What about writing?

It was obvious from an early age that J would find writing a chore. He never wanted to use crayons (although was happy to watch others do the colouring in as directed by him), frequently used implements in either/both hands and had no well developed handedness.  Given this lack of favouring of one hand over another, we took the decision, when he started in Reception class to encourage use of his right hand to write with.  It was quickly apparent that his fine motor skills were not great.  Seeing as his gross motor skills were also developing slowly, this should not have come as a surprise.  However, school were still adamant that he MUST learn to write... and quickly.  He was sent home with remedial worksheets, taken outside the classroom to complete work when the other children were playing (even though he was falling asleep and just could NOT do what was asked of him) and generally subjected to a barrage of hands on penmanship. Despite being diagnosed with Developmental Co-ordination Disorder (dyspraxia) during his Reception year the teacher's insistence he carried on with handwriting was ever present.

None of this helped.  No matter how hard he tried, J remained slow to form letters, had trouble with manipulation of writing implements (and scissors), complained of fatigue and was, in the end, completely turned off handwriting.  As I was (and still am) a stationery collector with pens aplenty, we sought out all manner of different styles of pen and pencil.  Every type of pencil grip was trialled, we have writing slopes, cut out windows to reduce the area he has to write in, coloured note pads (crossbow education have a great range), paper with raised lines, squared pads, shaded writing books, the list is endless.  He tried short pencils (as this 'forces' a tripod grip), fat pens (to reduce strain) and textured pencils (so he could feel them better). Fat, light pens with a smooth writing action are favoured - so the Staedtler Mechanical pencil we found at the education show one year was a marvel.  It's fat, light and has a soft, thick lead together with a proper mechanical pencil action. It's also a bit yellow...  Bingo.  This is the implement of choice when pencil will 'do'.  When a pen is required then the Pilot Frixion range are a godsend... any errors can be removed and J finds the pens quite comfy to use with their defined grip area.

We supplied the school with an Alphasmart NEO for times when it was more important to get J's ideas down on paper than for him to use handwriting.  Again, none of it helped.  Even now, at 12, letters still have to be talked about - where does a "guh" go - and even his own name he cannot reliably write correctly.

So, what do we do to assist him?  Well, first off we took him out of school!  There you are, in one fell swoop he was much happier at not being forced to write "for no reason"...  he does write, by hand, thank you letters, short post cards and each day he does a small amount of handwritten 'work'.  He may write a shopping list (for me, as I am too busy to do it myself - he is helping me), a list of characters from Pokemon and their special powers, some ideas from Horrible Histories... you get the idea.  Stuff he wants to write or things that he feels have a purpose.  No more copying from a board/book/worksheet just to fill time.  He uses white board pens on our kitchen table when working on problems from the mathletics site.  There is a reminder sheet of how letter looks stuck to the underside of the glass, which reminds him of how to write each letter.

When he was first out of school we discussed a programme of letter formation with his Occupational Therapist.  She had found out that he didn't realise the space that each letter 'ought' to take up - that is there are ascenders, descenders and letters with both!  So, using a subject that interested him at the time, we linked each letter to a part of a volcano - those with ascenders went to the ash cloud, descenders the magma chamber and the rest were the cone.  This, together with doing a daily exercise using the Handwriting Without Tears programme we reinforced the idea of how letters are formed, where they 'go' and how they should look... it's a multi-sensory approach (although we had to amend it slightly as J can't bear the sound/feel of chalk but that's another story). 

I guess there is no end to this post as J still struggles to write, has very low stamina and is poor at forming words.  He uses technology as much as he can.  Produces mindmaps to encapsulate his thoughts and ideas and will dictate to me should he feel that he has more to say.

If you work with a child like J, please consider just how incredibly hard it is for them.  Our experience tells us they are not "being difficult" or "wasting time".  They are struggling to achieve.  Have you explained it VERY clearly to them?  Do they 'get' what you are asking them to do?  Are you sure?  Adding to their workload with additional tasks or insisting on task completion (whilst others go out to play) is not constructive.  Give them quick ways to do things, provide them with printouts and encourage them to love putting pen to paper.  Don't turn them off by putting up unattainable barriers.  Allow them to express themselves in different ways, be innovative, use smaller sheets of paper, reduce the amount they are expected to deliver and, hopefully, with time the HAND writing will follow (if they are able).  But if they're not, so what?  When was the last time you put pen to paper?  Most things these days are done online, electronically or via text so give those skills and they'll be well away.