Spellings/handwriting - where to start?

[staranise]

DD1 is in Y3 (June birthday) and is in the top groups for literacy etc. She is a keen reader and writer, good at maths etc.

However, phonics never seem to have clicked for her, her spelling is very poor and her handwriting is terrible and has declined noticeably over the past 6 months - cramped, badly formed letters and often missing letters/whole parts of a word. If I ask her to spell a word she doesn't seem to know where to start. She is defensive to the point of seeming scared and homework is a source of tension. For example, this week she had to write a short piece (half a side of A4) - when I checked it, every single word (bar 'a' and 'the') was spelt wrong and her handwriting was practically illegible. If I ask her to go back over her work, eg, using a dictionary or even me spelling everything etc, she just gets very angry.

I've asked her teacher, who is very nice but seems totally unconcerned because DD is generally very enthusiastic at school, tries hard etc. I want to ask for a meeting about it but what should I ask for in the meeting? Handwriting sheets? Extra phonics work? (What would that be?). I don't know where to begin with this sort of problem.

This is what I did:

I showed my Y2 child how to form the letters and sold it as 'lazy writing'. "It's a lot less effort and a lot quicker if you make the letters like this", etc. I've also demonstrated a couple of letter joins as well, and why you need those letter formations to be able to join in the future (even though you don't do it yet....). So basically appealed to rational thinking and self-interest, which seems to have worked. There were a couple of tizzes initially, when I insisted on practise.

I can now ask for a whole line of the same letter, to practice lazy writing. Once the basic formation was there (and the willingness to do a row of letters), we started using 5mm squared paper - so you can do height/angle of letters, risers, etc, and have a guide. And you can show more joins and why the letters need to be the right size. Then I ask them for the best 5 examples on each line, and ask what they really like about those ones, etc (ie, reinforce anything they're proud of). And sometimes alternating letters (thththththt, etc)

And I try to sell spelling practice as an excuse to work on best handwriting.

And when it comes to writing longer stuff, or spellings in anything else, I back right off. I'm working on the assumption that improving speed and ease of handwriting will improve other stuff at the same time, as less effort needs to go into the writing itself. We had the problem that the brain was way ahead of the hand - whole parts of sentences got lost. And that does seem to be resolving slowly.

HTH.

sorry, I see you're at least as concerned about the spelling as the handwriting - can't add much there, though it has improved with faster, easier handwriting.

watching with interest as having similar trouble with dd going into yr 2.

Thanks token - interesting that you concentrated on handwriting. It makes sense that good handwriting improves spelling (as DD1 'loses' letters sometimes) though I also wonder whether DD1 has poor handwriting as a way covering her poor spelling - ie, illegible writing to hide not knowing how to spell - because her handwriting was a lot better up until about 6 months ago.

Does your school teach joined up writing? Ours does from Reception and DD used to write joined up but has now dropped it. I think graph paper is a great idea.

I work as an editor and recognise I'm a bit uptight about stuff like spelling and punctuation so I'm wary of pressurising her too much. At the same time, she does seem to be falling behuind her peers eg, th rest of her group has earned their pen licence and she is no way near earning it. She also seems to take no pride in her handwriting, unlike her friends.

@staranise I could have written your post myself. DS's spelling is appalling (worse that his 2 years younger sister) and his handwriting is poor unless he really concentrates on it. School has done lots of work with his handwriting this year, and I can see that it has improved - I'm loathe to do things at home as he hates it!! He's only being taught to do joined up this year (Y3) and he still prefers to print ...

In terms of spelling, school won't give him extra support as his literacy is otherwise good. But his inability to spell means that he's loathe to write ... we are in a vicious circle. Teacher has suggested practicing spelling patterns at home (they get weekly spellings on a pattern) but he is very slow to grasp the concepts and apply them outside of his spelling test.

There's another thread on here at the moment about spelling "programmes" which is worth a read (called something like "Is there anything like this for spelling that isn't £770?").

Thank you redsky, I will check that thread. Same here in that DD2 (Y1) is better at spelling than DD1 and much more confident about asking for help.

DD1's spellings are on a topic theme (eg, the Olympics) but not a spelling pattern. I have asked for her to be moved out of the top group for literacy so that her spellings are given more attention but this hasn't happened yet. It looks like I am going to have to do more work with her at home, which we will both hate as we're fairly busy anyway after school plus I have two younger DCs who also need attention. I was half-wondering whether my standards were too high but I was quite shocked by the standard of her homework this week and really think she needs extra help now. I've also ordered an electronic dictionary 9DD1 likes gadgets) - are they meant to be good?

You should find my 'Do's and Don'ts to help with spelling', useful -scroll down on this page:
www.dyslexics.org.uk/spelling.htm

Page of info.and links for handwriting here:
www.dyslexics.org.uk/handwriting.htm

Thanks, will do.