All About Handwriting

Reply to All About Handwriting on Mon, 15 Apr 2024 17:49:42 GMT

Gloria10 — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 17:49:42 GMT

It seems very difficult to work with handwriting. Perhaps someone will give some advice?

Reply to All About Handwriting on Tue, 09 Apr 2024 12:40:28 GMT

Desalwen18 — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 12:40:28 GMT

Maybe you can have tested for dysgraphia?

Reply to All About Handwriting on Fri, 05 Jan 2024 08:47:35 GMT

Vivian Diana — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 08:47:35 GMT

maybe you need to practice as much as possible you can, because practice makes perfect!!

Reply to All About Handwriting on Tue, 07 Nov 2023 14:58:24 GMT

00skyblue00 — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 14:58:24 GMT

sunil808\" post_id=\"2026141\" time=\"1622743947\" user_id=\"193144:

I tried retraining him and getting to write lines but to no avail. His school teacher told me that if his handwriting doesn't improve , it will affect his academic performance.

May be no relevance but at what age did your child started to hold a pen/pencil to write? On his own? Did he learn drawing or piano from young? Now?
Handwriting is affected by fine motor skill. Best way to train is through play and practice. Eg plasticine, colouring, art and craft activities etc.

Reply to All About Handwriting on Tue, 07 Nov 2023 14:37:05 GMT

kenteach — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 14:37:05 GMT

I agree with the comments here, just a quick story - I have a primary school student who has less than ideal handwriting but is extremely smart (in english and math). He tells me that his \"head spins like crazy\" and he wants to get the information out on the paper as fast as possible, resulting in the \"ugly\" handwriting. What I have done is to nicely tell him to tell his brain to slow down as we have all the time in the world. It has worked out pretty well

Reply to All About Handwriting on Thu, 03 Jun 2021 23:59:18 GMT

sharonkhoo — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 23:59:18 GMT

sunil808\" post_id=\"2026141\" time=\"1622743947\" user_id=\"193144:

I tried retraining him and getting to write lines but to no avail. His school teacher told me that if his handwriting doesn't improve , it will affect his academic performance.

Handwriting is habitual - it takes a long time to develop the habit. So you may have to keep up the training much longer than you think. Maybe months or years.

If the problem is fine motor skills, then there may be no way for him to improve to match the \"normal\" standard. You may want to get him tested for that. My 24-yr-old daughter has dyspraxia (poor motor skills) and only managed to get her handwriting reasonably legible by P3. It never got much better, but she made it through school and university. But if your son's writing is really illegible, then you may need to do a lot of therapy (can be done at home) or apply for accommodations.

Reply to All About Handwriting on Thu, 03 Jun 2021 18:12:27 GMT

sunil808 — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 18:12:27 GMT

I tried retraining him and getting to write lines but to no avail. His school teacher told me that if his handwriting doesn’t improve , it will affect his academic performance.

Reply to All About Handwriting on Sun, 16 May 2021 01:18:42 GMT

Zeal mummy — Sun, 16 May 2021 01:18:42 GMT

Yes, 0.7 pen works well for us. Their handwriting changes every now and then, as teens they learn and imitates their friends/teachers. Exploration time? Eventually will find their style.

Reply to All About Handwriting on Sat, 15 May 2021 09:46:18 GMT

MrsKiasu — Sat, 15 May 2021 09:46:18 GMT

zac's mum\" post_id=\"2024090\" time=\"1621069033\" user_id=\"53606:[quote=\"zac's mum\" post_id=2024090 time=1621069033 user_id=53606]
OT: Mrs KS, u can try start to ask your DD2 to mark her own work liao. After I built my trust with DS in P4, I let him mark his own work. Starting with his fav subject EL first then the SC and MA MCQ qns. If any wrong, then I ask him to look & see & analyze why wrong. Most of the time he will spot his own mistake. If dunno how to do, then ask me or ask teachers.[/quote]

Math she marks, coz she is not with lots of initiative type I have to sit wait her do correction or do with her. Sci, for open ended for SA1 prep, I got to forced myself to mark coz I experienced even with elder one before..concept right doesnt mean right if you get what I mean.

