Terrible handwriting; A levels imminent

[NamechangeyMcnamechanged]

Hello,
As DS got through GCSEs with flying colours, we figured that the English teacher’s concerns over his terrible handwriting (that she only raised weeks before his exams 🙄) were ill-founded.

But it has recently been raised again by his college tutors - and in Y13 he’s about to go into final A level period so no time to learn to type etc. He’s doing maths and physics so although there’s less writing, there is more margin for missing lots of marks with unreadable things.

He does not really have other physical challenges (ie I don’t think he is dyspraxia - he had very good handwriting (balance, physical skills etc) as a younger child but I think his brain is just running too fast for writing!) and in any case his school and now FE college simply do not seem to have an interest/resources in helping with this - I’ve asked his personal adviser about any guidance or support from college and he just looked blankly at me.

Does anyone know of any online resources, guidance or intense courses we could look at that might help?

My DS has the same, part of it seems to be to do with how he holds a pen. We got him this handwriting pen and it seems to be helping quite a bit STABILO Ergonomic Rollerball EASYoriginal - Right-Handed - Pack of 1 - Dark Blue/Light Blue : Amazon.co.uk: Stationery & Office Supplies

DS2 had terrible handwriting - this was several years ago - and the school arranged for him to do his A levels on a laptop. I’m quite sure he wasn’t dyspraxic. It worked very well, anyway.

I have terrible hand writing one thing that I would second is the pen type. I had to have a pen that had the correct amount of friction on the page. I looked like a bit of a nob carrying around a fountain pen but most other pens had the wrong amount of friction so I didn’t close the loops on “a” and “o” and “p” when writing quickly. It might not be a fountain pen that’s needed but get him try a few.

Both my kids have awful hand writing. It was brought up by teachers quite early on in year 7 so both have been able to use a laptop for exams and sometimes in class. My eldest is due to do Alevel exams this year and has access to laptop at college too. You need to speak to the school and get them to allow your child access to a laptop.

They can use a laptop in exams if it is their usual way of working in class.

Hi, OP -

I am sorry I am late to your thread. I like the practical suggestions from PPs.

Your DS reminds me of my DH, who happens to be a mathematician. I was particularly struck by your comment about how his mind is running too fast and the implication that his pen struggles to keep up. That was essentially the diagnosis of DH’s teachers decades ago.

They were genuinely worried that he would miss his Cambridge place through sloppy errors and/or illegible handwriting rather than anything else. In his last term before exams, he trained himself to calm down, slow down, and concentrate on the details. His exam results almost literally could not have been better.

Of course I agree that DS should avail himself of any tool that will help him. But calm is of the essence - can you help him think what that would mean, and how to get there?

I'd echo what @poetryandwine said above.

Also get him to try a load of different pens - there'll be one that's easier to read.

And get him to leave a line between each stage of his working/writing - it'll make it clearer

Does he want to improve his handwriting? I ask because when children are already in Secondary School it is much harder to make changes in handwriting but if they are genuinely keen it is possible. If yes, I’m a handwriting tutor and you can reach me on Handwritingsupport.co.uk