My year 7 son's handwriting is AWFUL:Any advice/reassurance gladly accepted.

[maria1665]

DS is bright and right handed - but his handwriting is just awful - letters malformed and rarely on the line.

His presentation is not much better - date often missing, not underlined etc.

It was like this in Y6, but for some reason, I thought the magic secondary school fairy would visit him over the summer hols and make everything okay. She didn't and it isn't.

He uses the berol handwriting pens. Any advice/reassurance would be very welcome. I've tried moaning and badgering - this does not seem to work.

Ds is in y8 and his handwriting is awful - he's never done joined-up handwriting and he forms lots of letters bottom to top - he's had loads of input over the years, but he just won't change and as he's very bright and it's just about legible his teachers are much more bothered about content rather than presentation (I think it helps that it's a boys' school, so he's not being compared with ultra-neat girls)

He's started using the Berol handwriting cartridge pens rather than the rollerball ones which has made it slightly better, but I don't think he'll ever make his living as a calligrapher - thank the lord for computers, I say

My ds is dyspraxic and lik this.He types most of his work now and will do his gcses on a computer

Try a fountain pen. DS found the way you have to hold them improved his writing.

Teachers aren't too bothered though (which confused me!) as long as WHAT he is writing is good.

I DO worry about his end of GCSE written exam papers though as DS has perfect Doctor scrawl (and no desire to study medicine!)

My DS had awful handwriting in Y7 and it is still awful now in Y11, although slightly improved. I am mortified when I read anything he has written.

The school assures me that he will not suffer in his GCSEs. The markers have to just struggle through - but you do wonder.

I also think a fountain pen is a good thing. I think most schools insist, don't they?

Both my DSs had poor handwriting - they were capable of reasonable handwriting but probably couldn't be bothered. They both abandoned joined up handwriting in the early years at secondary school. My main concern was with illegibility - particular in Maths where they would often get answers wrong because they couldn't read the figures they had written down.
Their writing improved slightly over time and is now pretty legible but completely undistinguished.
My only advice is to try and find a pen that they find comfortable - and agree re fountain pens, which DS1 used through school.

Don't all men have awful handwriting?

If he is forming his letters incorrectly, then he must have been doing it like that since he learned to write and it will be hard to change. I agree, a good quality fountain pen may help as the ink only flows if you hold it and write correctly, preferably joined-up.

when it comes down to it however, it really is WHAT they write that counts .... ds1 actually has a genuine talent for writing - his stuff leaps off the page and is so vibrant you honestly forget how bloody awful it looks!

Thanks for help. Yet another shouting row this morning re homework diary so illegible even he couldn't tell what he was meant to be doing.

I'll get him a fountain pen, (even though he assures me that no one else has one.)

In the meantime, I have stuck a note to the fridge saying 'Keep calm - no matter what'. Its safe to say my yelling isn't helping the matter.

Trying to hurry doesn't help. My DD is a new-broom year 7, and her handwriting at the beginning of term was better than I would have thought possible. She soon found herself struggling to get everything down in class though, and it's deteriorated back to its previous spiky scrawl.

has he ever been assessed for dyspraxia or dyslexia?

my ds has dyslexia, and cannot write. combine that with cannot spell, and you can imagine what fun we have...
His teachers have allowed him to present work in form on mind maps, cartoons, drawings, scribed by me and typed - whatever is most appropriate.
Might be worth asking his teachers how big a problem it is for them and is there any support at school for such an issue? Ask them to write out homework for him etc or type it.