5 year old with very bendy hands, struggling with handwriting

[Bigwheel]

Hi all, not sure if I'm posting in the right place here to be honest. My ds is 5 and has just finished reception. About 18 months ago an ot picked up on his hands (whilst assessing my 9 month old dd for a lack of pincher grip). The word 'hypermoblie' was thrown around, but nothing ever put writing / confirmed. In the last 18 months he ha seen his to 3 times, some sessions a lot better than others. They have helped him to do up buttons and zips which he relly struggles with. They have also given him a pencil grip and wrist strap to wear. My main concern is that no one has really explained to either myself or the school what is 'wrong' or how we can help him. I have asked for written reports but we never get them. I'm not even told if / when he has another appointment and they never phone you back. He doesn't like using the wrist strap or grip, doesn't enjoy writing at all and I was told by his teacher that his handwriting is far behind the standard it should be. In many other ways he's a bright enough child. So I guess I'm asking if anyone has any experience of this? Will things get better? Is there anything I can do with him to improve his writing? I've been told my dd, now 2, will require even more help than ds, which is another worry.

I'm going through this with my 5 year old ATM. He's barely writing due to extreme hypermobility in his hands. The OT has had very little input but she has said to not correct his pen grip as he has to hold it the way it does otherwise his thumb pops out of the joint! He also finds using a felt tip pen at school to write easier than a pencil as he doesn't need to press on. The OT said as soon as he can write he will need to swap to IT support as he will find it difficult to keep up with peers.

I'm too battling for more info for school and I've been advised by parent partnership to ask school to call a CAF meeting as we have a lot of agencies involved and communication is rather none existent between them and school ATM!

Thanks for your reply. My ds also finds it much easier to write with a felt tip. Probably a thick question but can I ask what parent partnership and caf is? I feel I need to start getting him more support at the moment but also to make 'writing fun' as he hates it so much. Was thinking about doing a scarp book type of thing with him over the summer where he can glue his favourite things (postcards, leaves etc) and write underneath what they are.

It's not a thick question hun, I didn't know who they were and what a caf was till 12 months ago. Every council should have a Parent partnership service which is funded by them but independent of them. Their job is to support parents with the minefield of special educational needs and a parent worker will also attend meetings with you if you choose. Mine are fab but others are not so good, like anything else I suppose. You can find your local one here
www.parentpartnership.org.uk/
A CAf is a common assessment framework. Details here
www.education.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/strategy/integratedworking/caf/a0068957/the-caf-process
We've used this process with my daughter and found it very useful when services don't seem to be communicating or there are a lot of services involved. Anyone involved with your child, like the OT, would be invited to attend the meeting along with yourself and school and aim to put plans into place to better meet the childs needs.

Those sound great ideas. My son likes dot to dots and puzzle books which are also good. We also use theraputty, buble wrap and gaming (believe it or not) to help strengthen his thumb muscles so that they can better support his joints.

my son, 4, also has hypermobility and we went to ot after the ed psyc remarked at his poor finer motor skills, luckily we are in the system already due to poor muscle control and talipes meaning he falls constantley. she feels althougth he is left handed, he should have been right handed but the right hand is worse than the left so he has opted for that. but interestingly, when i signed her form at the end the ot got very excited about the way i hold my pen, i hold it between my second and third finger, and it balances on my knuckles. i then grip the point with my second and third finger and thumb. dont know what the 'offical' name of this grip is, but the ot says if children have a huge amount of difficulty with pencil control then they teach them this grip. i thought that was interesting, not sure if this might help your dc?

I would recommend the stabilo range of pens and pencils. Dd3 is hypermobile in all her joints and has been using these pens for sometime now. She is also left handed.

She has been doing physio for poor core strength and shoulder stability and her handwriting has improved massively.

I would also recommend a physio referral to get some exersises.

There is a list somewhere on this forum compiled by Mrz that has loads of exersises to help with fine motor issues. I will try to find it for you.

The thread is called "ASD and handwriting" sorry I have no idea how to do a link to it. When you find it scroll down a little it is a few posts in.

Good luck