Reply to All About Handwriting on Sat, 15 May 2021 08:57:13 GMT

zac's mum — Sat, 15 May 2021 08:57:13 GMT

OT: Mrs KS, u can try start to ask your DD2 to mark her own work liao. After I built my trust with DS in P4, I let him mark his own work. Starting with his fav subject EL first then the SC and MA MCQ qns. If any wrong, then I ask him to look & see & analyze why wrong. Most of the time he will spot his own mistake. If dunno how to do, then ask me or ask teachers.

Reply to All About Handwriting on Sat, 15 May 2021 08:38:36 GMT

MrsKiasu — Sat, 15 May 2021 08:38:36 GMT

I asked dd to read it to me after she finishes and waiting for me to mark…best after some time has passed so that she couldn’t remember. I told her likely some of her teachers are like her mom has laohua, so please do not torture her teachers.

I also notice, kids handwriting can change quite frequently also…

As for doing mental calculation, have to keep reminding kid the possibilities of mistakes and also that workings can get some marks even though final answers went wrong.

Reply to All About Handwriting on Sat, 15 May 2021 05:57:35 GMT

zac's mum — Sat, 15 May 2021 05:57:35 GMT

Just to add on, u seem to have a good parent-child relationship with your son. Do try to keep it that way. I found that giving my DS plenty of opportunities outside of doing written work (Eg sports, music, Lego time or just reading, relaxation & free play) helped to build his confidence as a whole person. Yes we both knew he was “weak” in written work, and tried our best, but ultimately don’t spend excessive amounts to time trying to correct the minute details, at the expense of the child’s confidence, or start arguing daily about the necessity of writing precisely/neatly.

The good relationship (I give plenty of praises & I love yous & hugs outside of schoolwork) has carried us thru to the upper primary years. Even in Pre-teen age he is still very close to me.

Don’t try to overdo it cos I’ve seen some moms with boys doing daily scoldings from young & now their pre-teens are completely rebellious, taking back, and absolutely refusing to listen or do any hw/revision at all. Don’t lose the child due to the stress of scoring high yearly.

If yours can mature in time for PSLE that’s good enough. And even if not, there’s still time in secondary school, if he’s not totally “beyond parental control”.

Reply to All About Handwriting on Sat, 15 May 2021 01:16:04 GMT

sharonkhoo — Sat, 15 May 2021 01:16:04 GMT

So the issue is manifold: handwriting is only part of it. The other parts are signs that his mind is working faster than his hand! It’s a good thing in a way as you know he thinks fast!

He’s young and immature, and getting marks isn’t high on his priority list right now. As ZM said, things will change as he matures - he won’t always be as he is now! In the meanwhile, you should continue to tell him what is acceptable and what is not, and let the teachers nag him too. But on your own part, don’t worry too much as it will pass. In the meanwhile, you can still make sure he suffers some "penalty" when he’s too untidy - make him re-copy his work, or something.

Similarly with stating his answers and model drawing. He’s obviously bright, and because of his immaturity (self-focused), he can’t see why other people can’t make sense of his jumbled statements, or why he needs to draw the models, when the answer is so clear to him. Again, this will improve with maturity. In the meanwhile, maybe getting him to make the statements verbally, and see if they make sense to him, then write them down, might help. It will slow him down and maybe hearing the reasoning will help him put them in order.

My younger daughter found lower Pr Maths quite a pain as she could see the answer straight off, and didn’t see why she needed to write out the statements in painful detail and draw the models. For her, wanting the marks, escaping corrections and pleasing her teacher made her comply. Girls reach that understanding a little earlier than boys, I’m told, so just be patient a little while more.

Reply to All About Handwriting on Sat, 15 May 2021 00:48:10 GMT

zac's mum — Sat, 15 May 2021 00:48:10 GMT

Hello marmalade,

If your boy prefers a thicker font, maybe u could try 0.7 mechanical pencil instead or was it 3B/5B lead??) One of my friend’s sons preferred it that way (pens too). I think he said it was smoother or darker, don’t need to press as hard.

