More Handwriting Questions

[sixpence1978]

I didn't want to hijack the other handwriting thread, so I thought I would start one of my own.

 

I have discussed my DD's handwriting issues in the past and we are slowly but surely working on them. However, we have a couple troublesome spots right now that I'm not sure how to approach.

 

She isn't the best with letter formation. We are in the process of learning cursive, but most of her work is still done in print. When writing a lowercase h it always comes out looking more like an n. Then she will go back and extend the line up higher. I'm not sure how to get her to start higher up in the first place. She now will write any word that begins with an h with a capital H instead, even if it isn't supposed to be capitalized. I think she just really hates writing lowercase h and tries to avoid it whenever possible.

 

She also has a very hard time staying at the left hand side of the paper. Her writing always starts to travel across the page. And she has trouble knowing when to move on to a new line because the word she is writing won't fit.

 

She is tough to work with sometimes because she hates getting things wrong or constant correction.

 

Any suggestions for me?

[merry gardens]

Question: Are all of her upper zone stems and loops small or is it only on the h?

[sixpence1978]

Really it is just the h that she doesn't make tall enough. I've been kind of letting it slide since we are working on cursive. But she has started substituting that capital H within the past few weeks.

 

Now that I'm thinking of it, she also struggles a bit with her lower case r. She will round it too much so that it also looks like an n. She has also been writing more capital R's lately too.

[PeterPan]

Suggestions?

-neuropsych eval for overall issues (working memory, etc.)

-OT eval if there is hand pain, slouching, awkward holds, not placing her weight-bearing hand correctly, etc.

-eye eval by a developmental optometrist (a regular exam from the will do, costs you $60-100)

-Dianne Craft's handwriting 8's exercise

 

To me, just listening to what you're saying, it sounds like her motor control is not yet automatic and she's having to THINK a lot about everything she's doing. That's why she gets to the end and can't estimate how much room she needs. If you think the irritable, not wanting your help thing is bad now, give it a few years. ;) I suggest you do everything now to figure out the cause. We actually needed all of those components. I have her doing the 8's thing now. It rattled her the first time she tried, so I figured it must be what she needs. (If it's easy, she doesn't need it.) You can google and find a video of it. We do it with cursive letters. Just adapt a little and you'll get it to work.

 

Onelmichele also has a handwriting program she bought that she really likes. But I don't think it's any one thing. She also did VT with her boys and did the neuropsych evals. If you search the boards, you might find the name.

[sixpence1978]

We are getting very close to make the neuropsych appointment. We've put it off for a while but I think the time has come. We are also debating at SLP eval because she has problems with language output (though she did test gifted at verbal learning).

 

She isn't automatic with letter formation, no matter how much we try. While she doesn't write any of her letters backwards, she did score poorly on the test for reversals. This is the one where you are given the letter or number both backwards and the correct way and are supposed to choose the correct version. IIRC, 2's, 3's, n's and some other letter were the ones she was getting wrong about 50% of the time. She tested very poorly for symbol recognition. Do we just keep working on the same letter each day to make it automatic?

 

She has been through 9 months and graduated from VT. Her tracking, convergence, etc. all test very high now. She does still have problems with spatial reasoning.

 

It's funny that you mentioned the writing 8 exercise. We did do that just this morning and it did upset her quite a bit. I suppose we need to keep practicing that as well.

[peacefully]

.

[PeterPan]

Sorry, I had forgotten the rest of your story. Then yes, it's absolutely time to get that neuropsych eval. Right now you're shooting in the dark and don't even know what you're trying to fix. There could be a whole bunch of causes of the symptoms you're seeing (or a combination of causes), and you need some help to get that sorted out.

 

Yes, if she had trouble with the 8's, it's a reasonable direction to go. Don't make it too hard, kwim? Like do it on bigger paper so the 8's are really big, etc.

 

I think that Write from the Start is what Michele got and likes. But it DOESN'T replace the neuropsych eval. Stop beating yourself up over this. Go get the eval. It might be she needs some OT or something too. Like Yllek is saying, you don't know till you get more evals. On the plus side, you're starting young. 8 is better than 11 or 12. :)