My year 3 son strugging with handwriting ..

[Parka]

Hi

My son has just turned 8. He's doing well at school and loves reading - but is really struggling with his handwriting and it is starting to affect his enjoyment of other classes.

He's always found writing difficult - he tends to write as little as possible and makes lots of repetitive mistakes (eg no capitals, no spaces). What seems to us to have made it worse is that his school has let him develop his own very odd style of joined up handwriting, far before he'd really got the hang of non-joined up. So he now writes this really spidery text that everyone struggles to read.

We did query whether this was the right approach at the time, but his teacher felt that he was enjoying trying joined up writing in a way that wasn't the case with standard script, so they went with that. He has had some limited one to one help (I guess 6-8 sessions) from a TA who specialises in handwriting, but I can't see that it has made much difference. Getting him to do any homework that involves writing is a real ordeal, whereas for things like maths there isn't a problem.

I'm now wondering what we can do to help during the summer. I'm going to talk to the TA who was giving him support to see what she thinks, but would love to hear other views. Things I've thought about so far include:

• Some kind of summer scrapbook/diary, just to keep him writing each day.
• Any ipad apps?
• I've read threads here that praise particular writing packages, and have had a look at handwriting without tears, but first I'd need to work out whether to go back a step and focus on non-joined up writing before launching back into joined up. Any views on those would be great.
• I've found various resources that help kids practice making shapes on paper. This might help as I wonder whether part of his problem is the physical act of holding and moving the pen - he's also not great with cutlery etc.

If anyone else is in the same boat, I've found some good ideas on this past thread here, but some of the resources it mentions don't seem available any more:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/primary/935825-OK-how-do-I-help-a-7-year-old-boy/AllOnOnePage

Thanks.

My DS1 has just finished year 3 and I could have written your post a year ago (right down to being rubbish with cutlery). On advice of MN from previous queries I've been doing Write from the Start with him (just a couple of pages a couple of times a week) and his school has been working hard with him on his handwriting too and his hand writing has really come on. We're going to do Lois Addy's Speed it Up over the summer.

We've been doing lots of stuff for his fine motor skills too - lots of lego/modelling/ loom bands - anything that makes him use his hands and really concentrate on what he's doing really does help.

A summer scrap book is good but limit the time he spends writing in it to 15 minutes a day (so it doesn't become a battle). My DS1 has a good imagination so sometimes what I do is write the start of a story and leave it to him to write the next bit for 15 minutes. He likes that more than keeping a diary.

In my experience ipad apps arent really much good for handwriting as unless you're using a stylus in the same way you'd use a pen it doesn't really help with letter formation or the muscle development that is needed.

Bit controversial possibly but in Year 2 we got a home tutor for DS as he was drowning as far as maths was concerned.
Once she had sorted that out (quickly-it was all down to confidence) she did some handwriting with him as I felt it was lacking. It worked wonders with her going back to basics, half an hour a week.

He is 15 now and his handwriting was recently described as exquisite.

I have a similar problem with DD - one of the reasons she doesn't like writing much is her hand hurts quite quickly so I found her a set of different pencil grips to try out pencilgrips and a small size "pen again" which she finds much more comfortable to write with. We also make up stories alternating a sentence each (although she ends up getting really bossy about what I'm allowed to write!). I was looking for summer writing workshops and if you are in London there are some fun looking creative writing workshops (sadly we're not and I can't find anything similar locally).

Have you googled dysgraphia? My dd doesn't seem to fit in to the definition as what she writes is fine - it's just she will do anything to avoid writing and as a consequence is brilliant at précis ....

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