Granddaughters writing

So sad to read your update morethan. Thank goodness the family has you there to support them (((hugs)))

So sorry to read about your granddaughters Mummy. That must be so difficult for the family and you to cope with. I am sure that your granddaughter will come through this with your help and support. So sad x

I think she has dyslexia. This is so similar to DD2 friend who was not diagnosed till over 7 as memorised everything in reading. Parents paid for outside assessment then school provided learning support. Eventually at high school. computer with voice assistance, on to college then uni in media, animation and now working for CH4 having got degree. She still writes like this even on FB but not held her back x

Thinking of you morethan2, it sounds a bit like you have enough to do without following our well meaning suggestions. Look after yourself as well as everyone else x

I want to thank everyone who has replied to my post. Some of you may know that my granddaughters mummy is terminally ill. A lot of my time since the school holidays has been spent coping with the ordinary everyday business coping with childminding, washing, ironing and so I haven't had time to reply. Thanks everyone.

My grandson has hypermobile joints and can do things with his thumbs that make me cringe. He thinks it's funny. That being said, he has difficulty gripping a pencil. My DD bought the pencil grips for his fingers and thumb but he refuses to use them, the triangular pencil is a good idea.
Is handwriting not taught in schools these days? I remember having to write pages of letters when I was learning joined up writing (cursive). In Finland they are phasing out handwriting in schools in favour of keyboard skills.
here's an article from The Guardian about it.

I'd tackle the two problems separately if it was my GC.

Firstly by getting her to put her thoughts/story directly into a word processing package that she can spell check.

Keep it short and print it out

Then as a separate exercise I'd ask her to copy it neatly into a book which has lines to contain the body of the letter and lines above and below to guide her ascenders and descenders.

I agree with all those who say that your GD may be dyslexic. Unfortunately, it can take time to get a proper assessment and as you say your GD herself is unhappy about her poor handwriting, I quite understand why you feel something needs to be done now.

Perhaps you can practise writing with her? Let her show you how she writes her name, then you try writing it. If she likes the way you write it better than the way she does, then you can go on from there.

But, please do tell her that nice handwriting is good, but not as important as it was before we all started using computers and tablets.

I doubt you can buy writing or copy books any longer, but I admit I haven't checked the internet.

Has your GD had her eyes tested? My handwriting was bad when I started school, but did get a bit better after the grown ups realized that I needed glasses.

I have 2 boys, both intelligent, both excellent readers and both scoring good results in their assessments. However both have the most atrocious, unreadable handwriting. I paid for an assessment for my first child because the state school wouldn't as he could read and spell. Tests showed he lacked spacial skills, had a form of dyslexia which didn't fit the norm and had bendy fingers which didn't grip a pencil properly. The state school were unhelpful every step of the way, refused to apply for him allow him to sit his exams labelling him as lazy. My second son had the same problems but by this time we were spending our retirement fund on private education. It took one call to the school to express our concerns. He was immediately tested. Like my other son, he is off the scale with numeracy, spelling and literacy but scores incredibly low in spacial awareness. Put altogether, the scores give him a high average so in a state school, concerns would be dismissed. In his school, an application was immediately made for the use of a computer and extra time where he has to write because his fingers got uncomfortable as they too bend backwards. My conclusion is that it is all about funding and time for state schools and, sadly, that impacts children who are intelligent but not necessarily able to put things on paper. Quite frankly, it is an absolute disgrace that no Government really wants to tackle. Incidentally, at least one in 20 children will have "bendy" fingers.

When I was at primary school in the 60s we used to have handwriting practice (starting with loopy patterns and progressing to copying chunks of text) and we got the cane if it was messy! Not recommending that at all, but we all had neat handwriting by the time we left!

My children never did any practising in school but we used to get workbooks from WH Smiths for them to do at home. It didn't work for my daughter but my son had beautiful writing. I once read a piece of her school work at a parent's evening - it was about a half side of an A4 sized book - terrible scrawl, and not one full stop, comma or Capital letter to be seen! Just one continuous sentence! I still remind her about it now. Haha! She still has awful writing but she is starting a PhD now so it hasn't held her back! (I always said she should be a doctor! Haha!)

DS is Aspergers with dyspraxia and was allowed extra time and to use laptops for his exams. His writing is still not good, but he does try hard to make it legible although this takes him a long time.

I don't know about primary level, but I had to fund my daughter's dyspraxia assessment at secondary level.

Teacheranne, I am so glad that you qualified your earlier post. As a very experienced teacher with a number of post grad qualifications in Support for Learning, I was horrified at your intial post and wanted to fire back a response, but decided to against it, as I felt it would be quite harsh. I am glad I did not, as you have come across as someone who does care about pupils.
In my school in Scotland we were awarded "dyslexia friendly status" and used online dyslexia screening tools to assess pupils experiencing difficulty. Also we had a number of other tools available to assess language difficulties. We then used any other evidence we had collected and passed all our evidence to our educational psychologist, who would then make a final assessment. It was a very successful strategy.
If a teacher highlighted a child to us as having some form of difficulty, whether a simple spelling difficulty or much more, we were obliged to assess that child and determine whether the child needed some sort of intervention. Early intervention was the key.
This was not in a middle class area, but a school in an area of high deprivation and many of our pupils were experiencing barriers to learning.
I may be wrong, but I get the impression that in English schools the system is different. There was no need for parents in our LEA to fund assessments themselves.

