Advice on helping a boy to improve his handwriting?

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I have been asked to help a 10 year old Aspie improve his handwriting, which is nearly illegible. Also, math is his favorite school subject, but his difficulty forming and lining up numbers is getting in the way.

His handwriting curriculum in kindergarten - 4th grade was Handwriting Without Tears.

Yes, he is keyboarding most of his essays, and I'm teaching him how to use a voice-to-text program for short responses, but being able to produce a legible handwritten paragraph is really essential for the next four years or so.

I've read through the previous posts here on handwriting, and didn't really see much on what helped anyone to improve their handwriting, so I thought I would ask again:

Do any of you have specific advice on how to improve handwriting? Any particular handwriting method (like Modern Italic), tools (specific pencils, etc) or particular motivation strategies or stories on how you improved your handwriting?

Any and all responses accepted gratefully.

From my personal experience, if he has dysgraphia, nothing will help much. I have it and no amount of coaching, practicing, punishment, or praise made any difference. Luckily it is legible, but it doesn't look nice. My hand writing looks the same as it did 10 years ago in the 4th grade. I suppose this might not be true for everyone, but it is for me.

Hm. Do his hands shake? (I guess in technical parlance, does he have dyspraxia?)

People always say I have great handwriting but what they don't know is how long it takes me to write the shortest thing and how much concentration it takes.

I break pencils very easily.

My handwriting is illegible when I'm writing as fast as I need to to get my thoughts down, It's only really good when I've planned out what I'm saying in advance.

So: two ideas: maybe he's writing close to the speed of thought, in which case anyone's handwriting would be illegible. Maybe if he has to handwrite things he can do it at the speed of thought first and then copy it slowly, "like artwork", later. That's how I thought of (legible) handwriting, like beautiful artwork.

And if his hands shake... well... it seems that focusing on REwriting things "prettily" should at least make it legible. There's not much that can be done to stop hands from shaking as far as I know.

Once it's legible I'd say you can stop there though unless it's his personal goal to make it "nice-looking."

Don't know if it would be useful for this particular child but one thing I have done is use calligraphy with a chisel felt tip pen. My middle son fell in love with it and was actually eager to use it. We found a simple book for him to follow.

I tried that route as it was calligraphy that ended up helping with my handwriting.

I am an ed therapist and I'm curious as to why handwriting without tears failed. That tends to be a pretty comprehensive and easy way for kids to learn to write. Was there anything in particular that didn't work for him?

Also - I have used the lined early writing paper from Abeka as it shows it divides the writing lines into quarters - (Where to dot your i's - where to cross your t's - how far down to go with the lower looping letters.)

Do you use graph paper for math? That helps with the lining up.

Is part of the handwriting issue the motor control? There are a number of things you can do to help with fine motor control - a google search should help with that. ( I had written a blog post a while back about fine motor issues if you want to take a look at that. The forum won't let me post a link so a google search for deni weber fine motor will pull up the article. It's on an autism forum.

I've heard that the current generation isn't going to have to worry about cursive as the only thing they will need it for will be signatures - but I'm not sure I agree ...

Oh, has he had occupational therapy evaluate his handwriting?

Just some thoughts!

One more thing - maybe he can draw faint grids for math, or write on graph paper, and try to write one number per box to avoid misaligned number problems. I myself have wasted a lot of time due to incorrectly lining up numbers.

About not being able to distinguish numbers I myself have written from similar-looking numbers - I do this also. Really I just have to focus intently on writing well. It takes the same focus as staying in a headstand or something when I'm feeling fidgety but so goes it. Maybe make that analogy to him. It requires concentration. But like doing a headstand it then becomes part of your kinesthetic memory and doing it becomes easy and thoughtless eventually.

Writing may hurt him, and he may not notice it hurting him other than it's uncomfortable, so you might want to ask if it hurts, and where, and have him to exercises involving those muscles. If he has dysgraphia, it may just need to be added to his IEP so he doesn't have to write.

Has he seen an OT? They might have some suggestions

The program you are using is one we've used and I think it's as good as it gets.

As for actual advice that has worked for us, my husband writes with his fist with his left hand and that works for him. I don't think anybody would suggest this, though. However, he might find a way the he can write, even if it's unusual. It probably won't work for long writing, but for short term.

thanks for the reply. I should have said in the first post that his fine motor skills otherwise are pretty good -- he's not a Lego person, but enjoys assembling detailed models of various sorts (military vehicles, etc.) and can button, tie shoes, etc. He doesn't like to draw, per se, but fairly accurately reproduced a detailed image.



Thanks for those thoughts, which I will share with him. The real deal is having to write short responses in class, which is a big part of the school's curriculum. The goals are (1) writing fluency (he still sometimes stops to think about actual letter formation) and (2) legibility.

That is a great idea! I am collecting some different writing implements for him to try out.

I've helped a couple of NT adults improve their speed & legibility using a modified form of the Getty-Dubay approach.



