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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Handwriting help

6 replies

Tigermummy123321 · 08/01/2025 11:21

Hi there,
We are in a school where the English teacher is not understanding of my sons handwriting issues . He is in Y5, and we have raised concerns for a year now. We have tried the grips, he has practiced curves and lines and directions, we have done a magic link course. Ultimately as they have to wrote more this year, he is concentrating so hard on trying to write that he can't concentrate on the learning. He says that it hurts his arm when he writes 'the magic link way'. He doesn't have any signs of dyspraxia and we don't know what the cause is. The teacher told us in parents evening in November she wouod speak to the SEN lead but basically didn't bother. She has now scored him below average in English. He is actually advanced in English , excelling in VR and spelling tests too. But I think she is being subjective and ut us due to the handwriting. She doesn't think he has a handwriting issue when he clearly does. It is very slow and hurts to write a lot. All we want is to be allowed to do ahandqriting assessment in school . Instead she has put him into all the handwriting club, comprehension clubs etc as school they are for boys struggling. It affects his confidence in English then which he is actually strong in. Last year he was in therapy for low confidence so this is absolutely the wrong approach and she did it without telling us. We have a meeting today with her and SEN and I know they will basically make it difficult when this should be urgent because he does not have long until his 11 plus. Any tips from anyone as to what we can say to persuade them there is an issue (I know we shouldn't have to but this is the situation). He was born 10 weeks early but has no issues that we know of. I'm so stressed and really piss*d off with the school who have failed in many ways.

OP posts:
Tigermummy123321 · 08/01/2025 12:02

Oh he has also been doing the exercises. If anyone has an OT exercise list or sheet they could share in the meantime I can try some new ones - so please message me if you do. Thanks.

OP posts:
happy2025 · 08/01/2025 12:07

Have you looked at the possibility of him having hypermobility in his finger joints? We have this as a family and my kids struggle to write without pain - by y7 they moved to laptops

happy2025 · 08/01/2025 12:08

You can ask him to play with putty to strengthen his fingers if hypermobility is the reason.

Tigermummy123321 · 08/01/2025 12:10

happy2025 · 08/01/2025 12:07

Have you looked at the possibility of him having hypermobility in his finger joints? We have this as a family and my kids struggle to write without pain - by y7 they moved to laptops

Thank you. We have been using putty for two years with exercises in case it helps but I don't think he has hypermobility- we asked the doctor to check and he didn't think so. Thank you so much for the suggestion though

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Mayflyoff · 08/01/2025 12:12

He could have dysgraphia. My DD has this. She can handwrite legibly, but she types most of her work. If you compare what she produces when handwriting and typing, they look like completely different children did them.

Luckily, you don't need a diagnosis to be allowed to type in exams, it just needs to be your usual way of working.

Tigermummy123321 · 08/01/2025 12:14

Mayflyoff · 08/01/2025 12:12

He could have dysgraphia. My DD has this. She can handwrite legibly, but she types most of her work. If you compare what she produces when handwriting and typing, they look like completely different children did them.

Luckily, you don't need a diagnosis to be allowed to type in exams, it just needs to be your usual way of working.

Thank you so much.
Unfortunately his English teacher disagrees and says she is fine
They are saying he would need a diagnosis to be able to type
And are resistant to him doing so

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