I am also a Senco. I used Schofield and Sims booklets with some of my pupils for handwriting and spelling practice. If there is dyslexia or not, it would help her to relearn the basic spelling patterns and get b and d fixed in her mind. It is also more evidence for you. A cursive handwriting can help children get a memory for the shape of words too.

TeacherAnne Thank you for your follow-up post. As I am currently tutoring a child, who received no support at her junior school (despite constant requests from her parent) and is now battling for support at senior school, your initial post just rubbed salt in the wound!

You might like to look at the website of the Schools Curriculum and Standards Authority which gives criteria for and examples of expected levels of attainment at different stages. Some people think your GD is doing OK and some (myself included) think there are difficulties that need addressing.
A look at examples of other children handwriting and other areas like spelling, punctuation and clarity of expression might help you form an objective opinion.
Whilst exams are mainly still taken n handwritten form it's not just legibility that's important, but the ability to write quickly and to sustain handwriting over a long period.

Handwriting is not as important now, as it was in our schooldays, as everyone is using computers and tablets.

However, you say this is affecting your granddaughter's self confidence, so yes, the problem must be solved.

Trisher has really said it all, except unless I missed it; have you checked the child's eyesight? My handwriting was bad as a child and improved a bit when I got glasses.

I would suggest you take one of the words the child has written and write it yourself, showing her how you form the letters, then let her try to write the letters herself. Ask her teacher's advice regarding checking for dyslexia and dyspraxia. Play ball with her, throwing a ball to be caught. Anything that improves her co-ordination will have a beneficial effect and if she gets good at it will help her self-esteem enormously.

More than, the examples of your granddaughter's work are so similar to one of my daughters. I first asked if she could be dyslexic when aged six, she wrote an account of a family day out. Most of the page was mirror written and the spelling was as the words were pronounced. Her teacher reassured me that as an end of August birthday, she'd always be a bit behind but as a 'very good average who works hard' she'd be fine.
At the firstparents evening at high school we were told what a lovely, hard working child she was but her writing was untidy and spelling poor. No, she wasn't dyslexic, she was an end of August, youngest in her year etc.
Fast forward to her decision to resist maths and science gcse to improve her grades. By this time, she has. 2.1 and wants to teach primary school. The local FE college arranged an ed psych assessment. I could have wept when she was described as profoundly dyslexic and apologies fir forgetting the correct term but dyslexic in maths. She has significant short term memory problems. The diagnosis improved her self confidence. She hasn't described herself as 'dim or thick' since that assessment.
She is an 'outstanding' teacher - I wish I'd paid for an assessment when she was six.

My d was handwriting was dreadful when she was at primary school I really worried about it and she wasn't very interested in reading either.
Then she went to her secondary school and both improved very quickly.
Give her time is all I can say.

Please don't try to help via Gransnet. Let parents talk to school and above all don't give DGD a complex about her writing. I taught for 25+ years and saw all sorts of writing. All will be fine. Relax

GHolding the pen too tight is also a sign of dyspraxia, so please have testing for that, as well as dyslexia.

Some children hold their pen too tight so a lot of energy goes into the first bit of writing! See if you can feel the shoulder while writing. If it's very tight she needs to relax her grip.. Also, how she is sitting and slanting her book. I found using a maths book with small squares helped my pupils. Forming the letters correctly too. Not much time is spent in handwriting these days. Good Luck. Whiteboards are great too for quick notes, so she won't feel to overwhemed.

I can see why you worry BUT there probably is no need. The writing is legible - what more do you want?

Please ask the school very firmly to get her tested for dyslexia. This could give more time for tests and may relive the stress a little.

No one spells badly from choice and children work hard to get things right. Only praise - for every a real achievement - even if small. This aids confidence and means she is more likely to share worries.

I mark A level exams and I know that there are only 2 things needed for me to read a student's writing:

spaces between words
word shape = tall letters tall and long letters long.

If you tell your GD this then she has only two things to remember and practise which removes more stress. The pencil control comes with maturity so just live to see it through.

Phonetic spelling is normally acceptable and even in English papers, there are only a few marks for it and usually the extra stress of struggling with spelling loses more marks than are available for correct spelling and which she will almost certainly lose anyway no matter how hard she tries. Tell her this to limit the number of things she has to worry about and focus what she needs to do into constructive concern.

Good luck, have confidence, if she is still trying after all the criticism she has already had, she will be fine. You may have to wait till the sixth for to be sure though!

Teacheranne - you gave some excellent advice and support to me regarding my DGS.

My DD is going through this with DGS1 who is 7, suspect Dyspraxia as he lacks co-ordination, can't ride a bike, has confidence issues & poor hand writing in addition. Looking back I can see signs now that both myself & my DD had some level of Dyspraxia, not as severe as DGS1 though & of course not picked up in those days. DD is hoping to learn how to cope & encourage. DGS1 has good reading & maths skills & swims well (took a while to get the hang of it but when "the penny dropped"). DGS1 is loved by every-one, he is a very kind child & well mannered. School are aware of problems but are also happy with his progress