And give him some time to figure out how mechanical pencils work, it’s ok. I had to bite my tongue when mine took several attempts to refill his lead in the beginning. Kept breaking the fragile lead due to too much force, but he self-corrected in the end. Yes the taking apart to see what’s inside etc…had to bite my tongue too! He now knows how to maintain & repair his pencils in school if it gets jammed etc. Of course, can buy several & tell him just use the spare in a crucial exam!

I get what you mean about the Maths, and the frustration. Mine was the same in lower primary! Thinks fast mentally but scribbled the workings any where & any order. Mine had a weird habit of “centering” his words instead of starting from the top left! So he’d start right smack in the middle of the page, then run out of space, then use the right column, run out of space, then use the left column. Despite repeated reminders. And told me why should the order or presentation matter as the teacher can see it’s all there.

BUT take heart, suddenly out of nowhere (not my nagging for sure) in P4 he suddenly decided to do it the “proper” way. Maybe he realized at higher levels there’s simply too many lines or not enough space. He probably confused his own self many times trying to find what’s the next step to do. So now I see all his math workings nice & neat, no issues anymore.

Your child’s first real exam will be end P3, he still has plenty of time to get it “right”, don’t waste your saliva nagging too much haha. Easy for me to say I know!

Same issue with hating model drawings too. But yes I had to do my part to train him in it.

Since the writing is causing so much angst, would u like to try letting him talk you through the Maths problem sums sometimes? Cos in our recent P5 exam revision, we were seriously running out of time to do all the past year qns. So I decided to shortcut & let him explain to me verbally, how he’d solve the question, step by step. The pressure to write fast & without error was off him, he was much happier that way.

Reply to All About Handwriting on Fri, 14 May 2021 21:37:41 GMT

marmalade — Fri, 14 May 2021 21:37:41 GMT

Thanks Zac's mum and slmkhoo for your advice.

My boy has this strange preference of having his pencil lead with a slant (somewhat like 45 degrees) as he said that will make the writing \"smoother\" and so he will intentionally clipped the lead before he starts writing. So technically he prefers thicker font instead of fine font. :roll:

He is currently using the traditional 2B pencil, I don't think he can start on mechanical pencil anytime soon as I have tried and guess what? not only the leads get broken but the clicking also malfunction, as in the lead can't hold itself after the first click and it came out in full length thereafter etc. .. all sorts of malfunction. And he likes to unscrew all the parts to see what's inside and then gets distracted, basically all kinds of nonsense!

To me, at least being neat is an overall work attitude. At first I was not too particular as long as they are legible but I find it hard to read his writing sometimes (especially on compos) and lately I saw his teacher's comments on his handwriting. I would say his teacher is already quite lenient as I can see from his work in the beginning of the year was also quite messy but he commented only recently.

I have been trying to correct this bad habit in the beginning but with little success.

This habit is also reflecting in Mathematics, especially in problem sums where he needs to state the model, equation, workings and statement. He is very fast in his mental sums and sometimes he doesn't like to state the steps as he combines all into 1 and then make careless mistakes. It is not so obvious for school assignment as currently the statements are provided in the question and one just needs to fill in the blanks with the answers (numbers).

However, I foresee this as an upcoming issue as he attempted questions in the assessment books where he just stated the equations in random order (not systematically) and then wrong answers due to poor handwriting where he scribbled the numbers and mistook 0 for 6.

For example - equations in random order:
3) 101+130+118=349
1) 101+29=130
2) 130-12=118

So actually, at least he should have stated:
101+29=130
130-12=118
101+130+118=349

Statement: The total height of the 3 children is 349 cm.

The fact is there is plenty of space but he chose to just write as he thinks - therefore also reflecting \"He believes that as long as he gets his points across, there is no need to write too neatly\" (which can also be translated to \"as long as I know how to do and gets the answers, it is ok to just state it in whatever way I like as long as I get it correct.\")

However, this mentality would not get him far when there are more tricky questions in future and he needs to get his attitude corrected. He hated model drawings (which I will not pursue for now as I have to tackle the issue one by one) and if he doesn't present it legibly, he will probably end up with lots of careless mistakes later on.

