All About Handwriting

[gigue]

westmom:

If you suspect it is fine motor skill that causes bad handwriting, buy those \"stress balls\". They are ones that are specifically made to improve fine motor skills

Thanks westmum for the suggestion - will check that out. My ds (5-yr-old) has rather poor fine motor skills and his handwriting was bad. He would write out of proportion (esp. for chinese characters), out of line... I used to get really upset when I did writing with him.

Like what jedamum mentioned earlier, I decided that pracice is key. So we sit down almost every night to write simple words repeatedly. He chooses the words to write. The practice helped. His teacher in CC commented recently that his handwriting has improved.

Praises help. The moment the words are well-written, he is praised and that increased his motivation. And now, we tell him that his writing has improved - and he is very proud of himself. I am glad because he focuses better during writing tasks as well.

To better reinforce his improving handwriting, we establish a reward system with stickers/stamps to keep him going.

Now that he's gotten his handwriting in better shape (literally), I am trying to work on his writing speed. So that he completes his writing tasks faster and yet neat...wish me luck!!!

[csc]

Hi Gigue,


You're doing a great job out there! :ugogirl:

Instead of writing simple words repeatedly, how about getting him to write a short message, a thank you card , simple wishes in a birthday card or copying a short rhyme or poem? It will make the writing task more interesting and meaningful!

Wish you all the best!

[gigue]

Hi csc, thanks much for your encouragement and suggestion. Copying short rhyme / poem is a good idea - will try that out. He’s just started writing a sentence (e.g. I am a boy.)


Hi insider, thanks for the website - it’s most informative! I see your point about the size of the handwriting - his is rather large now. Will take note not to decrease the size. But I notice recently that he wants to write in smaller size, don’t know why.

[gigue]

Hi insider,


Thanks very much for your thoughtful sharing. It belies the experience you have with young children and familiarity with their developmental milestones. I think many a times, parents can be victims of anxiety, like you said, especially when they think ahead of the kind of education system that their children would be going through.

This may sound obvious - but I'm learning that the one of the most responsible thing a parent could do is to strive (it really takes effort) to understand and love the child the way he/she is, then start working with him/her. In that way, the child experiences respect and love (being respected and loved for the way he/she is). The ability to learn and the gungho 'I can do it' spirit is then slowly strengthened from there.

[Enmum]

Hi,


I am a new mum who has just joined this forum. While reading the posts by different mothers about children's bad handwriting, a mum mentioned that Brain Revolution has helped with her child, not just in handwriting but on other issues as well. Actually Brain Revolution conducted lots of educational talks about children's learning that may be very useful for parents in understanding their children better.

You may be interested to know that they are having parents workshops during the March school holidays at the Ang Mo Kio and Jurong Regional Libraries. Parents may attend the talk while the children will have activities including free balloon sculpture, free door gifts, etc..You may go to http://www.brain-revolution.com for more information. This talk may not be about children's handwriting but there is a talk about the brain of a child in learning excellence which will be very informative for parents. There is no charge and it will be a good time for you and your kids. Stay happy.. all the mothers out there!

[jedamum]

My boy's term 1 result for pensmenship (aka handwriting) is a mere satisfactory :roll: . For his daily work, his mistakes stems mostly from illegible handwriting :x - eg one counting exercise, he counted 10, wrote '10' but cos the '0' too thin, it looks like '11' and he got marked wrong . He has been practising for 2 weeks...but it seems like he only writes neatly during these exercises and write horribly for his daily work. :stupid:

[gigue]

Hi Jedamum, do be patient... Your boy probably knows the answers to the questions well, so he quickly writes down the answers. He's probably in a different 'mode' doing questions and practising penmanship...


Hi Enmum, Brain-Revolution website looks interesting and credible. Thanks for the recommendations!

[ApronMama]

My P3 child has bad hand writing too. I observe that it is probably due to the way he hold the pencil. He is not holding the way it should be. He has his pointer and tall-man both across the pencil. I tried to correct it since he was in K2, but he would just go back to the same way again till now. sigh… Should I just leave him as it is forever? Appreciate your sharing…

[ksmama]

I attribute bad handwriting in my p5 kid to be a case of impatience and writing too fast . He does his work very fast and tend to be terribly untidy. Once, I was so exasperated while marking his home asessment just before his exam, I told him that if he could write neatly with neat, organised presentations, I would reward him with $2. Well, he not only came back with full marks but it was the neatest, cleanest, most organised piece of work I have ever seen. I told him,\" See, you are capable of writing well! Please do this for all you future work.\"\" He replied, shaking his head,\" But mum, do you know how DDdddifficult it is for me to write like that!\" Well, he went back to his untidy, bad writing :stupid:

[daisyt]

Hi, I would like to share girl’s P6 class experiences. On the first day of P6, the English teacher asked them to cut stripes of paper of different width, name Spacebar. Then the teacher announced, from that day onwards, they are suppose to do their writing with the help of the spacebar. One word, one spacebar spacing, follow by the next word. And if the words are too small, they have to write bigger. The reaction of the students - we are no longer P1 students, why must they write like P1 ? From there onwards, everyday she would complain her writing was so childish, so "ugly". This was enforced till somewhere middle of the year. By that time, all of them have good handwrittings and without the spacebar stripes, they are also able to write their composition neatly and nicely.


Now she keeps the spacebar stripes in her "treasure box". She really appreciated the teacher’s effort. This form teacher is the best teacher I have encountered so far. She implemented many useful systems to help and improve the children.