Re: OT: Need help with improving writing

January 10, 2012

My DS prefers to type. He can't concentrate on the process of handwriting and

spelling at the same time.

January 11, 2012

Just had an additional thought-

If you do an online search, you can find all kinds of worksheets that would

require just one written word answer. Many of them have word banks, so that you

are copying the word rather than having to spell it. I subscribe to

abcteach.com so that I can use any of their worksheets, but there are many free

resources as well. English and a second language (ESL) sites often have good

materials because they are teaching the main words. Also, worksheets focussing

on the Dolche or most commonly used words are great- so those would be good

search terms for you to try.

There are a few webistes that are created just to practice spelling but may also

provide printable worksheets- Spelling City and Spelling Time are two of them.

Learning A-Z is also a good site but a little more $.

Also fun and more interesting than a plain ol' piece of paper are little

workbooks that you can find at bookstores or teacher supply stores. They offer

handwriting instruction and the child gets a sticker reward to put on completed

pages. I'm actually using that with each of my children as their writing

curriculum right now.

Highly interesting but more writing intensive (too much so for my DS) are Happy

Scribe materials. You can download them from a place called Currclick.com. Do a

search for Happy Scribe, then sort the materials by price and you'll probably

find some free samples. Or just look under the handwriting/copywork section for

freebies.

Caveat: My son who is 11 cannot handle more than a word or two at a time

without getting upset. He is slowly getting better and his handwriting is neat,

but he can't handle any volume at all. He has trouble with copywork in

particular because of the back and forth- you have to look at the word, remember

it and write it down or keep looking back at it and he loses his place.

So- observe your child in action with each of these various resources and see if

you can tell what is really bogging him down. For my guy, copywork is the

worst, for yours it might work really well.

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