handwriting

[floydwhite]

my son is adhd and a pretty good student. however his handwriting is horrible. i erase and make him rewrite . he goes so fast that even he has no idea what it says. this ad tarted when cursive writing was introduced. when he goes slow its legible. he has gotten bad grades on several tests due do the teacher not being able to read the answer. has anyone else experienced this?

[Scruffybassoon]

My daughter's handwriting is terrible! I think that is a normal problem for ADHD kids. She doesn't put spaces between words when printing. Her teacher has her use a popsicle stick between words. She does better with cursive if she goes slow. See if some accommodations can be made and keep working on it. My daughter is in 5 th grade and is finally starting to write that I can read sometimes. It is very slowly getting better with practice. She prefers to type things and can do that in many cases.

[seller]

Perhaps a 504 plan is in order? This way, your son could print his answers or even type them. Most ADHD boys have terrible handwriting and many hold their pens/pencils in a very unusual manner. My son only prints now, when he writes at all. There are many other more important issues to focus on besides handwriting.

[Rinkmama in reply to seller]

Agree 100%!

[anirush]

When my grandsons ADHD was in really good control their handwriting was beautiful. My 13 year old grandson used to get penmanship rewards at honors assemblies. Since middle school I don't know how his teachers can even read his assignments.

[floydwhite]

i have the same exact problem! In the earlier grades it was much neater

[Seaoats]

Hello! Our grandson,who we are raising, also has dysgraphia, a LD which affects handwriting,fine motor skills,and other symptoms. Maybe see if this applies. Speech to text apps allow student to verbally write and is transcribed on computer. It's a common accommodation for legible writing. Trying to write at that speed brain is processing is challenging and frustrating. Good luck!

[Pennywink]

Writing is the only school area my son didn’t do great in (and PE.) He can do a decent job with copy work, but original thoughts are illegible. And Kindergarten standards weren’t that high in the first place.

We’ve been doing short writing assignments most days at home during the summer that I try to make fun. (My favorite is to let him rewrite an old picture - kinda like the book Battle Bunny.) The key is I really just need to find a way to make him WANT to write better. And sometimes he hurries & makes serious mistakes as he’s afraid he’ll forget what he wants to write before he gets it down - which is a legitimate concern for him.

Other accommodations are writing with pen (it takes less strength than a pencil), write on a slanted board, like a binder, use a pen grip, and any fine motor activities, and even gross motor, even if they aren’t specifically writing related.

Battle Bunny:

amazon.com/Battle-Bunny-Jon...