Handwriting letting him down (to put it mildly)

[drspouse]

DS is in Y1 and you can't read a word he's written. You can just about tell if he's writing a T or an O or maybe that could be a Z or an S, maybe, but beyond that it's guesswork. All the letters that have a curve and a tail (a, b, d, g, h, p, q, y) look the same as they are a circle with a random line or two somewhere on them. Also everything is enormous and all over the page (he'll start somewhere in the middle, write the letters in order, but end up in the next county).

We're hoping for a referral soon to investigate dyspraxia.
The class has spelling tests and they are sent home with words to practice - and they have a Big Write each week, and various other writing things in class. He does practice at home and if I ask him the letters in the word he can sometimes get them.

So, not surprisingly, he's just come home with a report saying "not meeting targets" in writing and SPAG (though he can do phonics quite happily and is fine in reading, just needs to speed up a bit).

I think I'm most concerned that his writing isn't improving, but for his own well being I think it's a bit unfair that he gets 0 every single week in his spelling when he can usually try one or two of the words and quite often (if you watch what he's writing and he tells you which letters it is) gets them right.

Firstly any tips for really helping his writing? We do practice pencil skills most days, nice grips on pens, please don't tell me about "strengthening his shoulders" as I have looked it up and it has not been shown to help, he's not great at other fine motor skills either but frankly it's enough hassle to get him to practice his pencil skills so it's going to have to be something he'd really LOVE to do (sorry I know that is NOT helpful - oh and also he has zero interest in Lego)

Secondly is it fair to ask the school not to make him write out his spellings? Should they be letting him skip the test? Or letting him do it in plastic letters or something?

Well we've started Write from the Start, I can see it's good, we are keeping it slow and doing just one line or so at a time with me guiding his pencil with a finger to stop him rushing.

Speed Up is a program written by the same author.

My son is similar. They gave me a laminated page with all the letters on to practice tracing which has helped. Only just started the process though. Also getting looked at for dyspraxia

my daughter plainly has motor dysgraphia (her fingers dislocate easily so putting pressure on a pencil is difficult) anyway no diagnosis as nowhere to go to get one round here but I look at it that she has to get on with it. I found yoropencils which have made a big differnce to her and they even do a smaller sized one for smaller hands so might be worth looking at them. My other daughter already had neat handwriting but she has converted to these as well.

Other things we found were astigmatism and getting glasses really helped her. she has graded/varifocal glasses to help her adjust between near and far when copying etc as otherwise she takes so long to refocus her eyes things have moved on and her copying has now improved.

tap dancing is great - we do lots of dancing and her core strength has meant she can now sit better, like said before by someone further up, make sure feet flat on floor and something to rest elbows.

Not all kids with fine motor issues have gross motor issues but often they are linked and there is no harm in developing all these skills.

clay/play doh is a fun way to build strength in fingers. squishies are very popular at the moment too.

You say you have enough hitting at home, does he have problems with anger control (usually out of frustration), and regards his writing is it consistent in terms of the way it looks or does it look a lot like a spider on LSD, I ask because I'm going to say have you considered, he may be Cross-Lateral, is he left handed and right footed or vice versa, the handwriting is often a good indicator regards this, if he is no amount of practicing will change his hand writing.

He's quite ambidextrous but from my reading that's just associated with dyspraxia, not a separate disorder.

We had training (in school) last week by our two outreach OTs who went into great detail about the importance of core strength/strengthening shoulders etc for developing fine motor skills and handwriting.

