7/8 year olds handwriting

[EllieG]

My Bethany's handwriting is appalling, my 6 year old writes better than her! It is not consistent in size, she cant join up and she lacks concentration, It is really worrying me, the other day the teacher singled her out as one of the worst handwriting in the class!!!
I have tried buying a triangular pencil, seems to have helped a bit but am really worried.

 

[mamichuli]

Hi hun, we have a similar problem with Victor - my middle one, nine yrs old. His teacher recommended some writing books where you have to trace the words and progressively write in a more unaided fashion, but always with training lines. They are used a lot here, I dont know if you have these? They have helped a lot with Vic, altho he hates doing them!



Lisa

 

[mary70]

hi hun plese dont worry, childrens handwriting varies such alot, its the content of what she writes not so much what it looks like and it will improve in time, i have marked so many books and you wouldnt belive the difference you get out of one class, maybe downlaod some handwriting sheets for her to practice or ask her teacher to get you some

 

[Beatlesfan]

Hi there

As a former teacher I have come across a lot of children who find handwriting difficult. I used to suggest building up strength in the hand muscles as sometimes poor muscle control can contribute to poor formation. Things like threading beads/lego/playdough/sewing cards etc. can help.

Then we would work on letter shapes/patterns e.g. circles, continuous zig zags, continuos m shape... like this mmmmm but joined up so you get a run of little arhces. Hope that makes sense.

Once the strength had built up, we would work on letter formation every day (little and often) for a particular set of letters which are similar to form e.g. c, o, a, q, d OR l, i, OR n, m, h, b (can you see how they build up? I would never teach handwriting goign through alphabet sequence as letters are too different from each other in sequence) and once we'd gone through all letters in alphabet and correct formation, THEN I would encourage the child to concentrate on size, position on line etc. And they need to be shown exactly what is meant by "keep it on the line" or "make it smaller" and an adult would role model by writing the correct size/position and watch the child do it. I have often seen children be left to do "handwriting" practice in school and no adult guidance given, this did not work as the child did not know how to change/correct their writing.

Also, little and often is the best way to teach handwriting. You can make it more exciting by using different pens/pencils or even use paint or water in washing up liquid bottle to squirt out letter shapes outdoors - (better in dry warm weather ) children love white boards and marker pens (can be rubbed out too so non-commital) so mabe invest in this? or to reinforce the letter shapes, get your child to use cooked spaghetti strings/plasticine/string to make the letter shapes.

Hope this helps.

BF x

 

[Squiglet]

Tia's handwriting is also appalling.. I've seen the handwriting of other kids in her class and its so neat and tidy.. she also takes AGES to write a single line... and just constantly struggles..

Mind you she has improved a lot with extra help at school...but I still can't really read it..

 

[kellie80]

Jessica is 8 in July and her handwriting is almost unreadable. If it isn't on lined paper each line slopes down buy about 4inches and all seem to join up together. Shes left handed too which I don't think helps but hers hasn't made any improvement at all since she 1st learnt to write.

 

[libs]

Well I win Josh is 14 and his handwriting is still virtually unreadable. It's always been the same despite years of effort by his teachers and me - including all the workbooks etc you could imagine, extra classes in handwriting and a lot of expensive pens. It does improve slightly with a pen with a proper nib (fountain pen) but only becuase it slows him down slowly. I think some people just have poor handwriting

The only time we worry is sats - the rest of the time, in all honesty most work is done on pcs now and his typing is a lot quicker than mine. His spelling is also appalling - and he struggles to learn new spellings. He's v bright and is gifted and talented in science, maths and IT, but spelling etc doesn't make sense to him. He's not dyslexic, just has a blank on this.

 

[EllieG]

Thank you so much for your replies, it's comforting to know she's not the only one and you have given me some really good advice. She gets handwriting sheets from school so i will continue with those.
Thanks again

 

[Babylicious]

Paris is nearly 8 and her handwriting is very bad too, she's dyslexic so it might be worth getting them checked for it?

 

[Sherlock]

One child I looked after had a medical condition (I forget the name of it now, defo not dyslexic) which meant that his hand eye co-ordination was very poor and try as he might, writing was really hard work and he wrote like a 6 year old, not a 9 year old. The signal would get stuck between brain and hand and meant he could not keep up in class so would therefore get frustrated and was seen as not as bright as other kids. His school work suffered badly.

It was only diagnosed after he was assesed at school by a specialist. Once it was diagnosed he got extra help to help his brain relearn and also a laptop so as to learn to type. It made a world of difference in his writing and also learning ability. He learnt to type easily and can now keep up with the class. His handwriting has also improved, he uses a special pen, but its still slow compared to other kids his age. Most of his homework is done in type, but the school allows him this so as he is able to keep up. Otherwise 30 minutes of homework would take him 2 hours. Same in class. He is a much happier kid.

 

[lea m]

My Bethany's handwriting is appalling, my 6 year old writes better than her! It is not consistent in size, she cant join up and she lacks concentration, It is really worrying me, the other day the teacher singled her out as one of the worst handwriting in the class!!!
I have tried buying a triangular pencil, seems to have helped a bit but am really worried.

I have two sons aged 7 and 8 and they both have terrible handwriting! They just dont try hard enough lol They are both fine in other areas like they are on the gifted and talented register for maths and our "outstanding" in science but their writing needs a LOT of work lol Im not too worried! They just need more concentration thats all! That and improve their behaviour lol
What I find bad though in your post is that the teacher singled her out?! Thats horrible! That wont help her at all! Poor girl!