When to worry about handwriting?

[WeaselCheeks]

My son is 6.5 years old. He's a summer born (late July), so one of the youngest in his year.

His reading and phonics are excellent, and his maths is pretty good, but his handwriting is terrible. He's just done his SATS and they had to get a scribe for him.

He really struggles to write neatly, quite often writes letters back to front (or even upside down!), particularly when he's tired. I'm not sure if it could be dyslexia as his reading is good? The school are even looking into whether he could be left handed!

It's getting to the point where the teachers are saying it's holding him back (they know he 'gets' stuff, but as he can't get it down clearly on paper he can't prove it...). It feels a bit like the class is running away from him - they started learning cursive before he could even form individual letters reliably legibly.

He's been given writing packs to practice at home, but I guess I'm just wondering if anyone else has had experience of kids with dire handwriting picking up with age?

My boys both had/have terrible handwriting. My eldest also has some learning difficulties, so for him it was just all part of his struggles with school. When he reached about 10 his handwriting suddenly improved to the point that his work is now used by his teachers as an example of neatness. I never thought I would see that.

My younger boy is left handed. His nursery teacher pointed it out to us. It made me feel terrible that I had not noticed. Once I knew and paid attention I realised that he fed himself, picked up objects and handled toys with his left hand. If you just place an object like a spoon in front of your DS, which hand does he naturally use to pick it up?

My younger boy has awful hand writing, but it is slowly getting there. He has had lots of extra practise, and he loves to write stories. I am hoping that he is like his older brother, and once he gets a bit older he will find writing easier.

Your boy sounds like he is bright and enjoying learning. If his handwriting is really holding him back, could he learn to type?

Could he have dyspraxia?
signs of dyspraxia

Oops forgot the link!
www.nhs.uk/conditions/developmental-coordination-disorder-dyspraxia/symptoms/

Neither of us did the back to front thing but my brother failed his 11+ due to his handwriting and I was hauled in front of the headmaster when I was about 10 because of mine (I am left handed though). We both have lovely handwriting now and mine is actually much admired.

Don't lose hope 🙂

What are his fine motor skills like generally? Can he build in lego, colour in, use cutlery, use chopsticks, tie shoelaces and so on? (Not that he needs to be able to do all of those, they just use similar skills). If he's not brilliant at that sort of thing, then it's probably affecting his writing. In that case, there are lots of exercises and games devised by occupational therapists you can try, some of which he might find fun.

I'd ask them to investigate for dyspraxia and for school to make a referral to occupational therapy to help. In the meantime can he type?- he could use a laptop instead.

In the long run his handwriting doesn't matter - no one cares as an adult because everything is typed. I've marked GCSE maths papers and am yet to come across writing neither me or a colleague could read enough to award marks.

Schools don't like it because they either have to allow a laptop or find it hard to assess. But if he is dyspraxic then it's a reasonable adjustment under the DDA

I was going to say the same as limoncello. What are his other pencil skills like? Does he enjoy drawing, colouring in? Can he follow a pencil maze? You say his maths is good, can he form numbers correctly?

I was going to suggest dyspraxia also. Although it may be that he just needs to build his hand strength up a bit. Does he do stuff like play with play doh, threading activities etc? Also things like climbing and bouncing on trampoline can all help with core strength which in turn helps with writing.

Look into dysgraphia - which is not just poor handwriting but also difficulty in transferring the contents of your brain to paper. DD sounds like your son - excellent reading & maths but great trouble writing. Only picked up at 13 🤬 and bad enough for her to be considered 2e.

Also, how are his gross motor skills? Something like climbing can help with writing as it helps develop shoulder muscles that stabilise your arm, as well as grip strength.

He's very good at Lego, but struggles with a knife (and sometimes I have to remind him to use a fork).

He's doing dough disco and things like that at school. His handwriting did go downhill after he left reception, because in reception they use whiteboard markers, and in y1 they switch to pencil - he really struggled to put enough pressure down.

He's not bad at colouring in. With numbers, he quite often get those back to front as well.

as per pp, look at dysgraphia

Ooh, sorry to hear it was picked up so late! His current teacher seems pretty good, she's the one that flagged up that he needed extra support and is potentially looking into left handedness or dyslexia. Dysgraphia definitely seems something to look into if he continues to struggle.

(Sorry about the sudden wall of replies, I wasn't getting any notifications!)

2 hours! Jesus that's like a boot camp!

OP my daughter has had issues with handwriting etc..... (she is being monitored for dyslexia but she is too young for assessment) and the school have given her the pencils attached (they do a left and a right hand pencil). We have bought them for home and it has helped a lot with correct holding of the pencil etc..... might be worth a go?

Hi @WeaselCheeks I have a 15 year old who has just been diagnosed with dysgraphia. I have been speaking to school about his handwriting since he was 7 or 8. and was always told no it’s fine.
Well it really wasn’t. Extremely difficult to read, missing words. For math like a spider was having a party on the page. at primary he had some OT
Ages 12/13 he had occupational therapy again.
We also tried a handwriting course - magic link handwriting. This improved his handwriting when copying - with absolutely no time pressure and when taking his time. But in class it doesn’t work like that!
Finally ages 15 diagnosed with dysgraphia- when assessed his handwriting was in the 6th percentile. Also his brain works quicker than his hands can so he was missing information and words because his handwriting can’t keep up.
He now gets extra time for exams and a laptop for some exams and a lap top in class.
So keep persevering. You man need to get him some Ot first of all. But keep pushing, I wish I hadn’t waited so long. Teachers would say oh he isn’t bothered about his handwriting or he is just disorganized. In actual fact he was trying really hard, has a poor working memory and executive functioning skills - he is super untidy! But we are working on it.
Good luck.

Oh no don't do this he will learn to hate it.

My suggestion is to get some handwriting books and to do it with him. I worked on my handwriting at the same time as my 6 year old we did it together a page a day most days with a cup of tea and a biscuit.

I'm a believer myself in modelling things like this and making it a pleasant experience. For context my daughter refused to write after having her work 'marked' by a private school in reception. I had to take her out of school and build her confidence up. The tracing type books that build the skills systematically are helpful. Start with basic ks1 and you can move up if you want to. 6 is quite young. You could check also that there are no issues with hyper-mobility which can be resolved/helped with certain pens and tests.

No its an instant way of putting them off for life.

Hi OP....sorry, I know this isn't the point of the post, but you mentioned...." He's just done his SATS"...do you mean mock practise assessments? As I thought SATS wasn't until May or has the date changed...?

I think you've had lots of great advice. I think it's defo worth going back to basics and it's all about frequent repetition e.g. 10 mins daily. I used traceable worksheets with my DC.. then gradually progressed from there. Good luck!

Ah, might have been mocks - the teachers at his school keep referring to them as "quizzes", because they're worried "exams" will put the children under too much pressure! Gets confusing though!

I was diagnosed dyslexia at 40. They described it as your processing and understanding being four times lower than your writing.

It's probably old fashioned now but it helped me accept I was losing my thought processing