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More Handwriting Questions – Dysgraphia
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The person who tested my son (annual Woodcock Johnson) last week said she thought he may have dysgraphia (and dyslexia). I’m now working through his subjects to see what we need to change and tonight I’m thinking about handwriting. My son is 8 years old, he will only write in capitals, has lots of reversals and he has a great pencil grip. I have the Getty Dubay italics series bc I like the way that writing looks but we never really used it – only a few pages here and there. The tester recommends HWT but I don’t like the way the letters look so never considered it past age 5 when we tried it out. She thought the chalkboard was extremely useful for children who need this extra help. She loved the wet-dry-try method. I’m trying to figure out if I need to ‘get over myself’ and order HWT or (ideally) figure out how to provide the support my son needs using the Italics books. (She also suggested we might go to cursive at this point and that’s something I’m considering but not entirely convinced about.) I’ve read the other current thread about writing suggestions and liked the watercolor pencil traced over with a wet q-tip (though that doesn’t seem to give enough repetition) and the whiteboard (and the child erases with the finger what you have written) suggestions. Would something like that be enough to use as I convert the GD Italics style letters to a format my son can more easily master? Do you have other suggestions? Thank you.
ETA one more question. I’m planning to start all over with handwriting going over each letter and number. I wouldn’t also have him doing copywork of a sentence during this time, right? I need to just stick with the individual letters, then words, as if we really are just beginning. Right??
My dd7 also struggles with handwriting. I also don’t care for the letter formation with HWT. I try to provide a variety of techniques before going pencil to paper. I consider pencil to paper as a test to see if she’s grasping it. I also provide a notebook and pencil at quiet time, church, car, etc so she can doodle letters with no pressure. She stresses out when it’s “formal” practice. I’ll post again with our list of techniques…baby crying!
My oldest son has dysgraphia along w/ dylexic leanings. He was tested at 7 but wasn’t diagnised until almost 13. (long story) Materials designed for dyslexics (like O-G appraoch) have worked best for him. It’s taken a lot of time, but now that he’s older, I can see the improvements. It’s made it all worthwhile. (Wish I had found things and pushed them more while trusting myself as well.)
I would *highly* recommend teaching him cursive. That’s the one blessing my ds had. He started at a private school and they taught them cursive from the beginning (ABeka). I regret not doing this w/ my youngest 2, paticularly my youngest, but that’s an aside. Cursive was a huge help in limiting if not eliminating reversals. (How can you reverse something if it flows w/ the other letters and there are less similar formations.) It is also a help for the dysgraphic on the point that you’re not picking up the pencil and starting over again. It’s a continual motion and not broken up.
The other suggestion is to type. Learn how and let him use that. For some reason, it limits that “block” in the brain that having-utensil-in-hand-w/-paper-in-front-of-you seems to bring on. It’s always been a big help especially when ds had a paper to write. I would wait a spell before doing that, but it depends on your ds’s needs. (My son’s isn’t severe so I had a little more flexibility.) Also, there are computer programs out there that let you speak and it will type what you say, but from what I’ve heard, there are issues w/ all of them. So, we never went there. Again, your mileage may vary based on your ds’s needs.
I’m also going to gently encourage you to look at the method and style that will best help your ds. What is most important is being able to DO it, and have it be legible to others. Also, realize that his handwriting may not be “pretty.” Yes, there are times you can and should expect more, but on a daily basis or when he’s needing to get it out/onto the paper, you might want to be a bit more flexible.
Chalkboards and a whiteboard w/ dry erase markers are wonderful for them, particularly the markers. You can get small boards that are about the size of a sheet of paper. I’ve had him do his dictation on those and then copied the board for a few records for our files. Depending on your ds, you can also use a magnetic board w/ the letter tiles, at least at first. You could make your own that would correlate to the writing syle you end up using.
Something that helped me better “see” what he’s facing was a description that his evaluator gave me. She said that you should write a paragraph, BUT . . . alternate each word between cursive/print, every 3rd word write backwards, every 7th letter write upside-down, every sentence switch hands, etc. This is not verbatim, but you get the idea. So, when asking them to do those written things, particularly written narrations, it’s going to be a challenge and feel very overwhelming.
Also, my son needed to have a specific topic to write on, those open-ended options were too broad for him. He just had SOOOO much in his head along w/ the struggle to get it out, that he just couldn’t do it. Now, verbally, he could tell you a thousand page story w/ tons of details and bunny-trails, so it’s not for lack of information. This is where I think learning about CM and her methods might have been a huge help for him. If we could go back and start over w/ what I know now . . .
The biggest thing, be patient w/ him, and keep plugging away. It’s one-step at a time, sometimes w/ lots of steps back. It DOES “get there,” though. {hugs}
K
ps – try using a pen vs a pencil. The feeling on how it writes on the paper may make a difference for him.
pps – try different line-spacings for the paper, too. I’ve personally found that the smaller spacings produced nicer letters, particularly for my son, and seemed easier to use. (Goodness, I’ve even struggled w/ using the larger spacing as have my dc w/out struggles – they did better w/ smaller.)
There’s a lot of information here
http://www.swrtraining.com/id17.html
It’s for Cursive First, which can be used w/out their full program. There is a lot of information there for the reasons behind using cursive from the beginning vs print. You might find some of this helpful. (Personally, I really like the order ABeka uses to teach the letters, but other than that, prefer this material.)
My understanding is that CM did not advocate a lot of separate handwriting practice like this. But, for these dc, they need practice those basic letter formations before getting to the copywork. (I might be wrong on this because I haven’t been looking at the early yrs and how that’s implemented. Please forgive me if I’m wrong.)
As for your question about just working on the letters and not full sentences, I would use your ds as a guide. Start w/ a few letters, working toward some words. You want him to see the reason behind all those letters. I wouldn’t just do all letters, iow. Copywork, when he’s ready, would be good, as would very simple dictation sentences. Use what he can do and slowly work toward more. Let him and how his day is going be your guide.
K
ps – I don’t like most cursive ‘Q’ – w/ this program, you can easily add to the letter so it starts at the bottom vs near the top, which would close it in.
kerby has a ton of good suggestions. We also use the smaller white board. I sometimes put a larger one on an angle to see if upright (at an angle) helps. Here is a variety we’ve used to incorporate repitition without being boring or too stressful.
sand tray
do-a-dot markers tracing letter shape formation
index cards with letter in black and a bright red dot showing starting point (she traces these while saying the steps); I make the cards myself
chalkboard flat or angled
whiteboard flat or angled
This is all I can think of right now. After 1+ year of doing all this with some formal lessons here and there she is finally making some progress. Sometimes she can’t perform if I ask for it versus her just doodling them in her notebook on her own time. She doesn’t have an official dysgraphia diagnosis but she has some pretty significant needs so that has been our road. I’m focusing more on reading now as that is more important to us and she’s making progress with handwriting on her own time.
I hope that helps a little.
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