Teaching handwriting

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DS7's handwriting is at an early kindergarten level. He writes in mostly all caps, with a few lower case thrown in, and is pretty bad at minding the lines and has no concept of spacing. His grip looks good, and he's able to trace through mazes and color in the lines ok - he's made huge progress in these in the last year.

Unfortunately 1st grade is already pretty writing intensive. Today I volunteered at school and saw that they had to write 10 spelling words (cat, hat, pat, etc) twice each, then do another page where they were supposed to trace each of the 10 words three times, then do a page where they wrote 3 book titles. This was the independent work to be done in between being called to small groups for reading and even more writing practice!

Just hearing the assignment was almost enough to make DS blow his top. The teacher told him he only had to trace the 10 words one time. He's got 40 minutes of OT per week, but I don't know if it's started yet and whether the therapist is actually even working on his handwriting goal. I don't think the tracing is doing anything for him, so at homework time instead of doing the assigned writing sheets I've decided to teach him handwriting myself.

We've started with writing lower case letters on a white board. Once I'm confident he knows the shape of all the letters, I'm wondering whether to move on to writing on a single line, the two lines recommended by Handwriting Without Tears, or the traditional one they use in class with 3 lines (the middle one is dotted)? I was thinking I'd start with a really large space, and gradually decrease it until it is the same size as the one in class.

(I'm also using a label maker to practice the spelling words. I really think he's just a little behind, and that we shouldn't give up entirely on writing at this point)

Last edited by zette on 20 Sep 2012, 2:10 am, edited 1 time in total.

your son is lucky to have you helping him with his handwriting. mine is bad to the point where they call it dysgraphia. i got a "D" in penmanship once and cried all the way home from school. i concentrated on my writing all that year and had an "A" by the end. i don't think my writing was as good as that of the other kids with "A"'s, but that the teacher rewarded improvement.

the guy that sat behind me in junior high and had to correct my papers predicted i'd become a doctor because they, too, have bad handwriting. he was right!

It's incredibly ironic that I'm teaching handwriting, because my mother always nagged me about how ugly my chicken scratch is. I just never gave a damn about developing pretty "girl" writing, and still don't! I also never cared about spelling, and correctly predicted (about the time the IBM PC became big) that computers would spell check for me someday. I'm a software engineer, btw. Almost no one needs to read my handwriting!

I think I would test him (Maybe have him write a few words in all three sizes to see the difference in how it looks. Use the smallest size that looks like he can do without it being too hard for him. Then I would concentrate on the shapes before moving down a size.

My son's writing sounds about the same. He made huge improvements last year, but now seems stuck on sizing and spacing. It becomes even harder if he has to write and think at the same time rather than just copy. This has definitely impacted his school work, as 2nd grade seems to be a lot more worksheets. I struggled with the different types of paper too, but it didn't seem to make too much of a difference for us, and the school uses various types of paper and seems to use various size of lines to fit the same information on (just depends where the teacher got the worksheet from). The one thing that does seem to help (but is labor intensive) is to make a box with a highlighter to show the amount of space you expect him to fit the word in.

The other things that my son likes (when he starts a temper tantrum over writing practice) are window markers or bathtub crayons.

My daughter has her easel/chalk board(she's only 5 but the heat is already on in kinder) and I will let her just do her thing with drawing letters.... I have that Handwriting without Tears and that pretty much fell flat:)

I found online templates where you can make your own words and such, I found that if I do "interesting" letters with my daughter's interests(ocean animals, etc.) on paper with an image that keeps her entertained for doing letter writing type work..... already I am seeing what the kinder teacher provides is pretty dull...... but figured I'd enhance it with interests of my child for her to want to practice. Its a means to an end:) Doing that with math also for counting.

I don't know if that helps at all, but my daughter gets a kick out of seeing words/letters with images she likes so its making it "fun" at least at home.

Many people on the spectrum have bad fine motor skills. My handwriting is really bad too. Why can't you explain the situation to the teacher so that he can use a computer? Noone needs to write handwriting anymore anyways.

DS7 is in first grade in a mainstream classroom, and in the early grades a lot of the work is on worksheets with short answers. It would really set him apart if every time a worksheet was handed out, he had to leave his desk to scan it in and go work on it on a computer. He's really only a little bit behind, and I can see that with some individual instruction he will be able to write lower case letters and stay in the lines. A reduction in the amount of writing required would be appropriate, but his fine motor difficulties aren't bad enough to warrant skipping handwriting entirely. Switching to a keyboard for longer assignments makes sense. Handwriting is useful to be able to fill out a form or leave someone a note, and I think it is worth teaching him this skill.

I am new to this forum, but your post jumped out at me. My son is in third grade, and is still having a very hard time with his writing. Like your child, he has no trouble at all with tracing words, but to form them himself or use correct spacing is challenging. He can spell very well, but if he has to write it himself, he is more likely to get it wrong. I have been working with him on this for years, but I am starting to get discouraged. As long as he doesn't have to write, he does a beautiful job on his work. It is just so frustrating sometimes. His lack of fine motor skills is starting to really catch up with him, and as he gets older is becoming more obvious to his peers.

I don't have any advice, but I wanted to let you know that there is a mom out there working toward similar goals.

What's the work like in 3rd grade? Is it still mainly worksheets? Would it be practical yet to switch to something with a keyboard?

In third grade we see a lot of independent writing. For example, they are writing stories, and there are essay questions on their worksheets. His teachers are allowing us to do some "back and forth". My son writes a sentence, and then I write a sentence. It does help prevent him from becoming overwhelmed, but honestly, his handwriting hasn't improved. I think we are going to go with some more keyboarding, but I want him to have some basic handwriting skills because it isn't always convenient in life to fill something out on a computer. I try to make it fun for him, but because he hates it so much, it's hard to turn it into a game.

I'm hoping I can find some strategies that will work better for him this year!