Handwriting skills- help

[redshoes]

My youngest son is heading off to Kindergarten next year. He has some mild fine motor delays and is struggling with writing his letters (he knows what they are and he knows what sounds they make). I would like to work with him this summer so he isn't behind going into school. Does anyone have any suggestions that would help him and at same time make it fun to work on writing his letters.

 

[Wishing on a star]

I don't have specific recommendations.

I think it is common for boys skills to run a bit behind girls, developmentally ?????

Anyhow, I just wanted to mention that gross and fine motor skills (which actually turned out to be visual-processing hand-eye-coordination issues), turned out to be a marker for my son's disability. Just something to be aware of and keep your eyes on.

Anyhow, the one thing that I can come up with, based on my experience and what I know, is to get some LARGE sheets of paper and a large marker or paintbrush. Do each letter very big.... not depending as much on the fingers, fine-motor skills. Then he can decorate these... luse them as little letter shaped roads for matchbox cars... anything that he might find interesting????

How about sidewalk chalk... Or a container of water and a paintbrush on cement on a sunny day ????

I am just brainstorming here...

Hope my thoughts have helped!

 

[redshoes]

Thank you for your suggestions. Those are great!

 

[NHdisneylover]

DS strugles with handwirting. In OT they taped paper to the wall and wirte the letters vertically. They also told him to always warm up his finger muscles with silly putty before writing. He is supposed to use just his thumb and pointer finger to break of a small (pea sized) piece of putty and try to form it into a cube. Sometimes he just "plays" making cubes when he is bored and it does seem to have helped his writing come along.

Simply playing with other fine motor skill toys is always good too (this is the former preschool teacher in me comming out). Good ets are stringing beads, legos, using tweezers to move items from one container to another, he plastic beads you arrange and melt together (sorry the name escapes me at the moment), play dough, weaving looms, cutting an pasting, etc. This is the kind of stuff that gets him ready to be able to write letters.

Fun general letter making activities include: "paint" big letters on the sidewalk with a brush dipped in water, write in the sand at the beach with sticks or fingers, role play dough "snakes" and twist those into letters, make letter shaped sugar cookies for him to frost, try to make your body look like different letters (think the YMCA dance), sidewalk chalk, cover a table with shaving cream and trace letters into the cream with a finger, finger paint big letters, etc.

 

[mjkacmom]

Ds11 still struggles with poor fine motor skills. I ended up sending him to Montessori preschool because they really work on them there. They had him get objects with tweezers, using an eye dropper, and the children were only allowed to color with colored pencils - no crayons or markers. When learning handwriting, use small pencils, not the big ones.

 

[kirbydog48]

Once school starts, you may want to ask for an OT evaluation, then hopefully you can get regular services to help him with this. It could also mean he's just not ready. I would use all different ways to make letters....in the air, in mud, finger paint, etc. The more tactile the better.

 

[SplashMtnCrew]

I think sidewalk chalk is a fun idea! Work together, have him imitate what you do as you write each letter too.

I don't like to think of someone as being delayed rather it's a boy or a girl. Everyone develops skills at different rates, if we compare ourselves as adults and I started reading before you did or if I can read at a higher level than you, I suppose I could refer to you as "delayed". Its not a nice thing to do. I think unknowingly we can limit what we believe someone can achieve. Understand that everyone develops differently and at different rates. I'm sure you've heard of Albert Einstein (a boy), kicked out of shool in the 3rd grade because he wasn't smart enough to understand the math. When the fact is that the math was way too basic for him, and his teachers weren't able to do anything because developmentally, his teachers were delayed....compared to him.

 

[EthansMom]

I think sidewalk chalk is a great idea. Also, coloring.

Around here, many of the teachers recommend the kids play with Play Doh to strengthen their fine motor skills.

When DS was younger, I had him practice his letter writing on a small dry erase board that I bought at Walmart. It had the lines (with dotted lines in the middle) on one side for kids to practice writing and the other side had no lines.

Our Kindergarten asks that kids be able to write their own name using a capitol for the first letter and lowercase for the remaining letters when they start school.

 

[Pixiedust34]

We used this program http://www.hwtears.com/ with our kids and it worked well.