I've not read through all the replies, but my DS in Y5 has always struggled terribly with handwriting and maybe you can take something from our experience. DS was diagnosed with dyslexia age 6 and the Ed Psych recommended we also see an occupational therapist. The OT we saw through CAHMS trained me and the TA in 'handwriting without tears', an American system which goes right back to the beginning and uses multi sensory techniques. It did help but ultimately I felt the sheer level of effort required (10 min daily) was too much for the baby steps of progress and our energies would be better spent elsewhere.
We've tried keyboarding, but not got on great with it, but has a lot of success with Dragon Dictate, which is a speech to text software. It has revolutionised his school work and his self esteem. He has gone from being considered low ability to very bright by his teachers and his pride in his work is through the roof.
Re the spelling - knock that on the head now!!!!!!! We had the same experience with DS getting 0 out of 8 every week for TWO YEARS. I must have been a mad woman to let that continue. WTF. I suggest either your DS stops the tests completely or they trial a one simple word a week test which is oral. If he is successful they can build from there. I have an ongoing ban on spelling tests for my DS. We are never going there again! Ultimately you can find many different ways to improve their reading, writing, spelling etc but a crushed self esteem is very hard to come back from. xxxxx

Thank you ilove for the pep talk!
I have not had a response about the alternate spelling test option but we'll be talking to them about it next term if we get no answers.

My son was the same at that age - we went down the ot route and did most of the things suggested above, including tons of exercises, write from the start and apples and pears. His fine motor skills were ok for everything but handwriting. He had a scribe in SATs and we eventually we paid for a dyslexia assessment (he was tested for dyspraxia and didn’t have it) and he had it - he has particularly poor working memory, his reading was always very good but spelling and handwriting continue to be terrible. He has a laptop in lessons and that and extra time in exams.

He’s 14 now and neither of his schools even suggested he had it. He did a special touch typing programme via a local dyslexia group that helped with spelling too.

www.readandspell.com/

There is lots of research being done into handwriting and dyslexia now. I went to a conference on it recently- it was very interesting how all the brain is so focused on what letter to write the handwriting bit just doesn’t function.

Good luck with the teachers. It's great if they are open minded, but a nightmare if not. I have transformed from this smiley amenable school mum ready to defer to the teacher to zero tolerance pushy mum. Not fun but it's paying off!
reap - interesting about the link between handwriting and dyslexia. My DS also did not come out as dyspraxic but his dyslexia is on the severe side.

OK so the Write from the Start book is a HUGE hit and we can even make him write carefully (some of the time). We're still on drawing which fortunately he does like. Some of his circles etc. are really nice.

We've done it every day except Christmas and his birthday and he even wants to do it over reading (normally it's reading yes, anything else no).

I think the fact that it's a single book (well, 2 with the second one) also means we can't lose it/forget to print more out/forget where we are.

Not cheap but well worth it so thanks all!

Now all I need are similar things for behaviour, and for DD's language comprehension...

Ty drspouse. I might buy it for ds

I'd be interested in helping my son too.

He's top of the reception class for maths and reading but his motor skills are terrible (he's a bit of a brute like me ;)) and his handwriting is terrible.

I'll take a look at some of the solutions posted here. Thank you!

In your shoes I'd seriously consider a clinical assessment for ADHD. Also, have you had him checked for hypermobility/hypotonia? Both have a strong overlap with dyspraxia and dysgraphia. There is a good book on all these conditions and their interconnections. The author refers to combined ADHD and dyspraxia as DAMP - deficits in attention, motor control and perception. Between half and two-thirds of children with DAMP also have dysgraphia.
The OT we saw recommended gymnastics, trampolining, climbing and swimming for similar issues. She also recommended a Stokke Tripp Trapp chair to encourage good posture for writing. It helped. Her view was that the UK curriculum introduced writing too early and it should be left till age 6 minimum as was the case in many other countries. Hand putty, stress balls, pencil grips etc. are all worth trying.
Omega-3 (marine sourced) has a clinically significant benefit on some neurodevelopmental conditions, including ADHD.
Laptop/touch-typing can be very helpful if introduced at the right age. We did it from Y3 and it was a success. Y1 might be a bit young.
The school should be allowing accommodations so that his handwriting doesn't hold back development of his spelling/grammar. Forcing him to do written spelling tests would be setting him up to fail and would seem counterproductive as it will knock his self esteem. There are apps like squeeble spelling that allow spelling practice without writing.

He does have hypermobility but it's not that bad. He goes swimming and does tap dancing.
He has a similar chair to a Tripp Trapp and I'm sure it would help his posture if he actually sat on it. Rather than standing, sitting on his feet, kneeling, or climbing on the table.