Handwriting
Handwriting
Handwriting difficulties are the #1 reason for referral to Occupational Therapy services in schools. Occupational therapy helps children improve their handwriting through identifying and treating the internal or external factors that are contributing to a child’s handwriting difficulties. In order for a child to successfully complete handwriting tasks, their gross motor skills, strength, fine motor skills, grasp patterns, visual perceptual skills, visual motor skills, and endurance, laterality (left and right) and directionality (turn left, go right, etc.) all have to be within functional limits.
As you can see, Handwriting is more complex than just forming letters and numbers!!!
Handwriting Advice
- Always provide correct feedback, have them fix letter reversals
- Upper case letters always start at the "TOP"
- All letters touch the writing line
- Lower case letters size is catagorized by "tall, short, or diggers" or "tall, small, and letters that fall"
- handwriting doesn't always have to be a pencil and paper task, be creative, make it fun!!
A few of my favorite letter formation activities:
- Sky writing: lay on your back, raise your arm up high, and use your pointer finger to write letters and words
- Cover the shower wall with shaving cream and draw and write
- Sidewalk chalk
- Making letters out of various items (play-doh, wikki stix, etc.)
- Making your body look like the the letter