K DS has terrible handwriting
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Anonymous
| Not sure how concerned I need to be but my Kindergarten DS's handwriting is illegible. He gets frustrated when I can't read his work. His teacher told me his writing needs work and he told me she said it is sloppy. I tried to slow him down by doing some writing at home. We practiced just a few words and even having him copy something I wrote. I really can't read what he writes. Spelling of course is an issue but despite that I can only interpret a handful of letters. Do other people have experience with boys and poor handwriting? How did things progress? |
Anonymous
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Practice worksheets.
Also, he's in K. It's normal. |
Anonymous
| Normal for K. Strength hand muscles by having him play with playdough and have him practice writing by doing fun things-- whatever that would be for him, e.g., grocery list, birthday card, menu, street signs for block town. |
Anonymous
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My son was similar and he has finally ended up in occupational therapy for it in 3rd grade. However, he had a great kindergarten teacher who really made the kids practice printing for 20 minutes a day. During that time, he had legible writing.
I supplemented with Handwriting without Tears at home. If I had kept at it consistently, it likely would have worked better. It's local, and fairly cheap, if you want to try it out. My son's writing is better when he uses the 3 line paper, which I think is standard in kindergarten. There are triangular pencil grips you can buy, too, which can help depending on what his hands are doing. http://www.amazon.com/Classics-Triangle-Pencil-1-75-Inch-TPG-16212/dp/B00FQQRRIQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1456363962&sr=8-1&keywords=triangular+pencil+grip |
Anonymous
+1 Focus on fun ways to strengthen his hand muscles - playing with clay (usually stiffer than play dough), pouring beans and water, sewing, beadwork, etc. Montessori has some great activities for that that are easy to implement at home. Don't torture a 5 year old with endless writing worksheets |
Anonymous
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You can work with him with practice sheets, but I would keep the practice short so that he doesn't get frustrated and make it fun and positive.
If you want extra help you should consider private OT, they can help him with grip strength and other issues. |
Anonymous
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Just read this today: http://www.washingtonian.com/2016/02/21/should-you-send-your-kids-to-occupational-therapy/.
We were told when DS was 3 that he probably needed help. Did the whole OT route at age 5 when handwriting and grip still hadn't straightened out. It's been 3+ years. Particularly strange to me is that he has excellent fine motor skills and has since he was quite young. But the OT told me that pencil grip is its own animal. We tried all manner of grip helpers, special exercises, general practice. Even the Handwriting Without Tears program induced tears. After over a year of therapy (which we discontinued) he has made so many strides in other areas that we didn't realize he was lacking in until he started OT (monkey bars, etc.). But no change in his grip. None whatsoever. I was immensely bothered by this up until just a few months ago. But he enjoys writing so much and once I realized this I also realized that my behavior could jeopardize that interest. End result: he'll have a poor grip and not-so-great handwriting, but he and I are both proud of the finished product anyway. |
Anonymous
| Kumon workbooks and dry erase cards. Practice. My son was barely writing in K, and in 1st grade so much better. We do practice some at home. |
Anonymous
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Do you notice fine motor, gross motor or coordination problems other than with writing? With drawing, coloring inside the lines, balancing, riding a bike, catching a ball, skipping, etc? As I said before on another thread, handwriting issues usually don't exist in a vacuum. It's difficult at that age to tease out what's normal from what's not, but stay vigilant and have him evaluated if necessary. My son has a coordination disorder - at 10, his handwriting is exactly like my 5 year old DD's. The thing is, I was told it's an offshoot of his inattentive ADHD, which became diagnosable much later than the handwriting issues. I would get Handwriting Without Tears or similar and bribe him to work on his writing  It got my son to a legible crawl, and might do wonders for yours!
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Anonymous
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You may want to think about OT. My K girl has had fine motor issues with this that became evident in preschool and STILL has a very blocky, large, mostly illegible penmanship because her grip is such a tricky thing. For a long time she held the pencil in a way that made her writing almost like long paint strokes- she wrote from the shoulder, not the hand. She still has difficulty with that control and planning needed to make small letters and fit everything on a line. It IS possible he just has bad handwriting, but at this age, it should be at least legible. If not, it could be some motor issue.
