Occupational Therapist Handwriting Program?

[calledtobehome]

If the OT is using Handwriting without Tears 1xw with my son. Should I stop using Zaner Bloser handwriting program and order HWOT?

[TechWife]

Mine isn't a professional opinion, of course. First my experience and then an idea for you to consider:

 

My son was in a private school for K-2. In K, he learned ball and stick. In 1st he learned d'Nealian print. In 2nd he learned Classical Cursive. He was thoroughly confused by this point. When he started d'Nealian, his OT worked w/him on the d'Nealian at my request. When he started cursive writing using the school's choice, he did a great job & she apologized for not having thought of it before. She also said that many kids who don't print well do very well with cursive. When I brought him home, we worked on d'Nealian cursive, which was an excellent match for him. He also started learning the keyboard in third grade. His composition assignments are completed using Word, as are many of his short answer questions. He prefers to print in all caps now. At ninth grade, as long as it is legible, I don't care. His only difficulty is that he doesn't always leave space between his words, a problem cursive fixes, but it's not a hill I'm willing to die on at this point.

 

With all that said, my thought is this: If you are homeschooling, consider what handwriting style you want him to learn and why that is your choice. If it is something other than HWOT, discuss it with the OT and see if she is willing to use your choice. If not, ask her to explain why HWOT is her preference. When that is all said and done, I think you need to pick one style of handwriting. The three years that my son spent learning three different styles was so unnecessary & he lost some ground as a result of it, which is why I recommend picking one and sticking with it.

 

Remember, too, that it isn't just the what the handwriting looks like, it's what it feels like when he is doing it. We went with d'Nealian cursive when we came home because, when given a choice between writing print and writing cursive, he would always choose print & it would always be d'Nealian when he wrote. d'Nealian cursive only required that he learn a few connecting strokes, which were easy to teach & the results were very readable, at least as good as what he had done in school with their cursive program.

 

I hope this helps.

[AngieW in Texas]

I used HWOT with my middle dd at her OT's suggestion. I used it for my next dd too.

[Misty]

That's what I did.. I switched her to HWOT when her OT started using it. However, in the end, she graduated out of OT and I became frustrated with HWOT for its inability to be an "open and go" program. We stopped using it and went back to our other program. So if you anticipate a long haul in OT, then it might be worth buying.. My daughter was only in OT for 6 months (age 6).

[calledtobehome]

I think I'm more concerned about him getting confused. Especially since HWOT use a two line paper and ZB use three lines. He has used ZB since 1st grade. This is only our 3rd month in OT and it hasn't been a problem as of yet. But since he's getting reading to transition to cursive with ZB I'm getting a little concerned. I'll make sure to ask his OT on Thursday when we go.

 

Thanks