9 years old’s handwriting.

[emyan]

Please wondering if any one has experienced this before. My 9 years old son has always had clear, legible and nice looking handwriting at school. Good use of cap letters, full stops and commas.

I looked at his books he has brought home from school this end of term. His handwriting in English from January this year has changed completely. Illegible, I am barely able to read his work, no longer uses capital letters, full stops or commas. Consistently looks rushed. I have tried to find out if any reason for this and he says none.
He used to be very pleased with his writing in the past as his teachers tend to display children’s works in class.
I have booked appointment for an eye test just in case to exclude any problem there.
Any other idea on how I can help him (especially as I don’t even know what the issue is).
Start off handwriting and sentence practise (cap letter, full stop etc) at home? Anything else? If just the handwriting, I wouldn’t be overly concerned but he now writes a full page with barely any full stops, cap letter etc. Thanks.

Is it like this in all situations? For example if you asked him to write something factual like basic information about himself and family, where he goes to school would it be neat and tidy with punctuation?

Just like when a child is excited and speaks really quickly trying to tell you something to the point where you can hardly understand what they say, the same can happen with writing. All the ideas pour out and presentation suffers. Some children struggle to concentrate on content and ideas alongside remembering all the rules for punctuation.

At school he probably just needs a laminated visual on his table with punctuation rules and reminders about presentation.
Try not to worry about it and enjoy the Summer. Check in with his new teacher a few weeks into the term. Always a focus on presentation in new books.

By the way it is really rare for children to bring books home these days. It was common years ago but not the norm in Primary now at all.

He’s probably just worked out he doesn’t need to put in the effort because there are no consequences either way. I would do 15 mins practice a day with him over the hols to get him into good habits for next year.
My 9 year old DSs writing is terrible but it always has been.

Could the focus have changed to getting more down on paper quickly, focus on the writing and content rather than handwriting and punctuation for some tasks? DS could write neatly if writing slowly and copying but not when expressing ideas or trying to write quickly. Though it should be legible.

He has mentioned yesterday that sometimes he tries to write fast due to the ideas coming fast and wanting to get all out and in doing that he forgets his full stops etc. His school uses cursive writing and he has done so since reception. He says himself and a lot of his friends no longer doing cursive writing. This explains a bit why his writing looks completely different.

since lock down period, his school started sending them home with their books at the end of school year to be returned back in September. It has continued till now.

Thanks for all your responses. His explanation yesterday actually in line with all your suggestions. Excited from ideas so rushing, putting less effort to handwriting.

That’s reassuring then. Cursive script is standard now from early years in most schools. It causes difficulty for anyone with fine manipulative difficulties ( which he doesn’t seem to have) as for e.g. a v or u can look like w Just generally more effort and difficult to produce.
Often had to ask for adjustments for children to use print.
Moving forward especially for homework he could jot down his ideas as bullet points, a word map or even symbolic drawings to organise his ideas before writing.

What did his report say? If the teacher isn't worried then you don't either. It'll sort itself out. He knows how to do it and he'll do it again when he hits the next developmental phase!

Every school I know still sends home most books at the end of the year?