My son's handwriting....?

Question

Is so bad, bless him. I do make him practice his handwriting twice a week. He is just 7 years old and in Year 2. I know his is young but he does not seem to care at all about his handwriting even when i sit him down and talk to him about it in a very nice way. His teacher has not said anything to me about it but i really think he could do a little better. He does not write on the lines it just above it and some letters are larger/smaller than others. I just want whats best for my son and not be told he has bad writing. I tell him he could improve on it and that would be great. Is there anything I could do to help him in some way or another. He odes get some of his letters mixed up at times and then i show him what to do and how to do them. Do you think i should go and talk to his teacher about this? Any help will be greatful.

Answer 1

When I was in the final year at primary school I had extra out of hours lessons for my handwriting (I can remember being the only one in the classroom). I had worksheets to follow but it wasn't letters I was practicing but shapes such as spirals and circles etc.

It was a printed workbook, I'll have a search on the net for you and if I find a link i'll add it on later.

The best thing you can do is get him to doodle with shapes, small and large spirals, just to help with the movement of the pen or pencil
.

I found this:-

http://www.handwritingforkids.com/handwrite/manuscript/shapes/index.htm

There is quite a bit here, both shapes and letters, although he might think it's a bit babyish, try it with him and see. He might be more open to the idea if you're not making him write words to practice.

Good luck.
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Answer 2

I can give you some advice from my own personal experience.
I have awful handrriting (not just because im a cop lol)
But it was spotted when i was in year 4.
My parents spoke to my teachers and i got a handwriting tutor and practised for couple of hours after school everyday for 4-5 years.

I couldn't write on the lines or i got my letter mixed up or sometimes id start writing a word in the middle and have to work backwards then forwards.

All i could do was keep practising, and mad improvements.
But if nobody had taken any actions its likely i could have ended up washing dishes and being ashamed of my writing.

You should speak to his teachers, as well as your GP, as there may be (as with most kids) a treatable conditions.

Of course he wont be interested at his age whether his wriitng is pants or not, he may be feeling a little ashamed and displacing his feelings, or lets face it, he may just rather think about football.

But your going to have to take action sooner rather than later. If he's dislexic or has some other condition and its not diagnosed he may just grow up thinking he's not bright, and go off education, but if there is a way he can be helped byt the school he's got just a good a chance as anybody else.

Answer 3

You should definately share your concerns with his teacher. My son is 9, he's always had problems with his handwriting and i had the same concerns as you. It turned out, after an assesment that he had poor muscles in his fingers ( never occured to me that you had muscles in your fingers). My son is also left handed, which makes it more difficult because as he's writing, his hand is covering what he's written.
His teacher invented a grid for him to use = basically get a piece of A4 paper, with a ruler, draw black lines from top to bottom one cm apart. once you've done this, laminate it.

Put this behind a piece of A4 lined paper and you will see the black lines though the paper. This creates little squares. You then show your son that one letter goes in each sqare, and when you need to leave a space after a word, you leave one blank square. This should help your son feel confident in knowing exactly where each letter should go.

This really helped my son. Once you see an improvement, make a new grid with slighty smaller spaces and your son probably wont notice. This should then help his writing become smaller.

As for getting his letters mixed up, the teacher should have some techniques to put into practice, if however it does not improve, it would be worth getting your son tested for dyslexia. It is better to find out now, and get some early intervention, than finding out when he's in secondry school.

Answer 4

It's unfortunate they don't teach "penmanship" anymore. Good handwriting does help you become successful in life. These are the issues I see in your question: Could he need glasses? The difference in size of the letters and writing above the line would make me wonder about his eyesight; Is his writing that inappropriate for a 7 year old? I would talk to the teacher about that--how well should a 7 year old write? I'm so old, they taught us to print in the first grade and cursive about the 3rd grade. Finally, because he gets his letters mixed up, could he be dyslexic? Are his reading skills ok? If so, he's probably not dyslexic. Maybe your better option is a few classes at someplace like Slyan (not sure of spelling) Learning Centers.

Answer 5

My brother has had really bad handwriting all his life, every single teacher he's ever had has spoken to my parents about it, and I'm sorry to say it never got better, but he's 21 now with an honours degree, so it didn't hold him back a lot, and with the way things are now, especially at second and third level, a lot of things are word-processed so I would try not to stress too much about it. I don't think it'll have a negative effect on him in the long term.

Answer 6

I'd talk to his teacher first. 7 is a little early to be worrying about the problem, and bear in mind that boys are slower than girls in tasks that demand good motor control.
Writing practice maybe once a week (if his teacher thinks it is needed), but anything that improves fine motor control skills would be good e.g. Lego, drawing, etc.
Don't tell him he has got it wrong, just model correct. Don't go on at him about it, or he will get anxious and make more mistakes.
Teachers do not worry about handwriting these days, as long as it is legible.

Answer 7

You can download or buy practice pages that target handwriting...it won't seem like work to him if you sit down WITH him and do it as well. As an elementary teacher, it's nice to hear from a concerned parent. Also remember that it takes some kids a little longer to bloom in certain areas. Make sure and reward your son (with positive reinforcement) for the things he does well. Good luck!!

Answer 8

My son is 10 and his handwriting is just the same. Just as though 17 spiders on crutches have played football on the page. It might be genetic I suppose as his dads was the same. The teachers say the same to me as they do to you, I dont think they have the time or the inclination to do any more. I dont know of anything that will help apart from what you are doing already.
I am still trying to work out what he put on my mothers day card!

Answer 9

Women tend to have trouble reading men's handwriting. My mother bug's the hell out of me about my handwriting but everyone else can read it and I've been writing the same way for about 22 years. Unless the teacher says anything, it's probably just you trying to be too perfect.

Answer 10

yes, i think talking to his teacher is probably a wise idea to be honest. you could also make practising handwriting more fun through the use of games/activities, im sure theres a few out there. try to get him to do lines of letters identical and then progress to repeating words in a line, thats what i did at school if i remember correctly and that helped!