If you have helped your logic stage son improve his handwriting, how did you?

[walkermamaof4]

DS11's handwriting isn't good. His print is actually worse than his cursive, but both are pretty bad. Which handwriting books really help or what has worked for your ds? He has used Reason for Handwriting and Italic in the past. His cursive did improve a bit this year but is still bad.

[purduemeche]

Ditto for us as well. DS10 can write better with his eyes closed. Seriously.

[Dolphin]

My son is working through HWT can do cursive, and I got him the lined paper for older kids. It seems to be helping.

[Mrs Twain]

Ds 11 has handwriting that is quite bad. While standing at his shoulder, I keep reminding him to write small and sloooooowly. Also he uses the wide-ruled looseleaf paper. These things have made some improvement, but I'm open for suggestions as well.

[Lori D.]

Can you discern whether it is due to an issue, or due to carelessness?

 

If the second reason, well, frankly, it is hard to make a boy of that age care. ;) I had two boys who didn't care what their writing looked like. Standing at their shoulders and reminding them to slow down, or forcing them to re-do sloppy work might help. Or not. A better solution might be to get them typing, and have all papers and writing typed. THEN you can require a specific SHORT penmanship assignment for the purpose of slow, neat practice, and the hand won't be tired out, and the student *knows* that the requirement is neatness. Then you have more of a shot of the student actually slowing down and practicing carefully.

 

If you suspect the poor handwriting is due to an issue, first look into your student's grip on the pencil. Is it a proper easy/natural grip? Or clenched or awkward which quickly tires the hand? Or curled almost all the way around the pencil (which might indicate an LD)? You might look into getting a pencil grip device that can only be held in the proper manner, if that is the case.

 

Younger DS had a mild LD with both the act of handwriting and in getting his thoughts from his head down onto paper. For the act of handwriting issue, we did Callirobics daily, and it really did help neaten up his writing by improving fine motor skill/grip. WriteBrain looks to be similar, just with more "hype" to the website. ;)

 

If really struggling with cursive, you might switch to the Handwriting Without Tears upright letter style, or the Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting style, which are often easier for many students to reproduce neatly.

 

 

BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D. 

[lewelma]

Here's an x-post I wrote a long time ago.  It is still working, 3 years later....

 

Like your dd, my ds knew how to make nice letters, but just didn't, probably because he was trying to write more quickly. I found that handwriting books did not help, because he knew what to do, he just didn't do it. He needed to want to be more tidy; he needed to "own" it.

The best thing I did was get out all of the old letters from his aunts, uncles, and grandparents and great grandparents and have a look at all the different styles. In a very positive and enthusiastic way, I encouraged him to pick a style or develop his own that he could implement. He spent a few days trying different things until he settled on something he liked. He ended up with Getty Dubai italic cursive capitals and small print with the p and f with a small flick to the left below the line. Because it was HIS, he took pride in his writing and everything began to look nicer and nicer. I regularly commented on it (and got my dh to say something once) to reinforce the change.

Very very effective.

Ruth in NZ

[Reefgazer]

I bought a beginning handwriting book and started with that.  Yup - making o's over and over and then progressing to letters, then to words, and then to sentences.  Took a few years, and it was harder when she was older (we just started in mid-fourth grade un-doing the half-done/half-baked job the public school did of teaching handwriting), but it just took practice, practice, pracrtice.  Seriously; we worked as new handwriters do for 3 years.  Her handwriting (cursive) is not Catholic school beautiful, but it is legible and neat now.

[Heathermomster]

The Penagain pencil has been helpful. You may want to explore the adapted tripod grasp.

[walkermamaof4]

Thanks! I will order those pencils. He holds too tightly and does tire when trying hard. But mostly he is in a rush. We don't have old letters so I think I'll lookup old famous documents. Thanks for the ideas!

[KrissiK]

I have this issue with my 11 year old son, too. His writing is absolutely atrocious and he doesn't want to learn to type because it all takes too long. He just doesn't care. He writes quickly and just wants to "get it done!" I am at my wit's end because I cannot and will not hover over him, or look at every bit of written material and battle with him to re-do it.

[MEmama]

Switching to mechanical pencils made a huge difference for DS. He writes with his right hand but holds his arm and wrist like a lefty (up over the paper and then down again?) and would get fatigued. He still does that, but he can't grip the pencil tightly anymore so it looks nicer and he doesn't get as tired. The change was immediate.

[whitestavern]

My 11 yo is pretty bad. And, like your son, his print is worse than his cursive. And his cursive is very small, which makes it difficult for my old eyes to read anyway! So now he has to write in cursive exclusively, at least if it's something that I need to read. Notes, etc he can do whatever he wants. If I can't read it, it goes back to him for a redo. I try to remind him prior to anything he's doing by hand prior to starting. I'm beginning to see some improvement.

[FriedClams]

My son writes well when I hold him to the "if it's sloppy you'll do it again until I can read it". If I let him slide or give slack - more sloppiness. So - me being strict, even when its a hassle, is what helps.

[jonnia]

My almost 12 yr-old FINALLY expressed an interest recently in doing something to improve his handwriting. As several of you have already noted, the child has to care or not too much can be done.

 

We are a few weeks into Teach Yourself Cursive from Memoria Press designed for 5th grade and up. Based on New American Cursive, it begins at the beginning (not too large, though) but also encourages student to develop his own personal style. There are a great many informative and interesting short articles on handwriting along with numerous samples from famous people.

 

After a short practice session, I ask him to look back and choose the best examples from his writing. He told me a few days ago that he can see a difference already in his everyday writing.