Help with Handwriting over Summer

My 6 year old had an extremely hard time learning how to hold his pencil/crayon correct. I found these little doohickies called "the writing claw" online. Occupational therapists use these. They were really cheap and they have small sizes for young children. It goes over the pencil and has little pockets for the 3 fingers. It REALLY helped Taylor to hold the pencil right and ended his frustrations with just his form. Then, he could concentrate easier on what he was writing, not just holding the pencil. After using it for awhile, he had the grip part down and no longer needs the claw. I'm now going to start having my 4 year old use it. I also have lots of wipe off activity books that I got from amazon. There is handwriting practice in them, along with other activities like mazes,etc. That can make practicing writing fun. Just try to have them work on it each evening. Maybe while you're cooking dinner or doing dishes.

I work on Handwriting skills for children in Flower mound. I am also doing a summer camp for kids entering kindergarten this year.

Please feel free to contact me for more details.
Regards

Good handwriting is all about fine muscle control. Find ways for them to work on controling the muscles in their hands and fingers. Stringing beads, drawing, coloring, putting wing nuts on bolts ect will help them learn to control those fine muscles.
You could also check with a physical/occupational therapist to find some other execises for them.

My son struggles a bit with hand writing too. His teacher suggested working on his fine motor skills - play dough, stringing beads, pearler beads, putting coins in a piggy bank, crumpling paper into small balls, using tweezers and clothes pins to pick up things. We saw a lot of improvement after we did these games daily for a while. We also started practice by writing sentences in high lighter and having him trace. Then when we continued seeing improvement, we started having him journal every day. It was only two sentences or so and we let him write about whatever he wanted...stories, his day, upcoming events. It helped a lot! We have gone from not being able to read a thing he wrote, to being able to read it all.

There is a mom on here who does handwriting lessons in Flower Mound. She uses the handwriting without tears method. Here's her info : https://www.facebook.com/pages/Write-and-Shine/1965108370...
http://www.writetoshine.weebly.com

and a link to her profile : http://www.mamapedia.com/public_profile/1601604712111538177

I would really recommend an OT do an evaluation of your younger son. She will write a report that will help you get help AND get the school on board as well.

Go online and look up Handwriting Without Tears by Jan Olsen. Lots of schools AND OT's use this to teach handwriting. I used this with one of my kids. I saw an ad in one of those free magazines for parents (you've seen those -they are full of ads for all kinds of stuff moms need, including summer programs.) The ad was for a handwriting class for children, taught by an OT who specialized in handwriting. The class was great because he saw all the kids doing the same thing. He not only learned to write, he also started to understand the alphabet AND he learned how to best grip the pencil.

You older son never learned proper grip either - schools have run out of time to teach this skill nowadays. If you find someone to work with your younger son, take your older son too. The OT can teach him as well.

I hope that you find an OT to do this program, like I did. Insurance didn't help, but group lessons were much cheaper than individual lessons. If you have a clean bill of health, so to speak, from the OT, perhaps you could use someone to teach him, like a teacher, who can help with the grip. I would still buy the Handwriting Without Tears books, though. They are fabulous.

Good luck!
Dawn

I would check out the local library and or ask around at the school or even physical therapy places. They could provide you with the wonderful resources you are looking for and teach you how to teach them. Also if you have a local teachers college nearby, ask around there too.

Look around at your local rec centers etc. My son is actually attending a handwriting class this summer through our rec center taught by an occupational therapist. If your rec center does not have any, reach out to an occupational therapist and see if they know of any classes.

I have a couple of really helpful resources.

Handwriting Without Tears is a fantastic, easy to use handwriting curriculum that is great for kids with motor skills difficulties that make handwriting problematic. It is affordable and has online assistance and training programs if you feel you need it. However, the program is so straight forward, you really don't need to do that unless you want to become a tutor in your area.

Check out www.hwtears.com

Many children with handwriting issues may just be late bloomers with motor skills. I wouldn't worry about the Kindergartner just yet. Some specialists say disabilities aren't diagnosable until after age 7 1/2. Many kids still struggling with writing after age 7 1/2 may have a disorder called dysgraphia. It is in the family of dyslexia and is very treatable with vision therapy or other OT methods. You may want to have your child(ren) assessed to see if this is what is going on.

Dianne Craft is a specialist in that area and has an excellent at home OT program that can help your child's handwriting improve in quality and speed.

Check out her articles, videos and books at www.diannecraft.com Click on "Smart Kids Who Hate to Write."

Both of these resources will most definitely help your children improve their handwriting.

Ditto ReverendRuby.
They should practice writing, of course, but there are many (more fun!) ways to strengthen those muscles. Make sure they do a lot of that as well :)

I work with my kids myself... you can get the paper they use at a lot of store - even the Dollar Store for $1 - $ 2. Just write the letter yourself a few time, then make it kinda dotted/dashed a few time and let them write it. Also, you can get books at some stores made for handwriting or on-line print outs. I pulled my 4 yr old from pre-school because he wasn't picking up on much & hadn't made any progress this year... he has made more progress in the last month then he had all year at Head Start. Plus it would give you a little one on one time with your boys.

If I recall correctly there is another mom on this site from Flower Mound who does handwriting help for kids....I will pm you if I remember who she is......hopefully she will respond.....

There's also a company called Zaner-Bloser that sells handwriting workbooks. I used their cursive book last summer for my just-leaving-3rd grader. I've also used their manuscript lessons for my kindergarten age and 2nd grade children. They are inexpensive, have good instructions, and go over everything from posture and grip to where to start and stop each letter. I've seen a huge improvement with my oldest's handwriting, and great progress with the other two.

Here's the website just in case:

http://www.zaner-bloser.com/zaner-bloser-handwriting/zane...

The link for the actual workbooks is on the left of the webpage. Hope this helps.

for handwriting, look into this: www.writetoshine.com
I have not personally used her, but some of my friends do, and she is helping my friends' kids develop proper grip and letter formation.

You are doing the right thing to get help for your sons this summer! My son has this problem also. He is ADHD and was also diagnosed with Dysgraphia (form of Dyslexia, but with writing). They do NOT teach handwriting in school anymore! My mother was a Kindergarten teacher for 30 years and she said they spent weeks just making straight lines, then circles, then practicing the different letter forms. My son could read, but could not write when he started Kindergarten and on the first day the teacher wrote a sentence on the board and asked the kids to copy it! No instruction, just start writing! I complained that he was making all of his letters incorrectly and really struggling. The advice was - he will work it out by 1st Grade! Well, no, it only got worse. Luckily, an OT that was working with a handicapped kid in his class, noticed his problem. The teacher told me and I was able to contact this OT and have her work with my son over the summer. Unfortunately, because he had learned everything wrong, it was an uphill battle, but she definitely helped him. Some of the things she recommended were to have him make letters with his finger in pudding, shaving cream, sand, etc. I would spread chocolate pudding on a tray for him to "write" in. She had letters cut out of sandpaper for him to trace. It is really hard to relearn once they have been doing it wrong for years, so you definitely need to address this now.

handwriting without tears.

Practice, practice, practice...there are lots of handwriting work books in bookstore...some are printing, some are script. Have them practice every day.