Handwriting

[freespirit2]

My 5 1/2yr old is in yr1 and still can't make up her mind which hand to use to write with. Her writing is poor and drawing/painting also seems to be worse than her classmates.

Her reading is fine as is maths & spelling it seems to just be the writing aspect.

She can be colouring a picture and will start with one hand and then change over, not that she likes colouring much but trying to encourage her to improve her pencil control.

Her school is starting to get concerned that it will hold her back. The last thing I want is for them to hold her back a year.

Any suggestions as to what I can do to help her?

I'm wondering if you should ask the school to refer her to a paediatric Occupational Therapist for an assessment, to see if she has got dyspraxia or another problem with co-ordination. OT's are great and can give lots of suggestions to you and school about how to help. If the school are unwilling to refer her, then you should also be able to get a referral via your GP.

Hope you get things sorted!

She won't be held back a year if she is in the UK. Very few LEA's allow that - even if the child has severe SN and really needs to be held back.

What they mean is that her writing level will be worse than her maths and reading level.

You could be talking about my DS, he is the same age, and is ambidexterous. He does have a tripod grip with both hands though.

He has only recently started to show a preference for his left. School haven't mentioned it as a concern yet through his writing, when he tries, is shocking! And he does not trie very often either!

I'm trying to work on his fine motor skills, lots of lego, tracing in shaving foam, drawing on the patio with chalk.

Like Indigo says, they won't hold her back in the UK state system for this!

An occupational therapist (or specially trained TA) who will work on "cross-lateralism" should be able to help her.

The UK have never held back for bad handwriting, and there is plenty that can be done to help her.

My DS was like this too, although he favoured the left hand he did swap and sometimes used both hands. He has always been a bit shaky when doing detailed work or modelling.

He is 6 now, and writes with his left hand which has been a struggle but he's getting there. I use bribery We sit every other evening and practice with him and it's making a big difference.

sarahfreck I had thought about dyspraxia too with my DS but he doesn't seem to tick any of the other boxes with regards to that

I think dyspraxia does not always show in all the "classic" forms as described on the internet. In my experience, mild dyslexia(the child was not having problems with reading and had been written off as "not concentrating" by his teacher) and ADD can also cause problems with handwriting - anything where short term memory is a problem - the brain finds it difficult to concentrate on the content and the physical act of writing at the same time! If it is causing problems, I'd still ask for an OT assessment, even if dyspraxia is not the diagnosis, they can still give advice and support on how to work to improve things.

I think I might ask the school, the parent evening is coming up in a couple of weeks. Thanks sarahfreck

You might find the school say wait a while - DS was exactly like this, and suddenly there was a big change at six. School predicted it and they were right.

Thank you all for your comments