My eight-year-old is struggling with her handwriting. Most of the time, it is not legible. If she has to copy what the teacher writes on the board, she doesn’t copy it correctly. We have had numerous meetings with her teacher and counselors and her school, and they are coming up with ways to help, but I don’t know what I can do as a parent that will REALLY help her. I’m worried that as she finishes 3rd grade and goes to 4th, she is going to be so far behind. Has anyone had a kid going through this and had anything that worked? Thank you!
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Has the child been tested for a learning disability? It may be time for a school psychologist to get involved.
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Has she been tested for dyslexia? Can she see the board good?
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Can she actually see the board what the teacher is writing on? Does she need glasses x
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Maybe she needs more time copying the board.
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You can get A workbook and it shows them how.
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Has she been tested for dyslexia before
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I have my daughters practice in the handwriting books with the dotted lines everyday after school after a month I saw a huge improvement and so have my daughters teachers
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Have you tried getting writing pads and having her practice her writing in those? There are also websites where you can print off writing sheets with proper form of each letter and sentence those may help too
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My sister had this problem. She is 65 now and getting along fine.
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Teachers tend to rush the kids to copy from the board.
Kids struggle to track from the board and copy onto paper.
It’s a definite learned skill!!
Can the child try other ways to get the notes from the board?
Get vision tested
Test for learning disabilities if it doesn’t improve
Try to get child to copy from something you write on a white board to see if you can determine the issue.
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I went thru this as a kid and it was cuz I was trying to go too fast. What helped me was cursive because it slowed me down and I had to think about my letters I know they don’t teach that at school but maybe at home it might help:woman_shrugging:t2:
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Occupational Therapy could be helpful. Some children struggle with hand strength. There’s also a program called Writing Without Tears. Most OT’s are familiar with it and you can find their products on Amazon. It’s very a creative approach.
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My parents made me do practice handwriting every single night with a workbook for many years. Practice practice practice. It was checked every single night. It helped
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TRY CALLIGRAPHY LESSONS ! Might inspire her to focus on ea specific part of a letter…she may be bored with regular nonsense !
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Have her tested for dyslexia
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My son at that age was struggling too. We started a writing notebook (just a standard wide-ruled notebook). We would give him a book and have him first read it and then write it, copying the paragraphs onto the notebook. A few paragraphs a day and now… he does just fine.
Sit down with her… after she is done writing… use a red pen and mark the areas where she will have to re write… including spaces between words. You have to ive consistent with it… daily.
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My son got better by writing his spelling words at home every night
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My 8 yr old son also has this problem. We are practicing at home but honestly he gets bored with the books after so long so we decided to also try having a pen pal it’s more fun for him and he looks forward to writing!
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Have you had her eyes tested? My son who is in year 3 was having the same problems I took him to get his eyes checked and they sent him to a behavioural optimists and it turned out he had a turned in eye. Only one side of his brain works at a time and when he gets to the middle his brain crosses over to the other side and for a split second he has no vision. This has made him have major tracking issues and he has been doing eye therapy for 2 years that’s helped him so such.
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Do alphabet in double lines for practice ,you can bring it up on computer ,if u don’t have one ask teacher, also you can buy a scribbler (book)and if u look on the back cover it has the written alphabet letters !
My daughter has occupational therapy to work on her writing. We also use hi write paper. It’s free to print on printablepaper.com it help with letter size and placement.
I got glasses in the 3rd grade because I couldn’t see the chalkboard. I also went to a Catholic School and we practiced all the time and if were doing it wrong or holding the pencil incorrectly we would get tapped with a wooden ruler.
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I’m also going to suggest eye doctor. Everything else I just tell mine to take her time. If it’s homework I erase it and have her try again.
My nephew had a broken arm for most of kindergarten. He started out tuft handed and then had to use his left. Now he used them both at random and neither is good. He had to do some OT. I think it hit the point they were thinking about holding him back over it.
Maybe she has searing disability. Sometimes that can mess with fine motor skills like handwriting.
Good luck hopefully she does improve. Maybe have her wrote some letters to other family members and mail them like back in the day.
Is she dyslexic? Because this is my life. Im 26 with a college degree and people still cant read my handwriting. I did get special exceptions in school though like not having to write in front of the class, got to type everything, ect.
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Repetition and back to the basics. Get some of that handwriting paper (with the dotted lines in the middle) and have her write her letters one at a time. I even got some great handwritting workbooks off amazon for my youngest who has trouble.
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Teach at home. Have her copy sentences. Practice with her. Teach her. Work every night. If its sloppy, tell her to try again. Go over the letters and make sure she is taking her time. It’s usually due to kids rushing and not paying attention.
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Get her assessed. She could have a visual processing disorder
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My 11 year old writes horribly so I got some of those wipe off boards dry erase markers and started making him practice at home
His practice work at home has been perfect from day one because he takes his time which made us realize his sloppiness was from writing too fast
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I dont know if this was said but when I was an aid for preschool I tried the big wide pencils and it showed major improvement
Practice practice practice. That’s the only way to improve penmanship.
Is she struggling with reading and writing because of the white paper? Irlens syndrome is really common and easily managed with coloured overlays/paper/glasses. The school SENCO can assess pretty quickly if she is…
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One of daughters (grown now) was in 5th grade her writhing was not good at all. I was very concerned, but teacher said not to worry there was typing & at That time other things besides handwriting. She came thru just fine & now has a most beautiful handwriting… As time goes on there could be great improvement.
I have dislexea (???sp) worse with numbers have her tested
This will sound ridiculous but start teaching her cursive… there are work books at walmart that can help her learn. Sometimes the continuous flow can really help with kids writing.
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Maybe she needs glasses or has dyslexia
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Occupational therapy might be a good start
I have a child that has a chromosome disorder and she struggles in writing reading n math so far she in second grade n already couple grades behind has low IQ learns very slowly her hand writing can be hard to read we are currently fighting the school right now for more help we just had a IEP meeting on the 5th n have 10 days to make a decision n we r gonna demand for her to be in special ed glass longer then hour in half a day cuz she so far behind n needs help catching up. Feel free message me if have any questions
I had the same problem when I was about 7, and it turned out to be Rheumatoid Arthritis. Maybe make an appointment with pediatrician to rule out any physical problems. My penmanship is still awful!
Daily practice… Remind her to slow down take her time if shes having problems with actually making the letters even when slowing down you write it then have her trace it then write it 10more times … Just keep workinf with her she will get it… Theres also writing workbooks at like the dollar store big lots walmart etc…
How are her fine motor skills? She might just need to strengthen her fingers. Give her a hole puncher and let her punch holes, let her pop bubble wrap, cutting Twizzlers all builds fine motor. If that’s not the problem, at least they’ll have fun!
Does she have hypermobility and there fore struggling to articulate the pen properly
Get those books from dollar general or walmart with the words and letters you trace. Repetition is key. Practice Practice Practice.
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Practice. My son’s handwriting was hard to read in third grade. He’s in fourth now. He has some behavior issues and he was writing “I will not…” quite a bit over the summer and since school started this year his penmanship has improved greatly!
My teacher had me keep a journal best thing ever
Practice every day will help at lot
play music while she practices.
We started occupational therapy and it really helped
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Practice practice practice
Copying from the “board “ is useless!!