Can anyone tell me about Handwriting Without Tears??

[bengalbelle]

I know it's a good program, but I need more specifics.
DS(4) is having problems with fine motor skills and visual perception and his OT is using this program. We think we need to supplement at home, but I'm wondering if I really need all of the products she suggested.

What products do you really love, and what are your experiences with the program?

 

[Stacey2grls]

I am currently having the same problem with my DD5. She is in Kindergarden and is having such a tough time with writing. I am going to suggest this program to her OT. Good luck to your and your son.

 

[Michie]

My DD was in OT from the time she was 4 until she was 6, and this was one program that her therapist used. She is now in second grade and she can write in cursive better than me.

We have the wood pieces to make letters at home, the little chalkboard, and some of the work books. Her teacher mainly printed out work sheets for her to practise on at home.

 

[mom23boys]

My oldest DS uses this program. It has helped him. He has awful handwriting, pretty much illegable.

I got the program from my youngest DS's therapist. She just gave me practice sheets for him since he is 11. He does a sheet or two a night.

Good Luck.

 

[disney4us2002]

I'm unfamiliar with this program but developmentally it is not uncommon for children (especially boys) to have issues with fine motor skills. Many children are still ambidextrious with no real "handedness" yet at that age. While doing daycare I often saw children still holding crayons, markers, pencils and silverware in their fists. My youngest son (now 9) had lots of trouble and it was doubly hard because he was a lefty. I found resources online and printed extra worksheets for practice. I also found that by allowing him to fingerpaint his letters he got the hang of the shape without having to manipulate a pencil (smaller objects are harder).

Good luck.

 

[bengalbelle]

I'm unfamiliar with this program but developmentally it is not uncommon for children (especially boys) to have issues with fine motor skills. Many children are still ambidextrious with no real "handedness" yet at that age. While doing daycare I often saw children still holding crayons, markers, pencils and silverware in their fists. My youngest son (now 9) had lots of trouble and it was doubly hard because he was a lefty. I found resources online and printed extra worksheets for practice. I also found that by allowing him to fingerpaint his letters he got the hang of the shape without having to manipulate a pencil (smaller objects are harder).

Good luck.

Thanks.
At this point he is ambidextrious. He was totally a lefty as an infant/young toddler, but is switching now. He's mildly hypotonic and tires really easily so that may be one reason he's switching frequently. He'll be 5 in a few months and the OT said he should be establishing his dominant hand by now. We may just have to pick a hand and go with it. I know in the big scheme of life this probably isn't a huge deal, but I hate to see him struggling with motor planning/coordination every day. We're doing lots of things to supplement the therapy and preschool at home, but things are progressing slowly.

 

[Kermit]

I know a lot of homeschoolers who use Handwriting Without Tears and love it. It's probably what we'll use when our kids are old enough.

However, I would question a therapist who wanted to use it with a 4 year old. I'm not saying that I'd automatically dismiss it, but I'd want to know the reasons. I do think that it's important to focus on fine motor skills at this age, but there's research that shows that one of the reasons some kids aren't ready to write at that age is because their eyesight isn't developed enough. It's developmentally normal to not be able to write well and to not want to at that age. In the case of a child struggling, the advantages of teaching him to write now may very well outweigh the disadvantages, but it would be something that I'd want to research really thoroughly.

 

[momof2inPA]

I didn't really see the difference in the magnetic letters HWT provides, and the cheapo ones you use on the fridge, especially for the early, K and 1st grade lessons. Now that my son is in 3rd grade, his school uses the writing paper with three lines per letter, instead of two, and that seems to work better for my son. My son didn't have any fine motor skill problems that weren't associated with his young age (late July birthday), our HWT was just part of the regular curriculum. I wasn't very impressed by it. I think repitition, repitition, repitition works the best for my kids.

 

[bengalbelle]

I know a lot of homeschoolers who use Handwriting Without Tears and love it. It's probably what we'll use when our kids are old enough.

However, I would question a therapist who wanted to use it with a 4 year old. I'm not saying that I'd automatically dismiss it, but I'd want to know the reasons. I do think that it's important to focus on fine motor skills at this age, but there's research that shows that one of the reasons some kids aren't ready to write at that age is because their eyesight isn't developed enough. It's developmentally normal to not be able to write well and to not want to at that age. In the case of a child struggling, the advantages of teaching him to write now may very well outweigh the disadvantages, but it would be something that I'd want to research really thoroughly.

They're mostly using the wood pieces and roll a dough. His program concentrates on developing the fine and gross motor skills and the HWT is a very small part of what she does. I'm looking into it because of the problems he's having with fine motor skills, but I also think it would be good for the visual perception problems.
He's only doing small amounts of writing, and he's using broken chalk and the small chalkboards. They're working on the "frog jump" letters, but it's mostly to help him with his grip and hold. He has a really weak grip and it shows when he draws and/or colors. He's almost five and his drawing and coloring looks more like a toddler.

