Where to start my 13 yo with writing?

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  • March 26, 2015 at 4:19 pm
    laster99
    Participant

    We are new to the CM methods, but have jumped in wholeheartedly. I understand how and why it works and am working to apply it in all areas. I just feel like my 13yo son is sooooo far behind in writing. A little background… He has Tourettes and dysgraphia, so we let writing go a LOT in the past. So I just started having him do some copy work 2 days a week and dictation 2 days a week. I can’t dream of asking for written narration, I know, but he does quite well with oral narration.  His vocabulary and spelling is/ always has been far above grade level, but after about 2 sentences of writing, he gets hand cramps.  And his letter formation seems like it still needs work.. For example, all of his letters are the same size. Capital and lower case. Even tall lower case letters like l, b, d, k aren’t tall like they should be. Lower n and h look the same etc.   He understands this, but I guess it is just bad habits. He told me today that the dictation is just too much for him to think about while trying to correct his handwriting. He thinks doing the copy work will benefit him better for now. Does anyone have suggestions on how to bring him up to speed and correct bad habits without insulting his intelligence and having him write individual letters… He already told me this will drive him crazy. In the past, he has done GettyDubay italics books and will copy beautifully for months,but it never transfers to his regular writing. Am I to expect that consistent copy work for a long period of time will correct this or can someone suggest something else that might help?  I feel like we are at a disadvantage because he has dysgraphia and has used bad habits for so long. Also, how often each week is reasonable for writing?

    March 26, 2015 at 4:29 pm
    Kristen
    Participant

    I know when mine started dictation their spelling, handwriting (capital letters) and punctuation went out the door! It took awhile but it is getting better. If he has never done it before then just getting the words down on paper will be a challenge. Also, the hand cramps should get better as he keeps writing as you are strengthening muscles. There may be some exercises you could have him do to help that along as well.

    The size of his letters might be helped with the paper used for younger grades with the dotted lines on it? Although being 13 he might not want to use that.  I got my older ones paper like that from Staples but it was in a notebook so it looked like it was meant for older kids.

    I have mine do some sort of writing at least four days a week.

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