Need some more tips for handwriting

[sixpence1978]

My DD (age 7.5) is still struggling with writing. She is in week 5 of her vision therapy, so there may be improvement to come. However, I'm also not wanting to put all my eggs in one basket.

 

She is currently working on Zaner-Bloser cursive. We decided to go the cursive route mainly because we have been learning printing for 2 years. When we started at the beginning of the year on more printing, she was very resistant. She has a great interest in cursive, her printing wasn't getting any better despite all our efforts, so we decided to go for it.

 

Here are the issues that I am noticing though:

 

She is still struggling with spacing, even in cursive. She has a little stick that we use between words, which has helped a lot, but between letters is still an issue. There is too much space between letters, not enough between words.

 

She has a hard time keeping things in line. She still struggles with having things rest on the bottom line, letters that are supposed to go to the mid-line usually go above, and not all the tall letters make it all the way to the top line.

 

I'm working on her grip, posture, and angling her paper, but she still reverts. She is beginning to get mad about it after 6 months of reminding her. She sits too close to the paper, writes right-handed but with a bit of a hook (the eraser end of her pencil points away from her left shoulder), and slants all her letters backwards like a lefty.

 

A few sentences a day and her math worksheets are usually about all she likes to write in a day.

 

I could use any tips/things/books that you might have found that have worked. She really wants to have nice handwriting. In fact, she thinks she doesn't write too badly, but she also has no idea that she has trouble drawing basic shapes...triangles are the hardest for her.

[PeterPan]

She's not ready to write yet. You need the foundation of the improved vision, and then you may need some OT or careful attention. But she's just not in a position to write like you want yet. I would switch to a medium she enjoys using. Do you have a whiteboard? Or get one of those large tablets and use sharpie or fruity smelly markers and whatnot.

 

In the meantime, what you should do is work on finger strength, core strength, etc. that can improve her writing.

-wheelbarrow walking

-Pop-Arty beads. Find these. She'll LOVE 'em, and they're super-duper good for their fingers!

-sit-ups and leg lowering exercises while holding a ball (We call ours shoot the deer, but another dc on the board shoots aliens, whatever works. Say you're pulling Candy Land taffy for all it matters.)

 

Next, instead of the handwriting program, get Callirobics. I'm doing it with my dd, and it's the ABSOLUTE BEES' KNEES. Lots of work on the motor control, with music to help organize it in their brain. But PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE wait a bit for the vision therapy to kick in. You're really jumping the gun. I don't know the pacing at your place. I basically didn't do any schoolwork with my dd while she was doing her VT. That sounds drastic, but it just took a lot of out her. We did VT (first the evaluations, then appointments, etc.) from March of last year till almost Christmas. I have handwriting samples from before, during, and after, and you just would not BELIEVE the difference. Working on handwriting now is like trying to get a drunk to drive. You have to sober 'em up first. She CAN'T do it.

 

Put that effort and time into your vision therapy homework instead. We did 30-40 minutes (stretched out to 1 1/2 hours, haha) daily. After about two months my dd started asking how to sound out words and what sounds letters made. This was after YEARS with a phonogram-based program, haha. It was like it had suddenly started processing in her mind, kwim? We've gone back and are re-doing all kinds of things, because I want to let her have the chance to see things again, now that her eyes are working better.

 

In a few months or at some point your doc will move your dd from focusing and convergence and the basic phase into working on visual processing. That's a fun stage, and you can boost that by doing things at home. At that point start doing puzzles with her, play matching (memory), doing digit spans, etc. The handwriting is going to come later. It grows out of the foundation you're building. Clearly you don't want to miss if there's more physically going on (low muscle tone or strength, motor control problems, whatever), but just in general I would NOT be afraid to wait on this. Let the VT kick in.

[merry gardens]

My DD (age 7.5) is still struggling with writing. She is in week 5 of her vision therapy, so there may be improvement to come. However, I'm also not wanting to put all my eggs in one basket.

 

She is currently working on Zaner-Bloser cursive. We decided to go the cursive route mainly because we have been learning printing for 2 years. When we started at the beginning of the year on more printing, she was very resistant. She has a great interest in cursive, her printing wasn't getting any better despite all our efforts, so we decided to go for it.

 

Here are the issues that I am noticing though:

 

She is still struggling with spacing, even in cursive. She has a little stick that we use between words, which has helped a lot, but between letters is still an issue. There is too much space between letters, not enough between words.

