My leftie struggles to write

[Janeway]

My leftie has come so far. And he is very smart! But his inability to write is holding him back. I actually let him do his spelling yesterday with letter tiles. I am also worried I am messing up teaching him handwriting. He is only 6 yrs old. But he reads almost anything and is doing second grade level math, and is struggling to do the writing portion of anything. Any suggestions? And at what point, should I seek help? He has improved a lot this year though. 

[Ottakee]

I would post on the special needs board as well.

Try to do a lot of fine motor stuff.  Can he trace?  Do mazes? Cut with scissors, play with regular size Legos?  I would look for lots of hand strength building activities and visual motor stuff.

Handwriting without tears is successful for many that struggle.

You could also get a peds OT eval for more ideas.

[prairiewindmomma]

38 minutes ago, Janeway said:

My leftie has come so far. And he is very smart! But his inability to write is holding him back. I actually let him do his spelling yesterday with letter tiles. I am also worried I am messing up teaching him handwriting. He is only 6 yrs old. But he reads almost anything and is doing second grade level math, and is struggling to do the writing portion of anything. Any suggestions? And at what point, should I seek help? He has improved a lot this year though. 

Can he form a proper circle, triangle, or square? Does he follow proper stroke sequence for making a capital letter with intense instruction? 

Can he narrate a simple story properly?

Honestly, you're an experienced mom and if you are getting warning bells (and you are telling us you are), I think now is the right time for an evaluation.

[East Coast Sue]

Sounds like an evaluation is warranted.  You'll either learn that he's developing fine just at his pace or you'll learn that some interventions are needed to help him progress.  Either way it's good to know. 

[Tanaqui]

What, specifically, is the problem  with his handwriting? Some things might really be remedied by modifying how you're teaching writing to accommodate the fact that Roman letters aren't optimized for lefties. Ooooooor it might be something else - and speaking from both personal experience and other people's anecdata here, it's not wholly uncommon for general fine motor difficulties leading to poor handwriting to be brushed off with "Well, he's left-handed".