Ideas for helping with handwriting with mild dyspraxia

[pinkteaset]

My ds has quite poor coordination, struggles with PE and i think has mild dyspraxia. He is 6 and in year 1. Although he has lovely handwriting, it is quite an effort for him. Does anyone have any tips or advice for helping to make it a bit easier for him.

My main tip would be to get him tested to see if he is dyspraxic or not. That should be your starting point, tbh (dyspraxic mother of two dyspraxic DDs speaking!)

We thought our ds was dyspraxic but after getting to see an OT we found he was hypermobile. The OT loaned him an angled writing slope and it really helped reduce the pain and frustration of writing so we bought him one of his own.

My top tip would be to not leave it. It only gets harder to improve his handwriting as he gets older.

Pencil grips and a writing slope might help.

He needs good fine motor skills - so do things to exercise his writing hand. And he needs strong shoulders and strong core muscles to sit up properly.

All of those things can be improved through daily exercises.

School should also be doing a handwriting intervention with him. Speed up (you can buy it on amazon) is a good one written by an OT.

I agree you should get him properly assessed first. An OT will be able to tell you if he has dyspraxia or not.

My DS's OT really worked on pencil grip with him. Although he wrote beautifully in Year 1 it was similarly tiring and damaging long term. Plus upper body strength and hand exercises.

Thanks for all your advice. I am worried about it putting him off writing in future castles.

I had a meeting with my son's teacher at school yesterday(he is f))and is showing a lot of signs of having dyspraxia.
He can't catch a ball,isn't very good at football at all,his hand writing is very poor,but because he has bad eyesight I put a lot of this down to him wearing glasses,I feel so worried and frightened for his future,if anyone has any good idea's to help me improve any of these skills or has any advice it would be greatly appreciated
Thanks

LemonLips - don't worry too much. Dyspraxia is a spectrum condition, ie you can be very mild or very severe.

Your son sounds fairly mild, and will be fine.

There are loads of things you can do to help him.

It would be good for him to be seen by an OT. I don't know if school can refer him, but your GP should be able to. You can also go private if you want to.

You can do loads of exercises to improve fine and gross motor skills. Also things like crossing the midline are often a big problem.

Finally there are loads of alternative therapies that can help vastly improve his dyspraxia if you have money and time and want to go down that route.