 

She has a hard time keeping things in line. She still struggles with having things rest on the bottom line, letters that are supposed to go to the mid-line usually go above, and not all the tall letters make it all the way to the top line.

 

I'm working on her grip, posture, and angling her paper, but she still reverts. She is beginning to get mad about it after 6 months of reminding her. She sits too close to the paper, writes right-handed but with a bit of a hook (the eraser end of her pencil points away from her left shoulder), and slants all her letters backwards like a lefty.

 

A few sentences a day and her math worksheets are usually about all she likes to write in a day.

 

I could use any tips/things/books that you might have found that have worked. She really wants to have nice handwriting. In fact, she thinks she doesn't write too badly, but she also has no idea that she has trouble drawing basic shapes...triangles are the hardest for her.

I second Elizabeth's opinion that Calirobics is a great program that might help. Various hand activities like play dough, rolling pins, wind up toys, gyrating pens, etc. can help develop the muscles of the hand.

 

Handwriting has been one of our main focusses this year. We do Calirobics, then they write out a short verse, then they write the cursive alphabet each day. Calirobics works with shapes, strokes, spacing and consistent slant, not letters.

 

With all the little curlies, Zaner-Bloser might not be the best font choice if she is having difficulties with handwriting. Can you find another font that she likes? I let my children choose which font they want to use, but I encouraged them to pick simple font like New American Cursive. If she's naturally inclined towards a leftward slant, she might like the font style of Handwriting Without Tears.

 

What writing instrument does she use? We changed to short fountain pens this year. We also use triangle pencils, and I have tried an assortment of pen grips to encourage the proper tripod hold. Finding the right tools to write with can help.

 

I wonder about holding her hand in a hook if she is looking for visual feedback to tell her where her hand and fingers are? Just a thought. Sometimes people don't instinctually know where their hands are in relation to the paper and they look to see what they write as they write. There are ways to develop that sense of where the hand is through various activities.

[Dobela]

My son's handwriting didn't improve until we had at least 6 months of vision therapy, and then it still came in small increments. Also, remember that in public schools cursive is often not taught until age 9 or 10 because it often takes that long for a child to develop the fine motor control needed for cursive.

 

I would also consider having an occupational therapy eval. When my son was in OT for handwriting, the OT did many things to improve posture, body and hand strength, muscle memory, and so on.

[PeterPan]

Ooo, I had forgotten we did fountain pens last year! That was when I was going through my: what in the world do I do for this child, try anything! phase. Anyways, I was just realizing, unbeknownst to me, our need for them had subtly passed. Hmmm! She was holding her pen too hard before, and the fountain pen helped with that as a self-correction. Press too hard, you break the tip. But really, I think it may have been the VT that made the shift for us. The VT lady had dd use a pencil grip and consciously work on loosening and relaxing, breathing, relaxing while she the written exercises (word races where you mark each letter, etc.). You know that couldn't have been what did it though, because dd's hand hurt a lot with those, a LOT. So mercy, maybe it was the OT? We've done so many things this past year, I missed all these changes. They were happening, and I was like the one in the middle of the flushing toilet! :)

 

Well hmm, that was a fine image. Yeah, if the issue was her hand strength, then it was the OT that helped. And I think too that when they're having to put so much energy into the visual processing (correcting what they're seeing that the brain knows isn't right, etc.), it's just like this additional load, hence the tension in the hand and the pain. It's like when you're extra, extra tired and try to drive. You grab the steering wheel really hard.

 

Well where that was going, I don't know. I need to steer myself to bed! :)

[sixpence1978]

Thanks for the replies you guys.

 

Yes, I'm well aware that VT is going to take time to kick in. I'm not expecting perfection in the slightest. Nor do I think I am pushing too hard. We've scaled quite a bit back on her normal work. She does handwriting practice for about 5-10 minutes about 3x a week. I don't even have her do the whole page, just a line or two. She also practices writing her letters in a sand tray. She does a page of GWG 3x a week, Saxon math 4x a week (she's is very good at math), and AAS is mostly done on the white board. We occasionally add in some phonics games to reinforce or to cover a topic that she is struggling with while reading. She reads to me most days from any book she would like. Then we occasionally get to science and history, but they are more in the form of me reading and her doing some crafts. She loves art time. She also does her VT homework first thing in the morning (it works better that way).

