Teaching letter formation to older gifted kids

[lizbusby]

My 7yo is just finishing first grade at the local public school. He's working ahead for his age in almost every area, and I had considered a grade skip for him except for one issue: handwriting. He got interested in writing at age 2, just after learning to read, and I freaked out and tried to give him formal handwriting instruction. This resulted in a complete coloring and writing strike from ages 3 to 5. He wouldn't touch crayons at all. His kindergarten teacher slowly brought him back in K, and his fluency has improved dramatically this year so he's finally at or above grade level. But a lot of his letter formations are really wonky. It's there a curriculum, program, method anyone can recommend to try to remedy this over the summer? I also have a Kindergartener who could use the practice as well. It seems like the local public school doesn't do much in terms of correct formation, just encouraging fluency instead.

 

Thanks in advance.

[chocolate-chip chooky]

From one chicken to another ....

 

My daughter is now 10 and still doesn't have great handwriting. It's a battle I chose not to fight. Well, I fought it for a while and then decided to put our energies elsewhere.

At about age 6 she said something along the lines of 'Mum, really, does it matter, as long as it's legible?'

I thought she had a good point.

 

Interestingly, of my three kids, both my lefties have some odd letter formation (and similar types of odd too) - one went right through school and one homeschooled.

 

Sorry I don't have anything concrete to offer re curriculums, programs etc. My only suggestion would be to use a whiteboard. It feels nice to write on a whiteboard, in my opinion.

All the best :)

[Lang Syne Boardie]

Have a look at Handwriting Without Tears. :)

[mathnerd]

Zaner Bolser is the curriculum that I used to fix the self-taught chicken scratching that my DS had mastered. I switched to cursive because I did not have the patience to fix the letter formations that he already had. I switched at about age 5-6 and now he writes exclusively in cursive and his writing is almost as good as mine. It also took care of the letter reversals and he seemed to lose the death grip on his pencil with the smoother flow of the cursive letters.

So, my only suggestion is to consider moving him on to cursive because you might save yourself the battle of reteaching what is wrong and kids love cursive and think that they are really learning something that is cool :)

Edited May 11, 2016 by mathnerd

[OneStepAtATime]

Handwriting Without Tears might help.  Offering little rewards for proper grip and posture might help.  Also, have them focus on what they are doing right, not what they are doing wrong.  It can help with attitude.  A lot of times kids freeze up and refuse to do something out of a fear of failure even if they don't realize that is the issue.  When he writes something, have him look at an example of how it should look, then have him circle what letter/letters/spacing/size comes closes to the target.  Praise what was done well (or less badly).  Have them focus on the positive.  Honestly, that really helped a TON here.

 

Whatever you do, I would keep practice really, really short during the summer, keep it consistent (at least 4 days a week) and maybe try to keep it to ONLY practicing letter formation.  Don't tie it to extensive output over the summer unless it is short copy work or interest led.  Or maybe you could incorporate word tracing with the StartWrite software.  Is there a topic he has strong interest in?  You could type out quotes/info from an area of interest (maybe something you and he find together off the internet or in a favorite book) then he can trace it, then copy it onto a paper he keeps in a notebook of notable quotes or something.  Maybe add some pictures to tie to the quote.  Put a nice title on the front cover of the notebook (let him choose the title).  Once the child is back in school they will be required to have additional output but you don't want your child to get so frustrated they associated any and all writing with torture while they are working on automaticity, kwim?

 

If the school is amenable to a grade skip and the only thing that is holding your child back is physical writing (not getting ideas out but the actual physical act of writing), would they maybe consider allowing you to scribe for him at home with regards to assignments?  At least until he is developmentally up to speed on the physical act.

[EndOfOrdinary]

We got to the legible point at 9. It was quick enough that I did not kill him and legible enough that anyone could read it. I bought a fountain pen and Spencerian books for this year, but did not make it a priority. Next year, handwriting is a priority.

 

Honestly until 11, the wonky thing just hasn't bothered me. Now ds is branching out enough that I know people are being judgemental. It is just one more mark against his legitimacy. So, we will begin working on it really slowly. Like REALLY slowly. Ds could give a yak's behind about the whole thing, but I am insisting.

[Black-eyed Suzan]

You might consider Dianne Craft's Writing 8 exercise.

 

My 6 year old rebelled against Handwriting with Tears as too babyish, so maybe show him samples before investing.

[tm919]

We used HWT but honestly the only thing that ever worked for me was to sit there next to the child who was writing and correct as we went... but we had grip problems on top of everything else.I think you can also print single letters from their worksheet maker (the free version) so that might be enough for the 7 year old.

 

We got to the legible point at 9. It was quick enough that I did not kill him and legible enough that anyone could read it. I bought a fountain pen and Spencerian books for this year, but did not make it a priority. Next year, handwriting is a priority.

Honestly until 11, the wonky thing just hasn't bothered me. Now ds is branching out enough that I know people are being judgemental. It is just one more mark against his legitimacy. So, we will begin working on it really slowly. Like REALLY slowly. Ds could give a yak's behind about the whole thing, but I am insisting.

 

I think even at 7 this might be a worthwhile conversation — that there is often some hoop jumping involved in getting what you want even if it's not intrinsically worthwhile to you — particularly if he wants a grade skip himself.

[rebcoola]

We went straight to HWT Cursive because DD was so resistant to learning something she already knew how to do.   It has worked well her cursive is quite nice and her print has  become legible.

Edited May 12, 2016 by rebcoola

[kbutton]

I agree with the suggestion to just move to cursive. NAC is good for simplified cursive, and you can get software if you want to make your own worksheets. The flow of cursive often carries over to making better and more efficient strokes in print writing as well.

 

I have kids with dysgraphia, so letter formation was IMPERATIVE here. Large muscle writing, and the apps do actually translate to the correct motor movements to develop good writing strokes if you choose to use them.

 

I basically promised my kids that if they would discipline themselves to use the same exact formation every time they made their letters, it would get easier to write. It's true (even for my dysgraphic kids, though I realize kids with severe issues might not see that happen as easily). I also gave them a punch on a punch card when they did the handwriting that was asked, and they could choose prizes (within reason--you might want to agree to things ahead of time) when they filled their card. 

 

When I think an annoying-to-obtain skill is needed, we basically have a serious conversation about the benefits, tell them that resistance is futile (but I'll make the process as nice as possible), and then I gently bribe to gain compliance--I don't think it's terrible to bribe kids for tasks that lack intrinsic motivation because they are boring, repetitive, and frustrating. 

 

If you think there are genuine difficulties with handwriting, I would ask about a COVD exam for ocular motor issues and maybe a check by an OT. Those are factors for us.

[lizbusby]

Have a look at Handwriting Without Tears. :)

Yes, that's the curriculum I tried when he was 2. Maybe the upper levels will work better now that he's had some school experience.

[lizbusby]

Regarding cursive, his Kindergarten actually switched to cursive first halfway through the year, which was more confusing for him. And now we're back in a district with print first. (Maybe I should find out if they even still teach cursive in this district!) The whole cursive/print switching thing was another thing that threw him for a loop.

Thanks all for the curriculum ideas! He definitely buys into that he needs to make his letters neater, and his fluency/output is fine for grade level (4-5 sentence assignments are not painful or difficult). It's genuinely just letter formation I'm worried about at this point.