Occupational Therapy (OT) for Handwriting: Positive Results?

Page 1 of 1 [ 2 posts ] 

justanothergal
Tufted Titmouse
Tufted Titmouse

User avatar

Joined: 27 Nov 2009
Age: 38
Gender: Female
Posts: 34

09 Nov 2014, 5:15 am

After my dianosis one of the recommendationa was to find a occulational therapist to help remediate and strengthen my handwriting ability. My issues with writing include:

1. Awkward grip on the writing tool and I was observed to write too much from the wrists
2. Writing fatigue and discomfort within 10-15 minutes of starting to write something.

There was no definite consensus in my report as to why I have issues, but the main ones suspected were poor fine motor skills or weak muscle tone. The former is most likey as learning to tie my shoes was very difficult, as are other tasks like drawing.

Now that I can look into OT I'm asking that anyone tell of their experiences and how your handwriting got better. What sort of excercises are involved.



nerdygirl
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 16 Jun 2014
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,645
Location: In the land of abstractions and ideas.

09 Nov 2014, 6:59 am

I cannot speak on OT stuff, but since I homeschool my kids I have had to look into handwriting curriculums.

I don't know if the OT people will have you work on a particular style of handwriting, but Italic is supposed to be the easiest and most natural. I understand cursive to be very problematic for people with difficulty with fine motor skills, and regular print is just way too time-consuming. Italic mixes cursive and print in a natural way.

My son's handwriting was atrocious but has improved greatly with the Italic program. I have found that I made up my own Italic style, which is what I normally use when writing. I cannot control the pen well when I write using cursive - I will often lose control of the loops, making them too big or too small. Italic has no loops.