How many people with AS had/have difficulty with handwriting

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My hand writing is miserably bad so I quit trying in high school. Since then I print everything.

On the other hand, my numbers are usually quite legible although there can be a confusion between my 0's and 6's when written quickly. Years ago, I used to do scoring in races. I always had a good view of the track -- they literally could not wave the green flag to start a race unless those of us in the scoring tower had a good view of the track.

Back then, I could write down the number of every car in a USAC Indy car race when coming out of a yellow flag to a green flag in the order that they crossed the start finish line whether on the track or in the pits and circle the numbers of those in the pits. That could be twenty five or more cars crossing the line in ten seconds or less. It was quite a challenge. In comparison, NASCAR races with bigger cars, bigger numbers, and more spread out were relatively easy. In either case, mistakes were a big deal because the results were passed to the announcer, scoreboard operator, tv (if covered), and the press box throughout the race.

After several years of doing that, I can hardly stand to just sit there and watch a race on tv or listen to it on the radio any more (except for the Isle of Man TT coverage).

My handwriting has always been bad but now it is just plain illegible because with the computers I don't do it very often.

I don't remember having too much trouble learning the letters, but I had problems actually writing the letters properly. I still have really bad handwriting. It's very inconsistent. I can write the same words several times and each would look like they were written by different people.

I didn't have a problem with writing letters. I could write them fine before I entered school. But in 2nd grade I had problems with writing in the correct direction. Often I would write from the right side of the page, with the letters in the words ordered correctly from left to right, but the words ordered backwards from right to left. When my teacher tried to correct that I couldn't understand what she wanted and started writing in other screwed up ways. Mirrored letters, writing both letters and words from the right, writing words from left to right with letters ordered from right to left, etc. Thankfully, this resolved itself before I left 2nd grade. I also had problems with writing in a consistent size on paper without ruling. I'd start at a reasonable size, then it'd rollercoaster between words taking up half the page and words too small to be legible. I still have that problem, to a lesser degree.

My handwriting turned to crap after 3rd grade, I press down too hard to point where the skin on my pinkies were slowly being pulled back.

Nowadays I type write on my computer.

I voted "no" , because specifically I had no trouble learning to form letters or numbers with a pen or pencil. But my penmanship is abysmal! Nobody can read my handwritten notes because my writing looks like a doctor's scribbling on a prescription. I can't explain it because I have outstanding fine-motor skills, and can disassemble and reassemble tiny things like watches or cameras easily. And (I suppose) because I was always top-of-the-class with spelling and grammar, I was scolded more about my penmanship; as if just being lazy, than someone with general reading & writing problems may have been.

Charles

Always had bad handwriting, my fine motoric is bad. I read somwere tat if yo think faster than you writh you vill lose letters and get a messy kind of letters.
I am a dyslecican to, thath does not help the writing.

I was in special ed so my teachers didn't make a big deal of my poor penmanship but focused on improving my grip. I use to write with a pinch grip. They put special grips on my pencils with grooves for my fingers to make me hold pens normally. I also use to make letters and numbers nearly side ways.

Dysgraphia is a recognized disability.
When you walk into an institution and they throw a form in your face saying “Here, fill this out.”, they are violating the law. That is a style of access. They are required to provide an electronic version of the form, just like that ramp in front of the door.

The problem is that since people with abstract disabilities are second-class citizens, even among the disabled. They don't have the right to protest, or be considered.

When I was in 1st grade they gave us straight ink pens to learn cursive with. That's a pen with a very skinny nib that you have to keep dipping in the inkwell at the top of your desk. And for paper we had the type of paper used for printing newspapers (ok for pencils only). If you were this slightest bit clumsy (who me?) you were constantly tearing holes in the paper and making a mess; that was me.

My handwriting has improved some through the years but is still one of the worst examples I know of.

denny

I can relate well to this. As a child in school, writing was awful (still is problematic). Over my
early years and being taught to write I found I could write backwards, mirror style, or could do any number
of styles (slanted, printed, cursive) but all of them pretty scruffy or illegible and a cause for complaint
from others. Had years of being told off, made to do things over, work ripped up and generally made to
feel that if only 'I would try harder' it would be fine. Sadly,despite trying it didn't happen surprise, surprise.

Then came something of a majorly enlightened response which was definitely lateral thinking on
the part of one of my teachers. In my last years at secondary school, I and a couple of others
were taken aside and told we were to be doing typing lessons before school (this was the early 1970's - computers in schools were still the stuff of science fiction). This was because as he said we might find we needed to write in our adult lives and this was his solution. Admittedly we had to start school half an hour
early but we were taught to touch type using office typewriters.

Outside of this class mind you, nothing changed, still had to write and be complained at, but after leaving
school and buying a portable typewriter (recently saw one like it in a museum display - that makes me feel old)
it helped me for the next few years until the computer became common. Seems odd now in the era of the word processed school work and can't see why they don;t teach everyone this vital skill.

I have often said that this was the best subject I every had - it taught me to touch type
and that has remained with me for the last 40 years and meant that apart from the odd thing
I can type what I need to write easily and it is accessible to others.

Must be something of heredity in it, my son's writing is also dire. He doesn't bother with the spacing between words, used to write boustrophedon style (lines reversed like ploughing a field) and usually all in capitals.

It may not be diagnostic, but lots of people with ASD seem to have problems with this, however, there are
the others who don't - so who knows, but I am now reassured because it has a fancy name - dysgraphia
so we can sleep easy in our beds.

I had appalling handwriting and couldn't grip a pen correctly but with a lot of practice and my love of writing it is now very neat. Pen grippers are still useful when im tired though. The dyslexia and dyspraxia don't help matters lol

I do pretty well writing in print, but cursive was much harder for me when I first learned it. I had to write it in a certain slanted style, and capital letters, as well as more uncommon letters of the alphabet were harder to master than other letters. My handwriting in print and cursive got better as I got older, but I usually write by print, using cursive occasionally.

my handwriting has always been illegible no matter how much effort i put into. someone finally pointed to something i wrote and said, "you have dysgraphia! my sister has that!" i was like... WTF? is THAT?

so i googled it and it was like wow... yep... that totally describes my whole life in relation to handwriting. Probably why i learned to type at 10.

and then this year i find out dysgraphia is common in people with AS. as if i didnt have enough indicators but still... it explains sooooo much.

It's the fine motor task of handwriting that is difficult for me. I find myself having to spend extra effort on writing in general (even more to write neatly).

I recently changed my pencil grip to help with neat handwriting. Even though I write slowly, it's at least somewhat legible.