphered, maths, science subjects etc that are either right or wrong will be fine. More subjective subjects will be affected as if the corrector is struggling to read it, they will find it difficult to get a sense for it and it will potentially be marked lower.

The corrector has limited time for each script. While they have detailed marking schemes, they will always be conscious of time and minimising time spent on each question. In dd's leaving cert (A level equivalent) maths paper, the corrector didn't read the legend she wrote at the side for one question, misread a G for a 6 and gave her zero instead of full marks on that sub question. She appealed, which brought her up to the top grade.

Ds1 has dysgraphia and had permission to type for state and university exams. One of his primary school teachers told me she had stopped giving out to him for his poor writing as she could see he was trying but just couldn't do it. He had remedial handwriting classes but didn't help. We had him assessed with an OT which got him his reasonable accommodations for state and university exams.

Things are better these days for state exams as they don't necessarily need the professional assessment but for university it's worth having. I would suggest an educational psychologist or an OT who knows about dysgraphia (many don't).

I wouldn't worry about universities using traditional exams. Provided he has some form of diagnosis, he will get permission to type in exams.

Thank you so much for the replies. Ochon your comments about marking are so interesting because I do wonder if that has happened. You just can’t read his answer as a full paragraph as you have to stop to decipher every few words. His physics and chemistry he got every calculation right but scored poorly on every written answer. But that might be just because of his lack of preciseness I guess.

i think we’ve always just thought it was laziness because he used to be able to write neatly.

My guess would be he was able to write neatly in the past when dealing with shorter work and less time pressure, but now that he's in the years where getting it all down really matters, he's struggling. Do you think that's the case?

He says it’s because he wants to write quickly. And when he writes quickly it just becomes illegible because he isn’t forming letters properly.

Yeah, that was my guess. I'd try to get him on a laptop. It makes such a huge difference for some kids.

I just assumed that everyone’s handwriting becomes illegible if they rush too much. With regard to dyspraxia, he’s rubbish at any sport requiring hand eye coordination but excellent at riding a bike and doing Lego so I had ruled it out

Ds is excellent at riding a bike, doing lego and sports that require hand eye coordination. He doesn't have dyspraxia but does have dysgraphia. It would be worth checking that out.

It's because the material is becoming more complex with more memorisation required and his hand can't legibly keep up with his brain. Many kids who are good at sports and lego etc. struggle this way. You've already been told it might be affecting his grades. Why not get him assessed and see if you can smooth his way? A-levels are stressful enough as it is.

Thank you - I will speak to school next week

Just a long shot as you mentioned hand/eye co-ordination. When did he last have his eyes tested?

he had his eyes tested recently so it’s not that. When I talk about hand eye coordination in sport, he’s frustrated so many sports coaches over the years because he just can’t follow their instructions. So he would be told repeatedly to hold a cricket bat in a certain way, but every time he picked the bat up he would hold it in the wrong way. He definitely listens and he is bright, and follow instructions in general.

One benefit of lockdown for my DS was a very observant English teacher who saw that the quality of the work submitted on line was significantly better than the written work in class. That was year 9 and from year 10 he had a laptop for exams. It took until year 11 and a private Ed psych report who diagnosed him with dysgraphia for him to be allowed to use a laptop in class. He is another who can ride a bike and is brilliant at Lego.

How is he with a knife and fork? Does he hold them 'wrongly' too? I'd be wondering about dyspraxia. DS loves lego and can ride a bike but was diagnosed. He has terrible hand writing.

Definitely try and get him assessed to type. My DS was in year 12 and was told he had to type as over 30% of his work was illegible. He was very reluctant, but soon got used to it and it made a huge difference. Not least the fact that he could actually start to use his lesson notes for revision. Before then he couldn't read most of what he'd written!

School will have someone whose job it is to secure the right exam concessions. To get typing it needs to be his normal way of working (at least in assessments) in good time for his exams.

My daughter had this for GCSEs then moved to working entirely with a laptop for Y12, so she was constantly practising typing. This is a really normal adaptation so teachers should have no problem accommodating. Her SENCo told her they have at least one in every single top set English class so people use it across all ability levels.

The only snag we've come across is one university has said she'd need medical evidence to take this exam concession up to uni level. And I'm not sure what that medical evidence would be. She has just decided (very sensibly, I feel) to swerve that uni. The others have been far more welcoming. It's such a stupid thing to be strict about these days - we will all be typing rather than handwriting in our jobs, most probably. I do wonder if we just spoke to one particularly rigid individual in their learning support dept.

The university I work at and the one my ds attended both required evidence. For ds, it was an OT report. Dd, who attended the university I work at, got a consultant's report. One of the reasons for the requirement is that they get an extra 10 minutes per hour to complete exams and if you didn't have the requirement, you could potentially have students gaming the system.

Sure - of course they need evidence. However having illegible handwriting is not a medical condition. The evidence we have (JCQ concessions, evidence gathered by school, based on need, standard way of working and standardised psychological testing) is not medical.

I suspect we could solve it with a private OT but she's understandably going to warm more to unis that tell her they'll support her as she is, without having to fight for it.

Most reasonable accommodations are not related to medical needs. My ds has dysgraphia (which is basically illegible handwriting). That is not a medical need. Neither is dyslexia, ASD etc.

I suspect the statement that they require medical evidence is a misunderstanding or an error on their documentation/the person telling you. I would say that they would accept evidence from suitably qualified practitioners.

But yeah, if she doesn't need that for other universities then all other things bring equal, I would feel the same as she does.