10 yo Handwriting Struggles

[diokos]

Has anyone ever scrapped a traditional cursive handwriting approach and started over with Italic Cursive for a boy who really struggles with cursive?  He says the hard part is just keeping the pencil on the paper, and having to connect all the letters, but I feel like some of his struggle is in remembering what the letters look like.  We've been using copywork to beef up the handwriting skills-sometimes I require cursive, and others let him print it.  I set a timer for him (we're currently up to only 8 minutes) and in that time he copied 12 words of cursive, or 25 words of manuscript this week.  Does this seem normal for a boy  of his age, or like something I need to be concerned with enough to double up our work on it?  He often complains of his hand hurting when he's writing; drawing is also a struggle.  He just doesn't like putting a pencil to paper!  I've recently discovered that he actually enjoys creative writing when I write things down for him; and he's started making up poems of his own that he will recite.  I don't want writing to handicap him with these abilities! 

 

Last year when we learned cursive, we only made it through about half the book, before having to set it aside to really concentrate on some other areas he was struggling with.  Do you recommend continuing with copywork, or going back to a handwriting book that would work more on his cursive skills? And, if so, should I finish the book we had peviously started, or try a different approach that is closer in letter formation to the manuscript-style, and doesn't have so much extra, flowery, motions?:

[scoutingmom]

It could be dysgraphia....  

 

 

In any case - I think I'd be tempted to ask his opinion on whether he would prefer cursive or joined-italic.  What style of manuscript did you use?  that could indicate how easy/hard it would be to change to joined-italic.... if he had to change how to write some of the letters it could make it a bit harder - but then probably not harder compared to learning to write cursive forms of letters....

 

Not much help, am I?

[diokos]

Anyone used any Diane Craft Brain Integration Therapy?  I read an article by her that described some of what we're going through, and just wondered if others have used and liked or disliked it?

[knitmama]

I completely relate to OP.  My kiddo hated everything to do with cursive.  Hated (hates) copy practice, hates being assigned writing....  But writes like a fiend when it's something *she* decides is important (ancient recipes, poems, etc. that have nothing to do with assigned work.... or assigned work that happens to suit her fanncy).

 

In our case, I'm thinking it's a case of "I don't want to do what I'm told" vs. "I don't have the skills to do what you ask."  So I dropped cursive for a year and will be picking it up again soon.  I've found that my DD, at least, has never followed the normal timetables--for anything!  (She walked and talked long after other kids, but began to read well earlier than most. Everything was a surprise.)  In general, sometimes she's ahead of the curve, sometimes she's behind.  From the beginning, I prioritized the things that HAD to happen (in my mind) such as Latin, math, and reading.  I include copy practice in the "has to happen" category, because the stuff I have her copy (in printing) encompasses history, science, poetry, philosophy, and spirituality.  The concepts and mechanics of writing, to me, are bedrock.  Everything else--even though it's important to me, and cursive falls into that category--falls a close second.

 

So we'll be revisiting cursive...  But it will be the same cursive I identified in the beginning (the cursive I learned as a child).  I'm not convinced there's a big difference between the different types. The important thing, to me anyway, is being old enough and focused enough to copy and practice, and to care about the results.  No law against starting over multiple times, when the time seems to be more right.

 

Kudos to you for teaching your kid cursive.  There's no doubt in my mind that it's valuable far beyond the obvious get-it-down-on-paper.

 

So--keep the faith, carry on, and good luck!