Handwriting (dysgraphia?)

[Slipper]

Our youngest daughter will be tested for dysgraphia in the next couple of months (waiting on an appointment time). Currently, her handwriting is messy, but legible. Her oddest habits are forming letters from the bottom to top - right to left, her spacing is poor, she puts letters that should go below the line, like g's and j's and p's into the line, not below. She also randomly throws capital letters into the middle of words like waTer or riveR.

 

She was in public school for kindergarten and half of first grade with the same problems. Her OT said this was still normal for her age and she was unable to correct the way she formed letters. We have worked through letter forming books continuously. She can write sentences and paragraphs, but her writing problems stay the same throughout her writing.

 

She is 8 years old and midway through 2nd grade (she did have regression issues earlier this year and went back to reversing letters, but that seems to have straightened out). Is this still typical for her age or am I right in seeking an evaluation?

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

Honestly, I would try traditional cursive. It should help with spacing and letter formation as long as you sit with her and makes sure she writes the letters as instructed. We use PenTime from Rainbow Resources. We also used a workbook from Staples on traditional cursive. Plus, we used pencil grips.

 

At first I had ds trace the letters with pencil on the alphabet charts in the books both lower case and upper case. We did this every day for about 15 to 20 minutes depending upon age. I would erase his tracing everyday so we could reuse the charts. I made sure he started at the correct points and followed the arrows to form the letters correctly. The we started in the books. My ds hated writing and used to cry and great difficulty. He is now fluent and quick with cursive. I switched him over completely to cursive in 4th after a couple of years of practice in cursive, but I would even recommend earlier since in days gone by they started with cursive and only taught print after cursive was mastered.

[heyyou]

My son had that same problem. He is now in middle school. His penmanship is still poor compared to others his age, but has improved steadily and is mostly legible. He also does a lot of his school work on the computer. First make sure she knows the basics: can match capital to lower-case, knows the rules about capitalization (personal pronoun I, beginning of a sentence, names), which letters drop below the line, and rise above the dotted line. Make sure she grips the pencil properly. The best pencil grip is the Grotto pencil grip. My son used one on every pencil for about two months. Yes, his penmanship was worse using it, and his hand fatigued quickly, but when I took them off, he had a perfect tripod grip reflexively. Still does years later.

 

Check this YouTube channel for a video called How I Fixed My Dysgraphia. I found it helpful. http://www.youtube.com/channel/HCfSaoZRAa32I

 

Also, picking up paper and balling it up using only one hand at a time will strengthen the hand -- especially computer paper -- and the strength will translate into more dexterity. Try it yourself and you'll see. I haven't tried this, but I'm thinking I might.

 

Copywork! It teaches penmanship as well as grammar usage. Pick a variety of good stuff because it's boring. Shel Silverstein was always a winner at my house, but be sure to switch it up. And buy her a nice pen she really likes.

 

I would suggest you consider italic cursive. It is just easier and faster to write. I really liked Jim Bennett's program because the lessons are all hand written by him. http://www.studioarts.net/calligraphy/italic/curriculum.html My son found it discouraging to be expected to "write like a machine," so this program was our answer. To make sure he could read traditional cursive, everything I write in school (notes, directions, examples) is in traditional cursive.

[Hunter]

I strongly suggest reading the handwriting instructions in Writing Road to Reading 6th edition.

[Melissa in Australia]

one of my children has pretty severe Dyslexia. I would be happy if he could write as well as your child. Frankly what he writes in unreadable and gives a whole new definition to chicken scratchings. I tried teaching him Cursive. He could do the most beautiful cursive copy-work, but could not comprehend it at all. All he was doing was drawing- he didn't connect it with writing .

He now uses the computer for his writing program. I really need to get him an advanced spell check as his sentences come up quiet comical.

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

My son was evaluated for dysgraphia at age 12. Illegible handwriting at normal speed, yada yada. In talking with the OT, the remediation for dysgraphia is to teach them penmanship, and if they aren't cooperative, how to keyboard. I used Essential Learning Products Handwriting Skills Simplified Cursive. He did not know cursive before, and was motivated to finish the book because of the clear instructions and because his cursive from the beginning was beautiful. The OT had mentioned that cursive is easier for many than print. Working thru that book also improved his print. He still has a ways to go with his spacing issues, but he can now print fast enough to write an essay in the SAT or AP timeframe and not incur anyone's complaint about the handwriting. With your dd being so young, I'd start with the basics and continue. One thing you want to understand is how to tell the difference between a child that is drawing the letters and writing the letters.

 

 

I thought the SAT and AP exams had you do the essays in cursive. Or are both cursive and printing allowed?