Has anyones dc been told their handwriting is so poor as to be illegible?

[MrsFreud]

and what do I do? my ds is 10 and we have had heaps of help from OT for his 'dyspraxic symptoms' but it is not helping his handwriting just his overall coordination. His mainstream school say he is bright and writes copious stories, however no-one can read them.

HELP!

What will happen to him now? has anyone solved this?

Can he not be allowed to use a laptop for school work? And just do a bit of handwriting work now and then? Dd's school is looking into laptops atm, and ds has also been promised this.

Cory How old is your ds? I have just started him using the bbc touchtyping website, but a part of me is worried he won't be able to organise himself with a pc very well at this age - re taking it around the school, printing out etc?

They'd have to help him, surely?

My ds is 8, and if I understand it right, the laptop would mainly be used in his main classroom. Or else his teacher would have to help him I suppose.

My dd is 12, so fully capable of transferring a memory stick from home to school and around the school.

I would go in and see the SENCO if I were you.

J's is shockingly bad, though better when he actually slows down. Occupational Therapy helped - he had half an hour once a week for a term, in school - and he now gets an AlphaSmart (portable word processor) through his Statement - but you don't need a Statement to access one. I'd ask for an OT assessment for a laptop or alphasmart.

My DS is 11, has ADD and is left handed. He has always struggled with his handwriting and when assessed at 8, dyspraxia was mentioned but never pursued any further. He absolutley hates handwriting and sometimes it is completely illegible, although if he takes his time he can write quite clearly but obviously this takes a lot of effort on his part and often means he does not finish work in the allotted time. I spoke to his teacher who agreed that homework assignments could be done using the computer but they have never mentioned using one in school. We recently bought him a laptop in preparation for his move to secondary school in September. As cory suggested try the SENCO first.

What worries me is that part of the marking system in the secondary school DS will be attending is based on neatness of work (as I'm sure it is in most other secondary schools). Does this mean that DS will always be marked down because he has a problem with handwriting? If so, that's hardly fair, is it?

I had it said to me as achild. top end of primary like your son. Thankfully teh SATs in those days were a multiple choice paper and I ended up at high school in top set, where the teachers still couldn't read my writing but had teh sence to get me into the remedial unit for intensive work on writing.
In this day and age a lap top type writer seems a sensible line to try, Do get him touch typing tho if at all possible - I still can't and its a pain. There are some simple portable typing machines about- designed for kids at school with no extra programes and a plug and print system.
www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/showarticle/3085

has a bit about some of them

My Ds1 has cerebral palsy and had terrible handwriting (he is 11 now) he was given a Neo computer to start with and has just got a laptop for written work. He also has a writing slope and a special pen which has help loads. He has special seating too to help his control his body when writing.

lol sorry wqill email Janie later.

ds(10) does touch typing at school but needs to be pretty competent to get a laptop of his own , by which time he'll possibly be deemed to have gained an advantage by using it so it may be barred from exams OT has been working on his writing (finger exercises for hyperflexible joints, slope, various pens, posture etc have helped) and now deems it within appropriate range for speed and legibility so his sessions are now reducing to just for intermittent monitoring.

thanks everyone, it sounds like laptops are the way to go. I saw the SENCO today and she said he can have a scrivbe in his exams, as thta is more and more popular thses days, but when he has learnt to use it he can have a pc.

scribe!!!

My own handwriting used to be appalling, to the extent that I had to have special lessons to learn to stop veering off all over the page and forming my letters correctly.