I want to get the basics right so that the rest will then take care of itself.

Reply to All About Handwriting on Thu, 13 May 2021 00:52:41 GMT

sharonkhoo — Thu, 13 May 2021 00:52:41 GMT

marmalade\" post_id=\"2023827\" time=\"1620835369\" user_id=\"40817:

Hi my P2 boy's handwriting is quite bad and he doesn't like to write neatly.

From my observation and conversation with him, this is what I gathered:
He believes that as long as he gets his points across, there is no need to write too neatly.
He wants to complete his work fast so that he gets to relax and play.
He thinks is a waste of time when he could just get it done and aesthetic is secondary.

He believes that as long as he gets his points across, there is no need to write too neatly.
-counter: comments from teacher and loses marks if teacher can't read it properly

He wants to complete his work fast so that he gets to relax and play.
-counter: If he completed his work fast, he needs to show me he completed them neatly too, else they will be rejected, which means lesser time to play.

He thinks is a waste of time when he could just get it done and aesthetic is secondary.
-counter: I have been asking him to re-write (erase and write) for his home exercises/assessment books and since he is afraid of wasting time, he gets them done well (but sometimes with struggles as well).

He can write very well if he wants to - as seen in some of his penmanship exercises but he just couldn't sustain it.

Any parent facing similar issue and has successfully overcome this ? :slapshead:

My older daughter (now finished university) had terrible handwriting because of dyspraxia (and also the various reasons above!). Personally, I have sympathy for kids, with or without dyspraxia, who don't think that handwriting is important. However, point 1 (legibility) is important, and that is the only point I personally emphasised. I am also not one who values the aesthetic, especially not in daily work, so as long as the work was legible, and not exceptionally messy, I wouldn't sweat it. Some teachers like to set really high standards, and I would use my discretion and ignore some comments.

The \"he can do it if he tries\" is a reason for expecting good handwriting, but should be tempered with some understanding - it is hard and tiring to be performing at your best all the time. None of us do, and so maybe kids should be cut some slack when doing homework after a whole day in school. Maybe select some pieces which are important and demand high standards, but standards can be more relaxed for others? On the other hand, if the bad handwriting is sign of overall poor work attitude, some remedial action should be taken. That's something you have to discern.

Big picture is: teachers stop bothering about handwriting after a while, usually by upper primary. No-one loses marks in exams for bad handwriting, only if the marker can decipher it. By sec school and later, teachers only complain if it's not legible. By university and beyond, everything is done on computer.

Reply to All About Handwriting on Wed, 12 May 2021 16:28:18 GMT

zac's mum — Wed, 12 May 2021 16:28:18 GMT

marmalade\" post_id=\"2023827\" time=\"1620835369\" user_id=\"40817:

Hi my P2 boy's handwriting is quite bad and he doesn't like to write neatly.

From my observation and conversation with him, this is what I gathered:
He believes that as long as he gets his points across, there is no need to write too neatly.
He wants to complete his work fast so that he gets to relax and play.
He thinks is a waste of time when he could just get it done and aesthetic is secondary.

He believes that as long as he gets his points across, there is no need to write too neatly.
-counter: comments from teacher and loses marks if teacher can't read it properly

He wants to complete his work fast so that he gets to relax and play.
-counter: If he completed his work fast, he needs to show me he completed them neatly too, else they will be rejected, which means lesser time to play.

He thinks is a waste of time when he could just get it done and aesthetic is secondary.
-counter: I have been asking him to re-write (erase and write) for his home exercises/assessment books and since he is afraid of wasting time, he gets them done well (but sometimes with struggles as well).

He can write very well if he wants to - as seen in some of his penmanship exercises but he just couldn't sustain it.

Any parent facing similar issue and has successfully overcome this ? :slapshead:

My boy is in P5 now. He used to have the same “pattern” as your boy. It is actually an extremely common problem among boys (yes, plenty of lamenting when moms of same age boys get together!)

