Year 1 boy - handwriting

[Robostripes]

My DS is in year 1 (he’s 5, will be 6 in March). He is bright, particularly good at Maths and reads well, is in the top group for phonics and on orange band books. But his handwriting - my goodness! It’s such a contrast to how well he’s doing at everything else. I sat down with him yesterday to get him to write some Christmas cards to his school friends and it was such a painful experience.

Issues - letter size all over the place, he’s not forming a lot of his letters correctly, has to be reminded to use a finger space virtually every single word.

Some of the girls in his class seem to have beautifully neat handwriting and I’m just worried that as DS progresses, he’s bright but he won’t be able to get it down on the page to show that.

What can I do to work on his writing with him at home? We already do lots of fine motor skills activities, he loves Lego and Hama beads. Is it just a case of sitting down with him and making him do some writing as often as possible? I’ll try and make it fun obviously. I think I really need to go back to basics with him with letter formation.

He's 5, he'll get there. Worry not!

MY ds is in Year 1. Brilliant at Maths - repeatedly does the highest challenges set in class, total wiz. Brilliant at reading - turquoise band, and free reads various random books at home. Brilliant at discovering/science - and coding.

Handwriting? Oh my goodness. Very large and scrawly - and he's v upset by it! It improves is he joins up the letters we've found - the improvement when joining is remarkable.

We are absolutely not worried - he's ace in so many ways and genuinely interested in academics, and the handwriting will follow - if not now, a bit later.

Relax!

Find one thing to praise and one thing to correct. So maybe the spacing, or letter size, but not both.
Don't expect it to be good - he is only 5 and good at lots of other things.
The practice is important, the overall result less important.
Also nobody will judge, or likely even look at his writing inside the card.
Definitely don't compare his handwriting to others.

Writing requires physical maturation of the hand and boys are sometimes less developed than girls in this. He would benefit from task that require fine motor skills so Lego and Hama beads are perfect! Play doh is also great…look up dough disco for fun, short activities designed to develop strength in the hand muscles.

I agree, he's very young. I wouldn't worry. A lot girls do develop fine motor skills faster than boys. You could encourage him to draw or do colouring in, to practice pencil control, but I wouldn't push it unless he enjoys it.

Where I live, (European country) they don't start learning to write til they're 6 nearly 7, but from 4 and a half they do a lot of drawing/practicing making swirly shapes with a pencil to build up muscles and control, so that by the time they start actually forming the letters it goes fairly easily. But I think it's mostly because they are older and have a better understanding of what they are trying to do. A lot of girls seem to be able to write nicely at 4, in my experience (4 sons) many boys don't tend to get there til 7 or 8 at the earliest.

Thanks, it seems like I shouldn’t be worrying about it too much. He has just recently started to enjoy colouring in and is much neater about it than he used to be so I’ll encourage that and keep going with the Lego etc.

I forgot to mention that he often writes letters and numbers backwards too - presumably this also isn’t much of a concern at this stage?

His teacher didn’t seem worried at parents evening but she did say that his writing needs work whereas he was ahead on everything else.

DS3 is 10 and in year 6. He still has issues. No one can be good at everything. I'd say in year 1 that's fairly normal. When DS2 was in year 1 I couldn't read his writing and at the time he was assessed as gifted and talented. He found one of his year 1 exercise books the other day when he was tidying his room. He has beautiful handwriting now aged 14.

If you could see an X Ray of a 5 year olds hand and an 8 year olds hand - you’d see why it’s difficult for them to write at that age.

He’ll get there. Focus on fine motor skills and relax.

Been there, done that, was shown an x ray of hands at various ages by his teacher and told to relax.

@Robostripes Google image search “child X Ray handwriting” and see if it pops up! It’s quite useful to see x

@Inquisitivearchitect I just googled that and wow that’s fascinating - I had no idea.

@Robostripes amazing isn’t it! Makes you realise how uncomfortable it must be for them. DS’s teacher showed us and it put me right back in my box

They use that image for some of their teacher training.

I really wouldn't worry. He sounds a lot like my DS. He is a teenager now, and still has awful handwriting, but it does not seem to have caused him any problems at all. His drawing ability still hasn't progressed much beyond stick people either. It is just not where his strengths lie. As time goes on more and more work seems to be done on computers, so handwriting is not such an issue.