 

I guess at the moment I am more concerned with her hand positions than actually legibility. Hooking her hand and being very adverse to slanting her paper are usually the ones that stand out. Oddly enough, her grip doesn't bother me too much. She doesn't have the typical tripod grip, but she does grip the pencil like I, my husband, and son do. It's more of a grip where the middle finger does more of the steering of the pencil than the pointer finger. Sitting too close to the paper and the spacing issues are visual issues I'm sure, so I expect those might come with more VT.

 

We did briefly try mechanical pencils to help with the pushing too hard issue. I'm not sure why we stopped doing that. I need to bring those out again. I thought I had heard about writing on an incline to help with something, but I can't remember what.

 

 

I have been debating HWOT instead. She is using the ZB that is more simplified, but it does have a slant. Maybe having no slant allow her to focus more on the formation. We did HWOT for K. Now she would prefer there to be a top line though.

[RamonaQ]

My tip......wait.

 

Honestly.

 

I scribed for my son up until about 9 or 10. He would complain and say handwriting "hurt" too much.

 

This year, we did a quick review of HWOT (we had worked through the books in the past). He is now happily writing a whole page.

 

What we have done:

1-Let maturity kick in

2-VT

3-Wilson (which I think is what is easing the pain-- he is really getting adept at manipulating sounds/ syllables to easily put words together)

[peacefully]

Here's a link to thread that seemed to address a lot of ideas for handwriting.

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=225647&highlight=dysgraphia

 

My ds is just 6. We finished VT a couple of weeks ago, and we are also taking a break from OT after doing that for a year. In addition to his visual processing issues, ds has a lot of difficulty with motor planning, hand strength, fine motor control, etc. I know it is an anxiety-producing prospect to wait on handwriting practice (believe me, I know), and you don't sound like you are pushing too hard at all, but this time really can be put to good use by doing lots of fun activities that focus on muscles, motor control, rhythm, etc. In addition to the activities that have already been suggested, try lots of coloring instead of handwriting practice, and focus on hand position and grip in that context. I also use a modified tripod, and ds seems to prefer that position as well. It is an accepted grip by many OTs. I wouldn't go completely crazy on that particular battle. My ds also "hooks" his hand, and it contributes to fatigue and cramping, so I do correct that issue whenever I can. I sometimes use a piece of Scotch tape on the top of his wrist, just so he gets a little more sensory input if his hand is bending the wrong way.

 

I'm hoping laundrycrisis might chime in with a review of First Strokes one of these days. I've become disenchanted with HWOT after using their Pre, K, and 1st grade programs. Ds is learning typing right now, and soon we're going to try cursive. I'm leaning toward D'Nealian right now. Maybe I'll try Callirobics as a transition. That one looks good!

[merry gardens]

Thanks for the replies you guys.

 

Yes, I'm well aware that VT is going to take time to kick in. I'm not expecting perfection in the slightest. Nor do I think I am pushing too hard. We've scaled quite a bit back on her normal work. She does handwriting practice for about 5-10 minutes about 3x a week. I don't even have her do the whole page, just a line or two. She also practices writing her letters in a sand tray. She does a page of GWG 3x a week, Saxon math 4x a week (she's is very good at math), and AAS is mostly done on the white board. We occasionally add in some phonics games to reinforce or to cover a topic that she is struggling with while reading. She reads to me most days from any book she would like. Then we occasionally get to science and history, but they are more in the form of me reading and her doing some crafts. She loves art time. She also does her VT homework first thing in the morning (it works better that way).

 

I guess at the moment I am more concerned with her hand positions than actually legibility. Hooking her hand and being very adverse to slanting her paper are usually the ones that stand out. Oddly enough, her grip doesn't bother me too much. She doesn't have the typical tripod grip, but she does grip the pencil like I, my husband, and son do. It's more of a grip where the middle finger does more of the steering of the pencil than the pointer finger. Sitting too close to the paper and the spacing issues are visual issues I'm sure, so I expect those might come with more VT.

 

We did briefly try mechanical pencils to help with the pushing too hard issue. I'm not sure why we stopped doing that. I need to bring those out again. I thought I had heard about writing on an incline to help with something, but I can't remember what.

 

 

I have been debating HWOT instead. She is using the ZB that is more simplified, but it does have a slant. Maybe having no slant allow her to focus more on the formation. We did HWOT for K. Now she would prefer there to be a top line though.