 

[disneymom3]

I have been doing a lot of research into HWOT lately as I am considering getting it for my son who is 5.5 and is homeschooled in K. I have several friends who use it and really like it. It makes sense because there are specific patterns they use to form all of the letters and there are a lot of hands on aspects of it which work well if your child is a kinesthetic learning (learns through movement) What I don't like is the two line approach mentioned earlier and honestly I don't like the way the printing actually looks. It just doesn't look "right" to me. The letters such as b, d, p, etc are just not curved enough and some of the numbers, especially 2, look strange too.

I am currently debating getting the preschool version for DS. My basic thought is that I am going to get him started on that so that at least he is getting closer to the right forms. A friend told me she thought you could easily do without the wooden capital letter blocks and just make them out of tagboard or something.

OH. That is another big thing I don't like--this program teaches uppercase letters first because they are easier to write, but every phonics program I have ever seen teaches lowercase because that is what is used most. DS knows his letter names and sounds in lowercase but has a harder time recognizing upppercase.......Oh, I am still in a quandry. Maybe I will just have him stick with writing in rice for a couple more months.

 

[grinningghost]

How interesting! I never heard of this program. I wish it had been around when DD was little. She had the worst handwriting ever. She was a smart little kid, but all her papers were just a giant sea of redmarks and comments like "Very sloppy!"

She now has decent handwriting - it's not beautiful, but it's much, much better. Hang in there, sometimes time works miracles.

 

[disneymom3]

They're mostly using the wood pieces and roll a dough. His program concentrates on developing the fine and gross motor skills and the HWT is a very small part of what she does. I'm looking into it because of the problems he's having with fine motor skills, but I also think it would be good for the visual perception problems.
He's only doing small amounts of writing, and he's using broken chalk and the small chalkboards. They're working on the "frog jump" letters, but it's mostly to help him with his grip and hold. He has a really weak grip and it shows when he draws and/or colors. He's almost five and his drawing and coloring looks more like a toddler.

What about mazes, where he has to keep the pencil between two lines to help develop that coordination and pictures with one thing that is somewhat different for visual perception? Maybe she is already doing that, but I know plenty of 5 yo boys who don't color at all if they can help it and barely write their names and even then only their moms recognize it as their name.

 

[bengalbelle]

What about mazes, where he has to keep the pencil between two lines to help develop that coordination and pictures with one thing that is somewhat different for visual perception? Maybe she is already doing that, but I know plenty of 5 yo boys who don't color at all if they can help it and barely write their names and even then only their moms recognize it as their name.

He loves to write his name and letters. He asks us to teach him how to write letters all the time.
He can't do the mazes. Well, I say he can't - he won't attempt them. I think he's afraid of failing so he won't even try. We met with his preschool teacher today and she said cognitively he's way ahead but is obviously behind in motor development. They get to choose which center they go to and she said she encourages him to go to the centers with more fine motor activities but he shows no interest. Again, I think he's afraid of failure. I really don't know where he gets that from because DH and I have been very supportive of his efforts. We don't fuss at him for doing something wrong and we focus on the attempt more than the outcome.

For the visual perception, he does great with choosing which one doesn't belong, or matching similar items. He's known all of his upper and lower case letters and sounds for a while now. His problem is more seeing a letter or a shape and being able to copy it in funny foam, sand, using the wooden letter pieces, etc. Also if you tell him to walk up and kick a soccer ball, for example, he has to take more time to process what you're saying. We think he's actually saying (to himself) I need to walk towards the ball, pick my foot up, move it toward the ball...you get the picture.

I think I might order the Teacher's Guide (for preschool) and try making the wooden letter pieces out of tagboard since that's what I mainly think will help him. We can also use playdough and letter cards in place of the roll a dough.

Thanks guys for letting me talk. I guess it's just weighing heavily on my mind tonight.

 

[Bella the Ball 360]

It is the only program we use in our school system. It is helpful b/c all students can benefit from it. It has as others have said multi-sensory components and catagorized letters so each section of the system builds on one letter. For example, n,m, or b, k, h, . I am talking about the cursive not printing.

 

[mickeyboat]

Our school systems uses it too, starting in Pre-K.

Denae

 

[graygables]

My 9yo DD just started a HWT "Cursive Camp" with our OT. I had already started using D'Nealian to teach handwriting when we switched from homeschooling to an e-school, but they used HWT. The "necessary components" we received for that were the workbook, slate, and chalk. I like the clay, but the wooden letter tiles really didn't appeal to either of my DDs.

We switched e-schools and the new one uses an "off the shelf" variety of penmanship, so I just ordered some more HWT materials for her.

The cursive, though, is also very good, and the block lettering leads into it very well.