HWT was the school district standard curriculum. From talking with his parents, I suspect that issue was insufficient practice. He didn't do any more than any other student...and since handwriting really not stressed, compared to bubbling in the correct answers on the state NCLB tests, not a priority.

And yes, he has had an OT evaluation a couple of years ago, through the school district.. Oddly, while the report noted his handwriting difficulty, it didn't actually come out and say "dysgraphia".



GREAT suggestion, thanks.



Yes, he does, and it does help. Part of the problem is how slow his number formation is. And thanks for the fine motor links -- will look.

On the whole cursive thing -- most adults use a hybrid form, so maybe the modern italic is the way to go. But in any case, rapid, effortless and legible handwriting is essential no matter what career you envision...

Yes, he's using graph paper. I'm also going to look into accommodations -- like not having to copy the problem THEN solve the problem.



Thanks for this suggestion.

He's an athlete and has made huge strides in his chosen sports over the last 18 months, by focusing on fundamentals. I think using the physical activity analogies might be really motivational for him.

Thanks for your thoughts, Megz.

The parents (and the boy) want to put intensive remediation in this summer.

If there's not much improvement in legibility and fluency after a sufficient amount of distributed practice, the family's going to push for a formal dysgraphia dx, which should help down the road in terms of his IEP.

I am also working up some accommodations plans.

Thanks for your thoughts, Pollyfinite

That's a really good reminder for me to ask him, and to work on his posture and making sure that the writing surface is correct.

Buy a bottle of black India ink, a #6 sable-hair brush, and have him practice Diwani calligraphy holding the brush perpendicular to the page.
just kidding

Seriously now:
I had poor handwriting in grade school. My teachers told me I wrote too slowly and too sloppy. Some told me to speed up. Others told me to slow down. Then they told me I wasn't trying hard enough, that if I just tried harder, I would be able to write fast AND clearer. I finally disregarded their advice (which I found a little degrading), and wrote as slow as I needed to to get the letters into the shape I wanted, so that others could understand. I was often the last to finish assignments or leave the room.

I now paint with watercolors for fun, and I enjoy the elegant, spontaneous, and expressive freedom I get from it. This is an important point, because one should NOT let their clumsiness limit their hobbies, whether it be in sports/arts/music/etc.

First of all, are you talking about printing or cursive writing? If legibility is an issue I would have him focus on printing for a while, cursive takes longer to get the hang of and write legibly.
Here are some things I did when I would write. Make sure he is not trying to write too small. Have him practice on lined paper that has both the main lines and a dotted line at the halfway mark (they used to sell tablets of this stuff that I would practice lettering on, the back cover would have the alphabet drawn in printing or cursive with little arrows indicating how to piece together the letter, and, it had sort of newsprint like lined paper. The lines were very large. A full sized letter was about an inch high on this lined paper. My writing size gradually got smaller as I got older and practiced more so I was writing faster, but I started out at that size. I would practice lettering on that size of paper.

Later, I would move to "legal tablets" with the letters still being two lines high (i.e. about half an inch high) so there was still a "dividing" line in the middle of the letters which helps you know where to draw all the letters to height wise. It's a little bit shorter than that now. I can write smaller but it gets less legible.

Have him do practice lettering alphabets for a period of time each day. Practice is what makes drawing the letters faster and more consistent (more legible). If I had an essay to write by hand, I would write it out, then I would re-copy it on fresh paper until it was legible (sometimes several times, when I was young). He can also do series of each letter until it looks consistent, then move to the next letter. I was doing this even at a very young age, practicing writing letters. I was to do it at a large size, which made it easier to control.

Another factor may be gripping the pencil wrong so his hand cramps up. Writing in class adds extra pressure because of the time constraint, hence the need for outside practice without the time limit, so he can get used to making the letters correctly. Make sure he's holding the pencil in a comfortable tripod grip that can be sustained over time. This was hard for me at first but in the end it allowed me to write for long periods, where I would see other people their hands wrapped uncomfortably around the pencils struggling. Also, he should be writing with his whole arm moving across the page, rather than just bending at the wrist, which becomes uncomfortable and cramped.

For cursive writing, and probably even to relax the hand on printing, I would do series of "spirals" (a continuing circle so it looked like a spring going across the whole page) at the height of the letters I was writing. This would be repeated until the spring was regular, several rows at a time, to relax the hand.

Advice on helping a boy to improve his handwriting?

Move out of Indiana. The state school board has just discontinued the teaching of cursive writing in public schools.

I actually never learned to learn write legibly in cursive. From grade 0 to grade 13, my handwriting was terrible. In college I taught myself print letters on my own and it is better.

Presuming there isn't some physical/neurological problem....only time and practice.

My handwriting's not "bad," but I can't find a pen that doesn't blob ink and make it look sloppy and after only a few minutes of handwriting, my hand cramps up. That's why I like keyboards so much better.