I didn't catch that she was pushing too hard in your first post. Excessive pressure, along with the hooked hand is why I bought a special handwriting weighted glove for my son. I read the recommendation in some special ed material--I forget exactly where I read it and what they called it, but looking at a hooked hand, strange grip, sitting too close and excessive pressure were too of the clues that the child might not realize exactly where the hand is. My son's pressure improved a lot by switching to a fountain pen, but he still tried hooking his hand. I found the weighted glove on an OT website and we use it when doing his handwriting exercises. I think it has helped, along with all the other various things we do.

 

As to slant, my son has a more upright slant, so when we selected a font to use, I suggested a font that had a similar slant to what came natural to him. As long as the slant used is consistent, that's more of a personal handwriting style and not neccesarily a sign of messy or bad handwriting. (Jaqueline Kenedy-Onnasis wrote with a slight back-slant, but she had lovely writing.) If the writing is neither excessively too far forward or too far back it can look okay--as long as the slant is uniform.

Edited February 3, 2011 by merry gardens

[sixpence1978]

I didn't catch that she was pushing too hard in your first post. Excessive pressure, along with the hooked hand is why I bought a special handwriting weighted glove for my son. I read the recommendation in some special ed material--I forget exactly where I read it and what they called it, but looking at a hooked hand, strange grip, sitting too close and excessive pressure were too of the clues that the child might not realize exactly where the hand is. My son's pressure improved a lot by switching to a fountain pen, but he still tried hooking his hand. I found the weighted glove on an OT website and we use it when doing his handwriting exercises. I think it has helped, along with all the other various things we do.

 

As to slant, my son has a more upright slant, so when we selected a font to use, I suggested a font that had a similar slant to what came natural to him. As long as the slant used is consistent, that's more of a personal handwriting style and not neccesarily a sign of messy or bad handwriting. (Jaqueline Kenedy-Onnasis wrote with a slight back-slant, but she had lovely writing.) If the writing is neither excessively too far forward or too far back it can look okay--as long as the slant is uniform.

 

Thanks! This was really helpful. I had seen those weighted gloves but didn't really know what they were used for. I might have to look into a fountain pen too. She would probably find that a lot of fun. Of course writing with anything other than a pencil is fun :)

 

She does do a lot of fine motor skills all ready. We do a lot of playdoh, painting, crafts, beads, etc... I'm not entirely sure, but I think most of her getting tired during writing has more to do with her losing focus on the task and it being somewhat mentally challenging to remember how the word is supposed to look. Her fine motor skills seem almost age-level to me. Her visual memory is where she really struggles...again VT should address this more down the road hopefully.

 

 

Thanks you guys for all your advice. Sometimes just hearing other opinions help me to think things through differently and remember to focus on my original goals.

[PeterPan]

It's not necessarily fine motor skills but could be finger strength. The way our OT explained it to us, when the strength or tone is low (in the muscles, at the joint, whatever), the body doesn't develop proper proprioception (awareness of that thing in space). The way my chiro put it was when you watch an athlete walk, they have proprioception, they know exactly where their body is. Well every just and muscle in our body has that. So when I suggested the beads and whatnot, it was for finger STRENGTH. Improving the strength improves proprioception (what Merry's weighted gloves are doing).

 

I've been working on ankle proprioception to see if I can get to where I can stand and put my socks on. It has been a slow process, but after a month of consistent work I can see progress.

 

So anyways, where that was going I don't know! Just wanted to tie those two threads or concepts together for you.

[Dobela]

Thanks! This was really helpful. I had seen those weighted gloves but didn't really know what they were used for. I might have to look into a fountain pen too. She would probably find that a lot of fun. Of course writing with anything other than a pencil is fun :)

 

She does do a lot of fine motor skills all ready. We do a lot of playdoh, painting, crafts, beads, etc... I'm not entirely sure, but I think most of her getting tired during writing has more to do with her losing focus on the task and it being somewhat mentally challenging to remember how the word is supposed to look. Her fine motor skills seem almost age-level to me. Her visual memory is where she really struggles...again VT should address this more down the road hopefully.

 

 

Thanks you guys for all your advice. Sometimes just hearing other opinions help me to think things through differently and remember to focus on my original goals.

This was very much my son. VT did help that. but it wasn't until he was seeing clearly that it was helpful. Until then the letters looked different every time he looked at them, even seconds apart.

 

You might also want to find other ways to improve visual memory. My son's reading tutor suggested games like Loopz and Simon where he has to repeat the pattern given visually. BopIt was another game recommended. We bought them for our son and they are very hard for him, to the point they are not fun games for him, so we assign so much time each day on one of them as part of his school work.