School taken OT advice and DS now finally had good day writing at school

[alison222]

I am feeling very encouraged. DS has AS and has always had difficulty writing more than a couple of sentances at a time.
Today they actually put his paper at an angle by putting a file under it and he said it was SO much easier htat he got "good" stamps on all his work .
Long may it continue - I hope its not a one off.

Interesting - my ds is the same (AS and dyspraxia) and has terrible handwriting, not helped by being left handed.

I noticed somebody else said put the paper at an angle a few days ago but I haven't attempted to instil that pearl of wisdom yet. Ages ago I also read that dyspraxic children also do better with a slight tilt to their desk. We can't run to a special desk but I hadn't thought of using a file though so I might give it a go.

Thanks.

That sounds really interesting Alison. How did they tilt it exactly? Is there a link between handwriting and AS?

Ds1 (ASD) has started using a sloping writing board at school and it's made a real difference to his writing.

cornsilk - When writing boards aren't available, eg at home, the advice is to put one of those big A4 lever-arch files on the desk and rest the paper on it so that it is on a slope IYSWIM.

Difficulties with fine motor skills are fairly common in AS, and this in turn affects the ability to write. There can also be problems with co-ordination which can also make writing difficult. Ds1 has a lot of the symptoms that cross over with dyspraxia (again common with AS) which means that he can be quite floppy. It takes more effort to sit on a chair properly. The poor posture in turn makes it harder to be comfortable enough to write well.

Apparently DS has poor muslcle tone so his grip is weak. He holds his pencil "striaght up" instead of resting it in the webed bit between his finger and thumb so it is so difficult to control you overtense. Then in turn he doesn't flex his wrist and has it very straight - try writing your wrist will probably be at a slight angle backwards -SO DS in effect uses his upper arm to write and he tires quickly.
We saw an OT last week who pointed this all out and suggested using fat short pencils and tilting the paper/desk at an angle to help forch his hand in to a more natural position.
I also have exercises to strenghten his grip and his arm and shoulder muscles. she is going into school sometime after half term to finish her assessment so we will see if there is anything further to come from it.