Help with Handwriting

							                                                                                                In the latest NZ SPELD Record - page 6



Help with handwriting                                                                                   By Nikki Soames

Despite the advent of computers,              begin in a relaxed way with the rhyth-      later on in life. But the major drawback
handwriting is still the primary tool of      mic patterns that underpin handwrit-        is that it is very slow! The writer thinks
communication. Some would say that            ing. This approach avoids muscular          much faster than he/she can write fre-
handwriting is a critical life skill! It is   tensions stemming from anxiety and          quently resulting in sentences with
the means by which we express and             results in the child developing a per-      words missing or words mis-spelt and
present our thoughts, opinions and            sonal style that is legible, fluent and     with the writer repeatedly losing their
ideas, but it is also the means by which      fast so that they can write quickly         train of thought. Another distressing
we are judged!                                enough to get down what they want to        disadvantage of the “hook” style is that
                                              say while it is still in their head.        the writing hand moves over the freshly
Poor handwriting is a very real disad-                                                    written work, resulting in smudging and
vantage. Someone who is unable to             Last year LeftHand N.Z. introduced a        thus untidy bookwork!
write legibly is often judged as having       step-by-step learning programme for          The progressive effect is that a left-
limited intellectual ability. At school       parents and teachers to teach hand-         handed child can:
and in life generally, written work can       writing skills to LEFT-handed children.     * fall behind in their schoolwork be-
be assessed according to its appear-          This begins with the rhythmic patterns      cause they write too slowly)
ance rather than its content. Handwrit-       and once these are mastered the child       * loose self esteem (because they are
ing can even make the difference be-          moves on to trace and form the letters      continually growled at by teachers for
tween passing and failing examinations        of the alphabet that relate to each pat-    producing smudged/untidy work and
and being successful in job applica-          tern. Through short, frequent practice      for taking longer than others to copy
tions!                                        sessions the child progresses to the        things down from the board.)
                                              stage where they are able to form each      * find writing uncomfortable and physi-
Proper guidance must be given at an           letter of the alphabet on their own.        cally tiring (muscle fatigue of the con-
early age if children are to learn to         Starting with these rhythmic patterns       torted shoulder, arm and wrist)
write well. The correct pencil grip, pos-     also solves a problem many SPELD            * grow to dislike anything that involves
ture and letter formations need to be         students have with ‘left to right direc-    writing because it has come to be an
taught well right from the start and in-      tion’ and letter reversals.                 unpleasant experience. Over time writ-
ternalized by regular practice. This is                                                   ing has become associated with a
how good habits become ‘automatic’            Our handwriting workbooks have lami-        whole raft of negative outcomes.
and progress into a fluent, comfortable,      nated ‘write-on wipe-off’ (abbreviated
flowing style of handwriting. The             to WOWO) worksheets because learn-          If there are also other issues such as
movement patterning from habitually           ing how to write is all about practice      dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADD, ADHD etc –
sitting incorrectly and forming letters       and this way parents and teachers al-       then being left-handed as well can
incorrectly is much harder to fix once it     ways have available the worksheet           seem overwhelming for both the child
has become ingrained over many                required without having to photocopy        and the parents!
years. The good news, is that although        more for each handwriting session.
it is quite a challenge, bad habits can       Our WOWO workbook is written by a           Step-by-step help to teach the left-
be put right at any age if the writer is      left-handed NZ registered teacher and       hander how to write fast and well as a
determined to practice better methods         it includes LEFT-handed letter              left-hander is here at last! Following
consistently.                                 formations.                                 our learning programme for just 10
                                                                                          minutes every day will lead to the de-
Parents and teachers (especially of           Many teachers do not know and there-        velopment of legible, fluent and fast
very young children) need to know the         fore do not teach left-handed children      handwriting in a comfortable and flow-
correct approach, what to teach, how          the subtle differences in letter forma-     ing left-handed style.
to teach it, what problems to look out        tions that allow the left-handed child to
for and how to guide their child prop-        develop faster handwriting, nor do          Feedback received from a SPELD
erly. It is important to emphasise that       many of them know how a left-handed         teacher using the programme:
learning to write is not an overnight         writer should position their paper, their   “Nikki, this resource is awesome!
process and this is even more applica-        wrist and forearm to be able to write in    As a right hander, I was pretty igno-
ble when teaching a child with special        a fluent, comfortable left-handed           rant of the challenges faced by left-
needs or who learns differently.              style. Thankfully it is now almost uni-     handers. The instructions and tips
                                              versally accepted in our schools that       included in the front of your book
The formation of letters needs to be-         left-handed children should not be          are truly eye-opening.”
come both legible and fast – it needs to      forced to write with their right hand.
be practiced so often that it becomes         But this has resulted in a sort of “hands   In fact, this programme has been so
‘automatic’ – so that the writer no           off” approach to left-handed children       successful that we’ve been urged to
longer has to think about how to form         they are not being taught how to write      create a similar handwriting workbook
letters and words. Practice increases         unless they are fortunate enough to         for right-handers! These will be avail-
the accuracy of fine motor control and        have a left-handed teacher in their         able soon. You will find a lot more in-
as this increases, it opens up a whole        formative years.                            formation for parents and teachers of
new world - the writer is now free to                                                     left-handed children on our website
focus on the content – that is to write       Consequently, the left-handed child is      including more details about the con-
their thoughts and ideas, to write what       left to figure out handwriting on their     tent of our WOWO Workbook, sample
they want to write about without being        own. They try to copy what their right-     pages and the different formats cur-
distracted by having to remember how          handed peers are doing and often the        rently available. There is a whole sec-
to write each letter of each word as          awkward “hook” writing style and varia-     tion covering “Teaching Resources” for
they go along!                                tions of it, is the result. This style of   left-handed children and you can even
                                              left-handed writing is clumsy and un-       order online!
Research has shown that it is best for        comfortable, leading quickly to muscle
both right-handers and left-handers to        fatigue and even arthritis in the wrist              www.lefthandnz.com