I have a five year old preschool child who is writing his name in the strangest way possible. What is even queerer is the things he says to himself as he writes to help him remember what way to form the letters. Now I have an 8 year old LD child who learned to print strangely too. In his case, I couldn’t get him to do things correctly and gave up. He has had to be retaught because of difficulties it has caused. I have no reason to believe my younger child is LD but don’t want to repeat the writing problems.
My question is how should I teach him to print. He is attending an academically oriented preschool and I can see that they are teaching him correct letter formation but it clearly isn’t sticking.
Beth
Re: printing
Janis,
Do you think this is a good initial program for a kids? I have never actually looked at it but have associated it with kids with major OT type issues.
Beth
Re: printing
I too have seen the trouble incorrect formation can cause!!! We too have had to reteach our older son. I certainly want to avoid it with his younger brother!!
Beth
Re: printing
Beth,
School systems are actually adopting it as their primary handwriting instruction. As a matter of fact, Anna’s teacher told me she had just received the program but probably would not start it in the middle of the year. I think it’s much like multisensory language/reading instruction…it’s good for all kids, not just the LD kids (as in best instructional practices). I have not used it personally, though. It is just highly recommended. If I think about it, I’ll try to ask Anna’s teacher if I can take a look at the actual materials for you.
Janis
We used Handwriting Without Tears for cursive,
and it was a lifesaver. I am sure the printing program would have prevented many of my daughter’s bad printing habits (including her multiple directionality problems), but I found out about it too late.
Mary
Re: printing
Ok. I am convinced. I do know it is easier to prevent problems than to solve them. I will wait until next summer when he is 5 1/2 and do this. I do know they are teaching him correctly at school and it seems to be going out one year and the other.
Thanks to both you and Mary.
I understand your concern here. My son who will be 10 in April prints his letters in a very perculiar way also. I remember commenting to his teachers early on about this, they said not to worry as long as he is writing. Now here he is in 3rd grade and his writing is horrible. His teacher and I are going back and reteaching him the correct way to print his letters. His teacher noticed that when doing cursive he also attempts to do it in a odd manner. She is using hand over hand to help him learn it correctly the 1st time. He also has a unusual approach to math skills that is very accurate also but they are afraid it will eventually break down, so they are trying to reteach these basic skills before this happens. My son falls on the autism spectrum and hasa unique approach to most things. We have learned to try and catch this early on and model things the correct way.