I’d say don’t sweat it. Mine absolutely hated that penmanship workbook - the one titled Stellar Handwriting - that the school made them bring home to do as homework. So many tantrums & complaining when I made him erase & re-write within the lines. Thank God when he hit P3 it was no longer in the booklist!

There is hope. I think in P3 one of his classmates recommended mechanical pencils to him & said it will make your handwriting look so much neater. Previously I had refused to buy for him because he’s the itchy fingers kind - I didn’t want him to click click click whole day during lessons & not pay attention to teacher. But I relented when he gave his reason - and it really worked well for him. I realized that mechanical pencils are finer and produce sharper words. Whereas the traditional pencils tend to get blunt very quickly (boys use far more strength to write than girls). When it’s blunt, the font gets very fat & messy.

I think there was some amount of friendly peer competition too. They’d compete to see who could write the neatest. Especially for Chinese characters. It gets even better when in P3/P4 the kids start using pens. I chose 0.25 or 0.5 fine point pens so that the strokes don’t blur into each other (especially when they have to squeeze those many-stroke characters into the smaller squares in the exercise book). Kid’s 习字本 is wonderfully neat now.

Looking back with hindsight, I think the child will simply need to have a realization & be convinced himself - rather than mom try to convince him. You’ve said your part, so give him space to learn. Might have to be the hard way, if he or teacher can’t read whether he wrote 0 or 6, 4 or 9 for math answer!

Reply to All About Handwriting on Wed, 12 May 2021 16:02:49 GMT

marmalade — Wed, 12 May 2021 16:02:49 GMT

Hi my P2 boy's handwriting is quite bad and he doesn't like to write neatly.

From my observation and conversation with him, this is what I gathered:
He believes that as long as he gets his points across, there is no need to write too neatly.
He wants to complete his work fast so that he gets to relax and play.
He thinks is a waste of time when he could just get it done and aesthetic is secondary.

He believes that as long as he gets his points across, there is no need to write too neatly.
-counter: comments from teacher and loses marks if teacher can't read it properly

He wants to complete his work fast so that he gets to relax and play.
-counter: If he completed his work fast, he needs to show me he completed them neatly too, else they will be rejected, which means lesser time to play.

He thinks is a waste of time when he could just get it done and aesthetic is secondary.
-counter: I have been asking him to re-write (erase and write) for his home exercises/assessment books and since he is afraid of wasting time, he gets them done well (but sometimes with struggles as well).

He can write very well if he wants to - as seen in some of his penmanship exercises but he just couldn't sustain it.

Any parent facing similar issue and has successfully overcome this ? :slapshead:

Reply to All About Handwriting on Thu, 06 May 2021 09:36:14 GMT

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Reply to All About Handwriting on Thu, 22 Apr 2021 03:11:21 GMT

Vashli — Thu, 22 Apr 2021 03:11:21 GMT

Hi Mamsies and Papsies,

I am having a hard time with my teenager. He is not into writing. He is so lazy with it. I feel I have exhausted all means to encourage him to do so. Any suggestion on how to let him love writing? He does not even have a good handwriting either ;(

Reply to All About Handwriting on Fri, 18 Dec 2020 09:51:53 GMT

sairasmith — Fri, 18 Dec 2020 09:51:53 GMT

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Reply to All About Handwriting on Thu, 29 Oct 2020 04:13:01 GMT

Mr_December — Thu, 29 Oct 2020 04:13:01 GMT

Smart Kids Who Hate to Write: Figuring Out What’s Going On!

https://www.homeschool-your-boys.com/hatetowrite/

Reply to All About Handwriting on Fri, 25 Sep 2020 13:49:56 GMT

sharonkhoo — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 13:49:56 GMT

mindscape\" post_id=\"1996349\" time=\"1601031695\" user_id=\"162686:

Im struggling here with my son. Im stressed out, he doesnt want to write...:(

How old is he?

Reply to All About Handwriting on Fri, 25 Sep 2020 11:01:35 GMT

mindscape — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 11:01:35 GMT

Im struggling here with my son. Im stressed out, he doesnt want to write...:(