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How To Identify If Your Child Has Handwriting Difficulties

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  • Does your child struggle with recall of letter formation despite repeated practice?

  • Does your child express anxiety or frustration about writing tasks?

  • Does your child complain of hand pain after writing for a short time?

  • Does your child have a lot to say on a topic but hesitant to write it down?

  • Does your child rush through the writing task?

  • Is your child’s writing difficult to read ?

  • Does your child struggle to read his or her own writing?

  • Is your child’s writing labored & slow?

  • Has your child’s classroom teacher expressed concerns about their handwriting?

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Role of OT

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A common misconception in schools is that occupational therapists (OTs) are handwriting teachers. In reality, our expertise lies in analyzing and addressing the underlying factors that may contribute to a child’s handwriting challenges. 

 

As shown in the image above, handwriting involves several components. Its  more than just putting words on paper; it's a complex, whole-body experience. For a child to enjoy and succeed in writing, several components must come together seamlessly. These components include - fine motor, visual perceptual, visual motor, visual memory, core strength,  posture, executive functioning skills of paying attention, sustained attention, generating ideas, organizing and planning the ideas etc. 

 

When assessing your child's handwriting, an occupational therapist will take all these factors into account. We will observe your child as they write, review written samples, and conduct screening or handwriting assessments to gain a deeper understanding of child's writing abilities. In addition, School OTs can also discuss with the classroom teachers to gain more insight into daily writing challenges of your child during classroom instruction time.  Based on which the OT will develop targeted goals to support and enhance your child's writing skills. 

Home Strategies To Improve Your Child's Handwriting Skills

home strategies

Preschool / KG - 2nd grade (Younger Years)

Build Hand Strength

  1. Hand strengthening cutting activities - do lots of age appropriate cutting activities using right sized scissors.

  2. Hand strengthening playdough activities - manipulate play dough to make fun things  or hide small sized beads/blocks in a ball of play dough and have your child search it. 

  3. Hand strengthening tong activities - use right sized tongs to pick and sort objects.

  4. Hand strengthening block activities - use connecting blocks to make towers or trains. Use smaller sized blocks to increase the challenge. 

Build Visual Motor Skills

  1. Draw - draw alongside your child. This will help build their eye hand coordination and  visual spatial sense for paper pencil task.

  2. Draw - draw objects using simple shapes that your child is familiar with. Developmentally, children learn to draw shapes before they start to learn letter formations.

  3. Draw - verbalize visual spatial aspects of your drawing “ I will make some clouds on the top, and some grass at the bottom. “ I will make a boy next to the tree. The tree is taller than the boy”. This will enable them to think of sizing and placement of text on the paper. 

  4. Color - teach your child how to color inside shapes using different strokes. Teach them how to stay inside the lines. Start with 2-4” sized images as kids need room to maneuver the strokes 

  5. Color - with your kids. Take turns coloring or color alongside your child. This can be used as a calming activity for children, and it also provides an opportunity to build that pencil grip.

  6. Craft activities -  create a craft of your child’s choice. This is a great multi step activity that not only builds visual motor skills but also teaches sequencing of multi step tasks.

Build Writing Skills

  1. Focus on Fundamentals: Break down letter formation into manageable components. Practice one letter at a time to reinforce understanding.

  2. Support recall - Make a funny song, sing the letter formation - this enables the recall. 

  3. Letter & Number Practice - Skip writing with pencil when the child starts learning the letters or numbers. Use other multisensory ways to teach the letter/ number formations. 

  4. Letter & Number Practice -Jump on the letter/number forms - draw the numbers/letters  on the floor with a painters tape or chalk and have your child jump on it in the sequence of the formation. 

  5. Letter & Number Practice - Write using multisensory approach - write numbers and letters in sand, on a flour tray, with finger paints, in shaving cream, etc

  6. Letter & Number Practice - Write in the air with the whole arm movement and guess the letter/ number

  7. Letter & Number Practice -Practice letter formation using digilital app such a “letter school” 

  8. Write words - Play hangman activity for sight words

  9. Write sentences - Model how to write. Model capitalization & period. Model spacing. In the beginning, have your child verbalize it, you write it on a erase board/ paper and let them copy it. 

  10. Write sentences - Take turns writing. This provides your child with a model and takes away the pressure of writing it all by themselves. 

  11. Repeat Repeat Repeat. Practice is the key to consolidation of the skills. Setting aside 10 -15 minutes practice few times a weeks.

  12. Celebrate the smallest of the achievements. Kids love it and it motivates them

 Grade 3rd - 5th Grade (Older Kids)

Use hand strengthening and visual motor skills activities from younger years if you think your child will benefit from them

  1. Break the writing task down in parts. Don't  attempt it all in one go. Follow Step 1. Step 2. Step 3. 

  2. Step 1. Discuss the topic. Show your child  as many visuals as you can from the book, online or other resources. Visualization of the topic related content can significantly assist with comprehension and generation of ideas.  

  3. Step 2. Use a graphic organizer to jot the ideas and organize them. This is a quick place to write ideas, so the focus is on the content not the legibility as much as long as the child is able to read it. But the writing size will need to be controlled to fit in the graphics of the organizer. Your child will use this to create their first draft.

  4. Step 3. Start writing the first  draft. With the intent that if it has errors or is not neat, your child can always write it again 

  5. Edit the work - teach your child to edit their work word -by - word slowly to make sure the sentences make sense . 

  6. Edit the work - encourage your child to use the writing checklist to promote proper use of punctuations, spacing, sizing and line placement  

  7. Teach to fix errors - Teach how to either cross out neatly, or to erase well. 

  8. Writing - On the line is hard - If the letters are not placed on the line. Try offering different kinds of lined paper (with lines further apart) to see if that makes a difference. Or highlight the baseline to provide additional cues for placing the letters on the line

  9. Writing - the sizing is too big or small -   If the child forms the letters too big or too small provide the appropriate lined paper. Write on large surfaces with the chalk to learn to write big. Write on presized strips or boxes to decrease the size. 

  10. Writing - spacing is an issue. If the letters or words run into each other. Provide models with exaggerated spaces between the words. Teach the use of index fingers or spacers to mark the space. 

  11. Model the writing for your child. It's never too late. Demonstrate the expected behavior. 

  12. Provide A Sample - of finished work. So the child knows what is expected. 

  13. Take turns - Children who struggle with the writing, love when the grown ups take turns. It takes the pressure off and gets them started.

  14. Assign a writing spot - where all the writing material & supplies are available. So all the material is in one place and it's easy to get started.

  15. Assign a time for writing - this avoids any conflicts. Consistent practice is the key to developing skills 

  16. If your child complains that their hand hurts - and there is no medical reason for it. You can try providing them with a fidget such as a squishy ball in the other hand. 

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