 

[EthansMom]

We used this program http://www.hwtears.com/ with our kids and it worked well.

That's the program our school uses. It's awesome!

 

[RN4Babies]

My dd8 has been receiving OT since she was in 4 year old kindergarten (she's high functioning autistic). They work with her on the proper grip when holding a crayon or pencil (instead of the quad grip with her thumb and first three fingers that she still prefers!). Her OT had her start using a pencil grip in 5 year old kindergarten, and it basically forces you to hold a pencil correctly, and gives the child better control of the pencil if they have trouble with fine motor skills. I buy them from a local teacher/learning store for a dollar or two apiece.

Here's a link from a company I've ordered from many times. My daughter prefers the jumbo grip; you could try different ones and see what your son likes.

http://www.thepencilgrip.com/dyn_category.php?k=25774

The other thing her OT started doing in kindergarten with her is working with a program called "Handwriting without Tears". It's a very easy program that teaches how to correctly print letters, and it used very particular verbal instructions for each letter that the kids memorize in no time. (Example, for an uppercase letter K, the verbal talk is "Big line down, kick it in, kick it out). It worked wonders for my daughter with her printing. Here's the website link:

http://www.hwtears.com

I know a lot of the school systems around here use it with great success; it might be worth looking into.

HTH!!

 

[RN4Babies]

We used this program http://www.hwtears.com/ with our kids and it worked well.

I was typing my response when you posted this!

It a fantastic program, and only takes 10 or 15 minutes a day.

 

[redshoes]

I appreciate the advice from everyone. I googled the handwriting without tears and found that there is an instructor really close to me so I'll get ahold of her and see what she advises. My son was in OT for a year and then phased out, but I don't have any issue with putting him back in if it would help.

 

[NHdisneylover]

I just want to enourage you to follow up on the handwriting without tears. DS10 struggled and tried so hard and made very little headway in hadnwirting until he started using handwriting without tears last year. MAJOR difference. I could no believe how much easier it was for him amd how much less stressful.

 

[nskjerven]

My DD during OT used paper that had raised lines, that gave the lines a noticeable feel to the touch to keep between the lines.

Also, you are none to early to work on this issue.

I wish I had realized that intelligence can mask motor skill problems. My daughter is off the charts verbally and that gave her teachers a false sense of her motor problems. At her early ages I was told over and over again she would grow out of her motor problems. Sadly this has never been the case.

I wish we had forced the issue of holding the pencil/pen correctly at a young age. Her grip is terrible and makes writting for her nearly painful. We waited at the urging of her teachers and even her OT (that we paid for out of school) and now at age 11 no way can she retrain her grip.

Hold on for the ride, I've found that this will be a lifetime (we school life time) of working on this issue.

p.s. we also had some early intervention with reading because motor skills and delays in reading are common. Watch for it too just in case.

 

[minkydog]

My oldest son had a real hard time with handwriting due to poor fine motor skills. He had a hard time with coloring too. I had him roll out playdough and cut the "snakes" into small lengths with scissors to strengthen his hands. I also poured rice onto a cookie sheet and had him trace his letters in the rice. Sidewalk chalk was very good and so was writing in wet sand. We did some connect-the-dots and paint-by-numbers, too.

Good luck. A lot of young boys have difficulty with writing. You're not alone.

 

[Cindy B]

Messy but fun is using a small amount of foam shaving cream on a safe surface. Then trace the letters in the shaving cream.

 

[Mom2Nick]

My oldest has fine and gross motor delays. One of the things we used with great success was write on wipe off boards. Pre-Printing practice is great as it helps them learn to write squiggly lines, curves, v's etc. Then Print Alphabet Letters is the next stage.

http://www.carsondellosa.com/cd2/Se...=handwriting&gclid=CIrw0rTF8ZoCFR7yDAod7QdFKA

 

[PaulaSue]

Thanks for the ideas! My DD just finished K today and her writing is terrible and I have a hard time reading her letters (I was a PS helper/sub teacher for years). That is one of the things I want to work on with her this summer.

 

[alexandria674]

Using Paint and chalk is a good idea, I remember also that my Mom would make a dot-by-dot outline of the alphabet so I would follow it. With my nephews, I get play doh and have them shape the letters.