OK, how do I help a 7 year old boy improve handwriting skills when he would rather boil his head than do writing?

[DrNortherner]

That's it really. He is nearly 8, in Yr 3. His writing is appalling, you can barely read it. He uses no capitals, no punctuation, won't check his own spelling and does not form letters correctly. He also rushes his work and takes no care in presentation.

He has fantastic ideas but lets himself down when putting them on paper.

This is having a knock on effect on everything else he does.

Help!

[addictedtofrazzles]

ALOT OF PRAISE AND ENCOURAGEMENT!!!!

Boys can be a nightmare at this age - they see their peers writing masses and rather than be compared, it is easier to refuse to do it all! Also, the muscles in his hand are probably very weak, which means that physically writing may well hurt and make his hand ache. Building this strength, especially in the pincer grip is really essential. Lots of 'fun', non-writing activities at home will make a big difference. You can try:
*Manipulating Silly Putty
*Playing with a Koosh Ball (look on an SEN website - I think amazon have them too)
*threading beads/pasta etc
*Elastic peg boards
*Playing with stress balls
I am sure if you google something like "strengthening pincer grip" you should get some more ideas.

I taught a boy in Year 3 who refused to put pen to paper. Here are just some suggestions that got him to write more (you may want to talk to the teacher and agree some strategies that you can praise at the end of each day, if he has been 'successful':

• Every task had a mark on the page where he had to get up to. So at first it was three lines of the page and increased as he improved. Every time he wrote the required amount, forming the letters correctly, his success was 'celebrated' with the class/by sending him to another teacher/showing Mum at the end of the day.
  
• The biggest struggle was in the holidays because he would come back at the beginning of the term having taken ten steps back - so he wrote me a holiday diary/scrap book. He stuck loads of stuff in and wrote about it from what he did, or a recipe he cooked, or he copied something from his reading book etc. But most importantly, he wrote something every day.
  
• Do the school offer any remedial handwriting classes that he can join?
  
• I used to get this boy in my class to dictate what he wanted to write and I would scribe a part of the task, just so that it eased some pressure and gave him a chance to be creative without the labour of writing.
  
  I hope some of these things help - but most importantly, pile on the praise at the tiniest achievement!

[houseofboys]

Hi my nearly 7 yr old was like this too. School told me to leave it to them but he wasn't quite bad enough to qualify for an OT. I read up what I could find on boys, writing, motor skills etc and ended up ordering the Handwriting without tears course (second workbook, printing rather than cursive) He agreed to do ten mins a day (mornings - theory that writing a bit in morning before school helps wake up brain for rest of day, or something like that). There was some copying letters but also some self checking and ticking the good bits, which he liked, funny rhymes and bits about Romans etc to read and copy. Anyway, in 4 weeks he went from illegible to clear printing. He's now on cursive (tho not HWT cursive as that was too different from cursive they teach in English schools) and coping really well. He's proud of what he's achieved too as before he acted like he couldn't care less. Hth

[DrNortherner]

Thanks for your input guys. I had thought about keeping a diary actually, will try that.

[Danthe4th]

My son is the same age and his reading and writing are dreadful but he has just done a 'reading quest' in school its been a 14 week programme with the ta and 2 other children for an hour a day(i think) and its been amazing. I can not praise the school enough, his writing is amazing, I never thought he was capable, I could have cried when the programme finished.
It was a story that they followed about a knight and his quest, they had to read the story and write it into a small book that they each made, the quest at the end was to find the dragon(which was the headteacher)
Worth having a word with the school to see if they have heard of it,I can not recommend it highly enough.
He is now about to do a reading programme so hopefully will catch up with his friends as he has been behind ever since he started school.

[Danthe4th]

It was actually a writing quest!

[MommyG]

Is this something that we can do privately as well?

[MommyG]

I tried to google, but didnt find any info.. Danthe4th, do you know the exact name of the programme?

[SuSylvester]

i did it N
i got a handwriting book
a dairy every day of hols
rewards at end of effort.
ds2 has BEAUTiful writing now

needs to do with ds3

[roisin]

I should do this with ds2. But I'm not sure I can be bothered.

Is it possible to write beautifully without writing very slowly?

[ChippyMinton]

DS (yr 3)can do lovely handwriting but he rushes and mostly it looks like a spider has stepped through wet ink and scurried across the page.
His teacher gave him a handwriting book, but he wasn't bothered. So DH gave him a notebook to write a match report in after every football game he plays in or watches, and he's just started one for the Formula One season. I think it works because he's interested in the subject matter, and can stick in pictures and tickets as well.

[mrz]

mommyg module 1 quest I think you are looking for Sir Kit's Quest which is an early literacy support package