ADHD and Handwriting

I have a set of handwriting notes which I have posted previously. To avoid constant re-posting, I will send these to you by email — just send a request to [email protected]
I’ll send the reading notes too if you want, just ask.

What exactly is the student’s issue? Is s/he using a tripod grasp or something else? Sometimes all it takes isa pencil grip. There are several different kinds, you just have to find the one that works best for the student’s hand. They can range from something as simple as a soft, rubber triangle, to a more complex grip like a handiwriter (that has soft bands that go around the hand).

What also helps sometimes is if the student can write on a slanted surface. They can also do hand strengthening excercizes, like squeezing putty and finding beads hidden in it. Nice thing about the putty is that it can also double as a hand occupier while the student is listening if they have attending issues.

Here is a site with some great tools.

http://www.otideas.com/

I encourage typing rather than handwriting but if he must write by hand… In any case, with a student easily frustrated, I allow them to dictate to me so that at the end, they’re amazed by what they’ve turned out. They need to experience some success and to literally see their thoughts on paper and what they can look like. “I said all that?” is usually the response I get. And “yes,” I say, that’s what you have to say - it’s just getting it down on the paper that’s hard for you.”

for my son’s self-image as a writer. When he dictates, I write down EXACTLY what he says — he can then see that ability to express himself is actually advanced, whereas his self-written work is quite behind.

I do believe that all children can and should learn to write by hand but I had to give up with my son in Gr. 3 as far as ‘quality’ went — by October of Gr. 3, he would not write at ALL for a while as he simply could not overcome the teacher’s many admonishments before the class was ‘set free’ to write — ‘remember your spelling, and your capitals, and your punctuation’ — he simply stopped trying AT ALL. (BTW, the pencil grip was NOT successful for us — though they only provided one, and that was provided in Gr. 2 by a teacher who did NOT understand how to motivate my child — one of those who believes that a child who does not produce consistently is ‘acting out’ and, while willing to pay lip service to the concept of LD’s, really believes the child is ‘just not trying’ — recipe for disaster! Perhaps a different presentation, by someone who was encouraging instead of punitive, would have been useful.)

We recovered by going back to ‘just make it legible’ when he was handwriting, and I insisted that they work on a ‘first-draft’ basis for handwriting, with ‘good copies’ done in type only, as the task of copying work over for these kids is NOT always possible or practical, and in our case rarely resulted in a ‘better effort’ past the first few lines — but was likely to bring out much ‘BAD’ attitude. At this age, I would either scribe his dictation, or type over his handwritten copy (errors intact) for handing in — we had a good grade 3 even if she inadvertantly caused a ‘writing shut-down’ by being a bit too picky…

3 years later, my son’s printing is reasonably legible although not ‘Grade 6 printing’, however now the school encourages typing for home assignments, so we are able to begin focusing on improving his editing skills. And they ARE improving! So he has skills to provide handwritten notes — he is not horribly slow, and can produce legible class notes from items on the board; and write adequately legible in-class tests and assignments — and now we will focus on keyboarding so he can bring his writing skills into line with his verbal skills.

It may help this child to take the pressure off. He may also respond to your ‘common sense’ view of showing him the different skills required to produce expressive writing — by separating the skills while he improves, he may make much greater progress, and experience less frustration. It will also help him discover his strengths — the other poster’s point about their amazement when they read their dictated work with you is very true, and a wonderful thing to share with a learner!

Good luck with your student — he is lucky to have you!

Scribing now and then does release a child from the burden of his/her handwriting and allow them to create at the level they think. But 3rd grade is way too early to give up on handwriting and go to keyboarding. Handwriting practice is a normal 3rd grade activity as kids learn to switch to cursive. Get the notes from Victoria, they’re good. Also try “handwriting without tears”. The student will thank you that someone is interested now when there is a possibility of doing something. Often it is passed on and then, POW, at 6th or 7th grade the pressure of homework is too high to take time to go back and fix the handwriting that should have been attended to in 3rd grade.

[quote:1105e38825=”Mar”]I am a college student majoring in special education. For my practicum, I will be working in a 3rd grade classroom in a public school. The teacher has asked me to help a student has ADHD and is currently not on meds but the parents are trying a diet method for helping their child. The teacher has told me this student has trouble with handwriting and becomes very frustrated when writing is required.
I am wondering if anyone has suggestions on different methods to use to help an ADHD child with handwriting.
Thanks![/b][/quote]

I have a 7yr old with ADHD I found this out about 2 yrs ago and he too had some trouble with his penmanship. He also takes medication and has a special diet, but I realize that he is one that needs repetition of things and we started with letters and writing them down Repeatedly on lined paper and once he started showing improvement we moved to whole words. It was a slow process but he now has excellent handwriting now. He is also a very good drawer which I found to be a connection with his handwriting skills so if this child likes to draw or even tracing pictures or letters let them it helps. Find what works with the child and stick with it. Because patients is defiantly a virtue with children with ADHD.

Dedicated Mom

One problem is that writing is a notoriously tedious and slow process if your small motor skills are limited. Add an “ADHD” component, and it becomes intolerable, because for these kids anything boring is to be avoided! I found that my own boys enjoyed doing things like heiroglyphics and Japanese characters and codes, which enabled them to develop the small motor coordination in a more fun way. Another idea is to allow them to modify the letters in some ways to make it more interesting (giving them hats or eyeballs or adding curlicues, etc.) Anything to make it a little more interesting! Additionally, any way to provide immediate rewards for pushing through tedious tasks can be very helpful. I have also used betting as a technique, as in betting that they can’t finish a line with quality lettering in a certain time period. Of course, this could backfire if they hurry, so you’d have to make sure the criteria were clear.

Just some ideas. Good luck!

Are you sure it’s just handwriting? Dysgraphia is more of a neurological disconnect between the head and the hand, where the person can’t think and write at the same time. Word processing is the way to go for most or speech to text computer programs help enormously. If the issue is writing and the kid must write by hand, I find that smaller lines work better or even graph paper. It delineates the space better.

Fern