Suggestions please for how to help DS2 (6) develop faster handwriting....

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We had parents evening.

DS2 (6, and youngest in his Y2 class) is mostly doing fine, except for the fact that his teacher says he works V E R Y S L O W L Y .

His teacher has been great, and recognises that he is young etc, but she did sort of suggest that she needs us to 'help' with getting him to develop his handwriting and speed up.

There seem to be two things going on:

1 - he is a perfectionist, so takes ages on his (actually very neat!) hadnwriting

2 - he obviously has to concentrate on it - seems to press quite hard etc.

I'm sure it's to do with development of his fine motor skills etc, but nevertheless, I'm not quite sure what sorts of things we should be doing at home?

Just doing endless handwriting sheets would be very dull?

Anyone had the same, and have any suggestions? Is it just a case of getting them to write for 10-15 mins every evening??

Poor kid.

They can't win.

Mine writes quickly and it is messy, yours writes slower than others and itis very neat.

Leave him alone.

If he has spellings, practice these in joined handwriting.

Peg finger exercises are good to strengthen fine motor control.

Make writing fun, get him to write letters to santa, paint, draw etc etc.

gosh I am on the thread currently below yours - re the step up programme - my son is struggling to write partially because he rushes it because he wants to PLAY.

Here are his words of wisdom, when I asked him why he wouldn't try to do as requested;

' They can't expect me to do this all day - when can I find time for my models?'
(ds lives to build- any kind of construction)

I suspect your ds thinks, 'They can't expect me not to do my most best beautiful work! '

I think it is a shame that their identity is kind of stamped out a bit because they have to learn conform when they are still so young. It is a lovely quality to take pride in your work.

If it is any kind of consolation tons and tons of kids need short term extra help- but I know it still comes as a shock when they say it. I felt very indignant and protective TBH but I know I must take all the help he is offered.

God it never ends - always something new to worry about as they get over one thing it is on to the next worry!!

I think you are expecting too much. He is very little. There will be boys in year 2 who have dire pen control.

There are light up pens you can get to teach children not to press so hard.

www.ldalearning.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product1_95_10451_-1_197447_72334_7230 172305master

But why worry about him speeding up writing. He is only six fgs.

My DS (May birthday) had the same issue in year 2. His teacher tried all sorts of things to get him to write faster (he would manage less than a sentence in the time that most of his peers wrote half a page at least). At home we also tried to make writing fun, things like writing a football match report or a letter to a friend, and encouraged him to write whatever he wanted.

However it was slow progress as he seemed to falter over what was the 'right' or the 'expected' thing to write down. Ultimately his teacher, and we, agreed that it was simply a developmental issue and that he would catch up in time.

Fortunately he has. Now in year 3 he doesn't worry so much about what to commit to paper, and words seem to just flow out of his head more freely. It seems that his year 2 teacher was correct and we just rode it out. Also, something that helped him immensely was a teddy bear (called Jofli Bear), which comes with a travel journal which he has been amazingly enthused to write in.

Hope this rambling message is reassuring in a small way. Please don't worry too much about your son, he is only young and he'll get faster eventually. As frecklyspeckly says, it's so endearing that he wants his work to look good. He sounds like a lovely boy

SP
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