He has very sloppy handwriting, and it takes him about 4 times longer to write something than other kids his age. I am doing my best to accommodate him by modifying a lot of his work, but he still needs to write! Right? Now, when I say sloppy handwriting, I mean that his very best work looks like a 4-5 yr old's, and he is 10. He is unable to draw a straight line on a page. He claims that writing makes his hand hurt. What do I do with this? Some days it's manageable, and some days, it's like pulling teeth.
I do not know what you are currently doing for handwriting but here is a idea to try: My friends' son also HATES handwriting, but LOVE Legos. So she has him write down all the legos he wants, including every piece that comes in the pack. She has also had him write it out in letter form (as if to Santa) to practice writing in sentances.
I am not working on handwriting yet. I'm just talking about writing in general. I try not to give him work with too much writing in it, but we do reading comprehension, grammar, spelling and writing skills. Language arts has to involve some writing! I do modify the work, so instead of 20 sentences the workbook says to do, I have to cut it down to 5. He's not capable of more than that at this point. I have been looking into something called 'dysgraphia', which seems to describe him perfectly. Although I'm really not sure how to deal with it, other than modifying his work. After my baby is born next month, we are going to take a few weeks vacation from school, and when we start back up, I'm going to start handwriting with him. Other than that, I don't have any clue as to what I should be doing!
Talk to your doctor about getting a referral to an occupational therapist. It's done wonders for my son!! It should be covered by insurance. They'll do a complete evaluation (takes an hour or so) and tell you exactly where his fine motor skills fall on the spectrum... not just handwriting. If it really makes his hand hurt, he probably doesn't have the strength, dexterity, and/or endurance he should have by now.
2littleboys, I am going to do that. His new HMO starts today, and I'm just waiting for his new card to arrive in the mail so I can take him to his new pediatrician. Thanks! PS. His writing is so bad, that he is unable to draw an inch long straight line. It's impossible for him. I feel kind of guilty, because before homeschool, I just thought he had bad handwriting. I didn't even realize the extent of his limitations.
Just be patient! I have a daughter who is/was like that. Continue to modify his work. Meet him where he is. You're just starting out in homeschooling. Teach him that learning is fun. He will improve. It just takes practice!
Thanks! I do think he could benefit from some type of occupational therapy however. It's not just sloppy writing. It's huge spaces in the middle of words, letters all differen sizes, words too close together, or way too far apart. His u's look like n's, his a's look like u's or oi's...
he could have a problem called dysgraphia - my son has a mild form of it. I wrote an article about it - click the link to my familyd website below and look under "more articles and info" link. It should be there. Good luck
I would do all the work orally for now and let the OT work on penmanship. That's what we did. When my son started (just turned 4), he was on the level of a 2 year old. He couldn't even hold a pencil. After 6 months of therapy, he was at the level of a 5 year old. He's writing age appropriately now. He's been in PT since birth for gross motor delays (womb injuries), but I didn't realize how far behind his fine motor skills were until I started trying to get him to write. He couldn't even write with his finger on a cookie sheet full of rice. He's doing great now. Don't sweat the writing for a while. I'd say probably 90% of our work is still done orally. His mind and hand are on two completely different levels.
My son was like what you described. His printing looked like a 5 year old with the sizes and spacing issues. I had him tested with the local school district (since its free and they're required by law to do assessments if asked). The school said that he was well within the skills of kids his age (he was 11 at the time) and if anything he just needed more practice. Here's some tips they gave me: *Try simple copywork where you write the sentence in yellow highlighter first, then have him trace over it. Then have him write it again below your example. *Modify his work requirements. If it asks for 10 written questions, do 5 orally and 5 written. Accept simple written answers. Also, if writing is frustrating him, let him do some of his work on the computer and print it out. *Squeeze a ball in the hand, stretch out the muscles. *Give him small things to help with fine motor skills, like Legos, K'Nex, cutting with scissors. * His drawing is probably very simplistic (my son's was, too) so use a drawing book like Draw*Write*Now and walk him through drawing projects step by step. This really helped my son. We have been working on his writing like this for a year and I must say, it has improved. I still draw with him and modify his written requirments but I no longer need to counsel him on size or spacing. Its not "smooth" yet (letters tend to float), but at least we can read what he's writing. We can see where one word ends and another begins. He's 12 now, by the way. Since writing is such a task for my ds I am not teaching cursive. I've tried to for the past few years and he just can't do it. Thinking about it further I think that in this age of computer, cursive is not necessary. Get the printing decent is all I'm after. I talked to the school about it and they agreed, saying that cursive is not really as important as it used to be because of computers. Some may not agree with that or with taking advice from the public school but there it is...decide however you want. Hope this helps, Tina
Continue to modify his work but dont inhibit his progress, just let him do his work orally! He can record on the computer or on a cassete his written work. Have him speak punctuation too, so you can see how he's coming along with understanding about that part of grammar. You can also make him little word cards. It can take a while but if you continue to make some, 25-30 a day, then it wont be long before you have plenty. Cut the index cards into 10 strips and write words onto them, let him arrange the words into sentences and then paragraphs, then essays.
You might try driving the pencil through the center of a regular rubber ball - the sponge rubber kind (not Nerf) that usually has like a coat of paint all over it to make it shiny. It's about maybe 2 1/2 inches through the center. Then the child can grip the ball instead of the bare pencil. After awhile, put the pencil through a smaller ball, same sponge rubber, about the size of one that comes with a jacks set. After that, change to a lump of clay and let it mold to his hand. After that, a pencil gripper that looks like a lump of clay that's molded to his hand - it's fairly large as pencil grippers go. Check out the Jumbo Pencil Grip, and then the regular, recommended by Peterson Handwriting System - in fact, check out all seven. I can't say I'm a fan of the triangle, but the other five may fit his hand better. http://www.peterson-handwriting.com/pencilgr.htm#JumTri And if not, then try letting him hold the pencil in the web between the index and middle fingers, while holding the point in the same standard tri-pod position, without a gripper. It may give him more control.
I will be talking to his dr very soon, and I've seen some pencil grips athe teacher store that might be worth checking out.
Not sure what you mean by that. My son did very, very little writing in OT. He did lots of other activities that focused on strength, endurance, and dexterity. Those things, matched with the mental ability to do letter formation, allowed him to start writing better. What little writing he did in OT was done with the HWT program. We use that at home, too, so I definitely recommend it.
Oooh, this sounds just like my son and he's 12. His handwriting is a mess and when he hand writes anything for content like history, etc. it's like a younger child is writing. Now if I have him talk to me orally, he sounds right on his grade level. Thanks for all the info and advice.
It also seems to occur more on boys than in girls, and it could be hereditary - my dh thinks he may have a mild form of it as well. My handwriting is great when I put my mind to it; I am just usually in too big a rush to care!
