My DS6 is using Delightful Handwriting. I would like suggestions for the times when he is not ready to move on from a lesson. For example, on the ‘W’ page, his W’s quickly turned to M’s. I corrected it, but he kept going back to M. Do we pause at W until they are all done correctly (I could print free W sheets online)? He is also writing J and C as mirror images, and repeated practice from the free sheets isn’t helping. Any tips from the trenches?
Are you having him compare his letter to the model and identify any parts that are different and don’t look like the model? Does he recognize what he’s doing?
He says his letters match, even if they don’t. I point out the differences and he says ‘OK’, then starts writing again correctly and slips into flipping the letters. So, he seems unaware that he is writing in the reverse sometimes. However, he correctly identifies W vs M in print or sandpaper letters, etc. I was thinking it might be in the realm of dyslexia, etc, but we have done developmental screenings and everything was normal. I suspect it is more of apathy…who cares which way my letters point… Does that make sense?
You might want to back off and reestablish a habit of best effort by requiring only one letter, but it must be correct and neat and look like the model. If he does it correctly, he’s done. If he does it incorrectly, he has to do it over the right way.
Once one letter is easy for him to do correctly and well, you can increase the expectation to two. Build up slowly, though; always giving him the responsibility/choice/motivation to do it right the first time.
If he doesn’t see the reversal, it is not apathy. He is probably right brained. “The Right Side of Normal” is a great book to explain this.
It should get better with time and practice. I chimed in because sometimes as moms if we believe the child doesn’t care, we get impatient with them and add punishment instead of a different strategy. Not saying you have done this, but I have.