How old would you say this child was based on handwriting?

[SevenSistersStar]

To make it clear, this is my child. He wrote this spontaneously at home, I just found it. School work and homework tends to be a bit better but with all the same issues coming up. I'm meeting his teacher later today. Thanks.

I'd say age 5. Is teacher suggesting the letters should be joined up by now?

Thanks everyone. This is really useful. It's good to hear that writing spontaneously is such a good sign, that hadn't really occurred to me (it's something I did as a kid too so I think of it as 'normal').

Why isn't it cursive? is that what the teachers issue is?

I'd say year one as well although I agree with @Russell19 about the letter formation. I love how he has drawn the lines!

Anything from 3-10 from my experience as a nursery and primary teacher.

Actual handwriting wise it's pretty similar to my youngest who is 5 and in Reception. If he was copying something down this is what it would look like.

However he can't write like this, no where near yet. Spelling/ability wise I'd say probably Year 1 or 2 but with a bit of support needed on the presentation...finger spaces, no caps in the middle of sentences, staying on the line etc.

Comparing with ds1, 8-10, but he is dyslexic.

Comparing with ds2 probably 5-6.

I would say year 1. The letter formation isn’t as clear as my Y2 DS, but that may not be helped by the thick pen to be fair. It’s perfectly legible though. My DS still gets his B/Ds confused sometimes like your DC has in the example. I think that’s pretty common.

My DD could spell immaculately from a young age. If she sees a word once, she usually knows the spelling for good and utterly without effort. She's Y6 and still hasn't got a pen licence, however! Her handwriting is nearly as bad as mine. "Chicken scratchings" comes to mind.

There's so much variation, OP, that it's not worth asking questions like this. Comparison is the thief of joy, and all that.

My 16 yr old can’t write much better than that, he’s dyslexic with some fine motor skills issues.

It’s impossible to tell.

I would guess 6-7 years old. In my experience, children older than that generally don't write ds as bs but there are always exceptions.

If he is writing spontaneously and making progress those are both very good signs!

6/7. Year 1 or 2.

I'd be asking the teacher why the school aren't teaching correct letter formation.... every letter is formed incorrectly. That isn't your child's fault, that should have been taught over and over and corrected in reception.

Mine were. I still correct her and so do the school, but she prefers to form them incorrectly. I show her the correct way and she will just say "but I do mine this way". The kicker? Often she can form the letter the correct way, she just prefers doing it her own way! I know they are taught properly at the school and we always had the Ruth Miskin sheets for at home also.

Mine is left-handed though and I'm unsure if that makes a difference.

Thanks everyone. He's in Year 3. We've known for a while his writing is not at the expected standard but I couldn't figure out quite where he was at. I know comparison is the thief of joy but I do find it helpful to talk in specifics. (When I had PND and was on ADs the doctor still wouldn't use the term postnatal depression, or even depression, it drove me mad.) He gets handwriting sheets for homework which are to practice cursive handwriting, but really he still needs to be practising the basic letter formation, so I find that frustrating. Dyslexia has been ruled out. I'm meeting his teacher and SENCO this afternoon. This has been really useful, thanks.

@CallMeDean

I'd be asking the teacher why the school aren't teaching correct letter formation.... every letter is formed incorrectly. That isn't your child's fault, that should have been taught over and over and corrected in reception.

Mine were. I still correct her and so do the school, but she prefers to form them incorrectly. I show her the correct way and she will just say "but I do mine this way". The kicker? Often she can form the letter the correct way, she just prefers doing it her own way! I know they are taught properly at the school and we always had the Ruth Miskin sheets for at home also.

Mine is left-handed though and I'm unsure if that makes a difference.

Interesting, my son is left-handed too. I have wondered if it makes a difference.

Remember he's a boy. Hey can be much slower to acknowledge the actual importance of writing clearly. It's nit that they can't, but somewhere deep down they don't think it's that necessary.

I don't think he's that bad at all fit a year 3 boy. And also remember that learning English spelling is a process over many years. Kids with phonetic alphabets are spelling way more perfectly by this age - because it's way easier!

How he is taught handwriting is crucial to him getting it. Maybe research snd get some write-in cursive writing books? I think Oxford (OUP) do some nice ones.

It depends on what's going on to be honest makes it hard to tell without knowing more detail but if you just want a comparison to age.

It could be a very neat 7- 8 year old ( the writting looks neat but the d and b and literal spelling makes me think younger side )

8-9 with alot of lockdown knock on effect.

The actual writting itself if we disregard the flipped letters, the spelling and missing the lines to me looks maybe 10 years

Oops you revealed age

Something totally daft and not exactly school arrived that I found helped a little boy who was football mad -
d is for defenders - they play at the back d faces backwards.
b is for ball you want to kick the ball forward

Interesting, my son is left-handed too. I have wondered if it makes a difference.

It does. Writing is naturally harder for left-handed children, especially as they will be being taught (usually) by right-handers. Letter formation assumes right-handedness.

Left-handers often struggle as they cannot see their work as they are writing, and they often smudge as they move their hand along, so to combat this they end up holding their hand higher above the paper and at an "incorrect" angle, called "crabclaw" writing. This is an incredibly uncomfortable way to write

Furthermore they have to "push" the pencil/pen away from their bodies as they write, unlike right-handers where it more "pulling" it towards themself.

When left-handers attempt to write like a right-hander, the natural motion of their wrist can cause the writing to slant the "wrong" way, which makes forming letters "correctly" harder. This is "backhand" writing.

Often, the solution is to manipulate the angle of the paper, rather than their wrists!

You can find a lot online about the challenged of handwriting for left-handed children.

You might want to find some resources for left-handed writing online and see if you can print anything out that may help.

d is for defenders - they play at the back d faces backwards.

b is for ball you want to kick the ball forward

Her child is left-handed so "b" probably feels like it's facing backwards, not forwards.

I would say that this is age 6/7 for an average child. My DDs have better writing than this at that age. My DS (with significant SEN) has writing about like this and he is in Year 8 at secondary.

I know other kids at secondary have awful writing too, but most children would leave primary with better handwriting than the picture.

I would say reception / year 1.

I'm a mum of an 9yo child with dyslexia.

I would say for left handed child with thick pen, it's actually ok. He's spelt some tricky words correctly 'was' and 'talk' correctly. Year 3 is late for switching d and b but I'm sure not outside the norm. That's probably all you can say from a one off piece.

Year 1. Age 5/6