How bad is this writing?

[Lindtnotlint]

I have posted before about my DD, currently on holiday between YR and Y1. She is the weakest writer in her class and we have been trying to help her over the summer but she isn’t exactly keen! I am trying to work out whether she is just lagging behind a good peer group (and maybe I could relax?) or whether it is more than that. Her report from school was quite negative. :-(

Picture of her writing attached - this is unsupported and of her own creation done on her own. It says “wons upon a tim ther was a ber kald haw and hse was helfel. The eend.” (Translated: “once upon a time there was a bear called Haw and she was helpful. The end.”). I have no idea why the bear is called Haw

It’s obviously not amazing but am interested in how people who have a bit more experience would think about that level of writing. Please give it to me straight either way!

She is 5 and 2 months.

(And I know I should probably relax anyway regardless! but it is quite hard because the gap between her and her peers at school is so clear).

Original post pic looks very normal to me!
My youngest was a reluctant reader, slow to enjoy literature. Her writing looked just like that.
She’s now an author having studied at Oxford.
Worry not!

Oh and we discovered she had dyslexia age 9

For those reading this with dyslexic or dyspraxic tendencies or those whose children regularly miss lines and words whilst reading, guess words, reverse letters, write letters on top of each other. Please consider getting an eye test and ask them specifically to check for problems with binocular vision. My 8 year old DC has been assessed by a specialist in “School Vision” and has severe divergence and convergence. He now has prisms in his lenses to correct this and a coloured tint (not covered by the nhs). This has made a big difference to his reading and writing and clumsiness.
OP my other DC who has no such problems is btw year 1/2 and is very similar to your example. I wouldn’t worry too much.

There are OT fine motor co-ordination activities that could help here. www.covkidsot.co.uk/pages/handwriting-advice-for-schools-2.html. There and the advice given above about pencil grip should help her handwriting, which seems to be the main problem. (Spelling and sentence construction appear typical.

She is still very young, but it is important that she doesn't get into the habit of forming letters incorrectly.

@thedutchwife I can't believe your daughter's teacher is pushing cursive!! That's unbelievable. I've never worked in a school that would expect this in RECEPTION. Priorities seem enormously off!!

I think it's better to teach correct individual letters first then move to cursive but It is really common in many schools to start with cursive from the start

DC's primary did cursive from the start.

They found that teaching printing then moving to cursive later caused a 'dip' in their writing progress at the point when cursive was introduced, and had more success when starting with cursive. They did a LOT of preliminary 'fine motor skills / pencil control' activities such as pattern drawing in Reception.

It was VERY successful for DD, who started in reception. it was something of a disaster for DS, who had always struggled with fine motor skills and started there at the end of Year 1, missing all the preliminary activities.

There is no way in hell that my son could do cursive now and he’s at the end of yr one.
Did someone say further up thread that they had illuminated the handwriting part for greater depth in writing?

Eliminated grrrr

I'm wondering if your dd is at a very high achieving school. DS1 is at an independent school - which is not really selective (except in terms of ability to pay > parents all professionals > somewhat higher than average IQ range in most cases) - most of his peers were producing work similar to your dd by the end of reception. I think there would be a much larger range of writing/spelling/phonics ability in a state school, by nature of variable intake and class size!
DS1 was not. He could barely form letters at the end of YR. DS has since had a diagnosis of dyspraxia. His writing is not illegible but he refuses to write anything most of teh time, and his spelling is appalling! He has just been assessed for dyslexia, we await result of that.
I think your dd is doing fine, I would just encourage her gently. Perhaps speak to the school in sept to get more info on hte negative report. Are their expectations ridiculous? Is your dd happy in the class?

I think it's better to teach correct individual letters first then move to cursive but It is really common in many schools to start with cursive from the start
Sadly this is what is happening with (massively uncoordinated) DS.