BTW, the play dough trick is recommended a lot and it has done nothing to help for my child because it's not a muscle issue, it's a brain thing. She can't make herself control and plan properly because it requires a level of coordination that is tricky for her. I have been told "clay, playdough, have her write in shaving cream, try big fat pencils!" in every single IEP meeting ever and I've learned to say "With all due respect, if this were as simple as playing with more PlayDough, I'd have already spent my life savings on PlayDough.' It's meant to be helpful but it's really... not if there's something bigger going on. |
Anonymous
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Just my 2 cents. Get an OT eval. The OT can help rule out any underlying issues The OT eval isn't that involved and is the best way to put your worries to rest. I say this as a parent who has been there x3. All the worksheets in the world aren't going to help if there's an underlying issue. And if there is an underlying issue, it will simply be torture for your child. I have 2 kids who needed long-term OT. My youngest has motor planning issues. He started early because we knew he'd struggle. Like one of the prior posters mentioned, it's a brain thing. All the putty and hand strengthening exercises you read about wouldn't have helped. The flip side is that my other son also needed OT. He was diagnosed in K so on the later side. Sadly he has a weakness that is so significant that he did OT all the way through 5th. The OT was able to give him some function in his hands but he ultimately had to move to keyboarding. If I had made him do worksheets, he would have dissolved in tears. He was already discouraged enough.
And maybe the OT will say don't worry about a thing. My oldest was evaluated by an OT after being flagged by a county speech screening. The private OT said she was just slightly behind and we were given suggestions for home. |
Anonymous
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Honestly, most kids are terrible because they are growing up in the technology and coddled age and are not using their fine motor skills like they should from ages 6mo-5yrs old. They also have poor gross motor strength from lack of play. Then they get into preschool and K and that is when parents realize they don't have the strength and coordination.
Fine Motor: Get writing sheets and put them in those clear sleeves and use dry erase markers so you can use them over and over again. Put beads in Gak for him to pull out and find Put a slot into a old medicine container and have him pick up and place pennies in it. Teach him to tie his shoes Color by number and connect the dot books Have him squeeze chip bag clips 50 times in a row - both hands Use tweezers to pick things up. (Wok n Roll game is great!) Gross Motor: Monkey bars (all kids age 5 should be able to do them) Rock climbing Put paper under a kids table and have him draw and color laying on his back Use an easel or chalkboard for art/writing. Push ups Hold onto his legs and make him walk with his hands (old-school wagon races) T-ball and basketball (avoid soccer which sadly most kids gravitate towards because it lacks fine/gross motor) You are not alone OP. http://lancasteronline.com/features/trending/losing-our-grip-more-students-entering-school-without-fine-motor/article_c0f235d0-7ba2-11e5-bf0d-5745f74f9717.html |
Anonymous
Calm down. |
Anonymous
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OP here. Thanks for the feedback. My son has very good gross motor skills. Was able to hit a thrown baseball at age 2. He does not have access to electronic devices for playing. However he rarely chooses to do fine motor activities such as crafts/ drawing. His reading is coming along well. My main concern with the writing is that he gets very frustrated with me when I can't read something he has written. This does not seem to inspire him to work harder he is just starting to hate writing. I will say my DH has atrocious handwriting. As in so bad that a court once ruled that his handwritten notes were not discoverable because they could not be read. So the good news is that my DH has done pretty well despite this. I often can't read what he has written either.
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Anonymous
Why calm down. That is a lot to be concerned about. Parents just don't care or don't have the time to deal. That is why there are 8yr olds running around with velcro sneakers and OT's are making a ton of money teaching kids how to hold a pencil and write for more than 30 seconds. It is something that can be easily handled but is being ignored. And even if your kids are older, your taxes are going up to deal with it at the public school level. Did you even read the article? |