Best thing is lots of large scale games to practice of letter formation. Check out school's approved style - there should be a sheet - and get him shaping letters - not words at first - with a chunky chalk on a blackboard easel, if he has one, with his finger in cheap shaving foam on the kitchen worktop, with a paint brush and poster paint on big paper or in damp sand in a sandtray. Be imaginative! A ribbon drawing-pinned on a stick is great for skywriting, like sparklers.

Group lower case letters by their shape and direction - tall ones like l, f, h, k and t, anti-clockwise ones like a, c, d, e, g, o, q, s - clockwise ones like b, p, and the loopy ones like m, n, v and w. Get his big muscles used to the directions and where to start. Lower case o starts at the top and goes anti-clockwise; it really matters! Lots of fun, lots of repetition, lots of variety.

When you go for a pencil (not a felt tip, they are harder to feel and control) get a chunky triangular one and watch his grip: a triangle of the pads of his thumb and index and the side of his middle finger is correct. If his other fingers are creeping onto the pencil, give him a cottonball to hold in his palm to keep those fingers occupied and out of the way.

Does he have lines to write on at school? Get him some widely spaced lined paper and show him what sits on the line, what goes below (the stems or loops of, j, p, q and y) and what goes above (the stems or loops of b, d, f, h, k, l, and t). Those are technically ascenders and descenders, depending whether they're going above or below the line.

Words next, and finger spaces are fine while letters are big and fingers small, but a better guide is leaving enough space for a letter 'a' between words.

Hey OP. My younger DS sounds exactly the same as yours - in every way! Not worried at all. My older DS is very academic but also had terrible writing until Yr 2.

This sounds like my DS. Suddenly in Y6 his handwriting is beautiful. It really can take some children a while to get that pen control.

Also, the speed and volume of work expected under the national curriculum means that many children have to choose between neatness and getting it all done if writing is a struggle.

Thanks all this thread has been reassuring! I’ll keep plugging away with these Christmas cards 🤣

My summer born y1 is ahead for everything bar handwriting. She seems to have regressed with her grip and can’t stay on the lines. I thought the X-ray was fascinating. My handwriting is crap too and I remember having a tutor in primary to focus on my spelling and writing. There is one boy in her class who has beautiful writing and has done since nursery. Both children are bright, same level for reading etc but he is very precise and ordered and she is a whirlwind of ideas and imagination. Even when her hands strengthen i suspect her handwriting will never be the neatest.

Are any of these posters still around for an update by any chance - @Robostripes @Onatree ? My Yr1 DS sounds exactly the same. Can just about get the letter formation down correctly but sooo slow and tiring for him. And he hates it. Letters also very big! I keep seeing examples of beautiful Yr1 writing and it concerns me. Interested to know how these boys are faring two years on?

Hi @volcan! I forgot about this thread.

Almost two years on I can say that my DS’s handwriting has improved significantly from year 1, however it’s still the case that it’s his weakest area by far! I think he’s just quite lazy and uninterested in writing and so although he can put in the effort to present his work really nicely, he mostly can’t be bothered and his exercise books that came home before the summer holidays are certainly not neat. His letter formation is better now but size of letters and finger spaces can still be inconsistent.

But, he achieved “expected” for his writing in his Y2 SATs so I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. It’s legible which is the main thing!

@Robostripes that's great. And well done to him on the SATS!

My y2 girl sounds similar @volcan. Definitely improved over the course of yr1, but it's certainly weaker than her other areas. She seems to find it tiring, and really doesn't enjoy it. She is left handed, and still often writes numbers backwards. It contrasts with her ability in other areas- she is a fantastic reader, has an amazing vocabulary and is very confident with maths. It's like she struggles to get what she wants to say down on paper, and then finds it disheartening.

Don't worry about it - and don't draw attention to it. Give plenty of opportunity for tracing, colouring in, dot to dot and that sort of thing. You must avoid the child becoming conscious of being "rubbish at xyz "(in this case writing) but could be lots of things. Once a child accepts a label of "I am rubbish at xyz" they switch off and stop trying to improve.