Re: Handwriting Programs

[Guest guest]

We really liked Directed Handwriting

http://www.peterson-handwriting.com/

Handwriting was difficult for my son because he had weakness in his

hands so he was the king of finding ways to distract himself (needless

to say all the little gadgets in HWT did not work out so well for us)

the directed program uses a lot of gross motor movement (they

draw the letters in the air first before attempting them on paper),

the air writing also helped my son learn the strokes without having to

see them on paper not looking perfect (he's a bit of a perfectionist

and was troubled anytime his motor skill couldn't do what he thought

he should be able to do and ironically the air writing and other

finger games in the program helped strenghten the muscles he needs to

be more sucessful with the fine motor tasks)They have something they

call animated letter cards which basically is a computer animation of

how to form the letter that you can follow along with while air

writing or writting on paper - this was nice because it let my son

watch it as many times as he wanted and it was exactly the same each

time (no other distractors for him)although I wasn't a big fan of

their animations - there is another animation program called Pencil

Pete's (http://www.jjmdesigns.com/ ) that I thought was better,and

might work if you just need a sample to teach the strokes (it's not

very expensive and you print out worksheets from their website instead

of buying practice materials from them) but since we decided to do the

peterson stuff we stuck with their's to keep the same color scheme as

their materials (and same strokes) They also believe in letting the

kids write really big to begin with and then gradually work the size

down which was another plus for us. If you haven't heard of their

program you should check out their website, they have a lot of

information about their program (and how to use/teach it) so you can

decide if it might be something you would be

interested in.

>

> Can someone please share some of their experiences on what has

worked

> best and what has not worked in teaching handwriting to their child?

>

> I am very familiar with HWT but this does not seem to be working for

> the child. The child is 3.

>

> I just wanted to hear some other insights from other people on

> programs they have used and have been successful with.

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

It wasn't a program, but in Kindergarten our son's teacher got him to

practice handwriting by giving him a clip board and asking him to take

down the names of the kids that misbehaved that day. It was the only

time he would willingly write both then and now.

Tonya

Handwriting Programs

Can someone please share some of their experiences on what has worked

best and what has not worked in teaching handwriting to their child?

I am very familiar with HWT but this does not seem to be working for

the child. The child is 3.

I just wanted to hear some other insights from other people on

programs they have used and have been successful with.

Texas Autism Advocacy

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[Guest guest]

Tonya makes a good point, whatever method you choose to work on

handwriting you have to make it meaningful fun or give the child a

reason to learn/practice or the skills won't get any better.

You might want to take a look at

http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/writing/handwriting_club.html

to get some ideas for activities and/or issues that may be hampering

your child's desire or efforts to write.

For practice you might try giving them material that matches their

interest - the Draw Write Now series of books

http://www.drawyourworld.com

has unit studies themed books that teach kids how to draw a picture

step by step then gives them 4 sentences to copy about the picture

(things like " Hens live on farms. " " Hens eat seeds. " " Hens lay

eggs. " " Hens have baby chicks. " ) - we found this strategy helpful in

expanding our son's communication skills (being able to talk about a

picture) and practice his writing, - if your child isn't interested

in learning to draw you could use the same strategy with color pages

that have high interest to your child.I admit this isn't my son's

favorite thing to do, but he really enjoys it when he is doing more

practical applications of writing - you could start with something

simple like making lables for vocaublary he or she uses (things like

bathroom, household objects, etc.) a name sign for each person's

bedroom or other signs like " exit " or " welcome " , placecards (or, if

handwriting is large place mats) for people at the dinner table,

etc.), lists of house rules, shopping lists, reminders (things to do

or what time a tv show is coming on), important phone number lists,

basically anything we would scribble down we either help him write or

write down for him to copy. We find it's a good way to get him to

practice without having to fight about sitting down to practice, and

it works on his reading skills because he is posting things around to

be read or making lists to refer back to later.

-- In Texas-Autism-Advocacy , " Tonya Hettler "

<txua@e...> wrote:

> It wasn't a program, but in Kindergarten our son's teacher got him to

> practice handwriting by giving him a clip board and asking him to

take down the names of the kids that misbehaved that day. It was the

only time he would willingly write both then and now.

> Tonya

[Guest guest]

I'm going out on a limb here, but why would it be age appropriate for a 3

year old to write? Developmentally, even typical children don't develop

writing skills until K or 1st grade...5 to 6 years old. Many typical 3 year

olds are just beginning to learn to color.

I would think if you aren't experiencing success, it is possibly because the

goal is not developmentally appropriate.

nna

[Guest guest]

Then again, all children are different. My son was 3 when he wrote his name

by himself, spelling it correctly- Cameron. Believe me when I say it was a

shock to me and my husband, as well as his daycare teachers. Here was a kid

who couldn't speak a word, but could write his name.

You have a good point, a lot, probably most, children wouldn't be

developmentally ready for a handwriting program at 3, but there are the rare

ones that might be able to handle it.

I wish I could send attachments, I would love to show you his name he did

that first time. I scanned it and put it on my computer so I would have it

forever. He wrote the R backwards. It was so precious.

Anne

-- RE: Handwriting Programs

I'm going out on a limb here, but why would it be age appropriate for a 3

year old to write? Developmentally, even typical children don't develop

writing skills until K or 1st grade...5 to 6 years old. Many typical 3 year

olds are just beginning to learn to color.

I would think if you aren't experiencing success, it is possibly because the

goal is not developmentally appropriate.

nna

Texas Autism Advocacy

www.TexasAutismAdvocacy.org

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www.TexasAutismAdvocacy.org

[Guest guest]

I do agree with that. Though this child in particular has a strong interest in

writing the parents says and they want to use a program with them for

homeschooling. I just wanted to hear any suggestions.

nna Bond wrote: I'm going out on a limb

here, but why would it be age appropriate for a 3

year old to write? Developmentally, even typical children don't develop

writing skills until K or 1st grade...5 to 6 years old. Many typical 3 year

olds are just beginning to learn to color.

I would think if you aren't experiencing success, it is possibly because the

goal is not developmentally appropriate.

nna

Texas Autism Advocacy

www.TexasAutismAdvocacy.org

Texas Disability Network

Calendar of Events

www.TexasAutismAdvocacy.org

[Guest guest]

I couldn't agree more with your reply. I thought I read the age of the child

wrong. Most 3 year olds are still using chubby crayons and mostly scribbling

because they haven't yet developed the proper grasp to hold a pencil and begin

writing. My N/T child started writing in her pre-k classroom at 4, but even at

6, her writing isn't up to par yet. At 3, most children are exploring paints

with a brush and fingerpaints and using large crayons and markers to experiment

with the tools. If you push too early, they might feel much more frustration

than if you wait another year when they might be able to do so with less

frustration. My son(9) uses HWT at school. At home, I use very straight stick

like letters that I made for him to copy on large lined paper- like the charts

teachers use for whole group story writing- or the big sentence strips. Best of

luck!

Fran

nna Bond wrote:

I'm going out on a limb here, but why would it be age appropriate for a 3

year old to write? Developmentally, even typical children don't develop

writing skills until K or 1st grade...5 to 6 years old. Many typical 3 year

olds are just beginning to learn to color.

I would think if you aren't experiencing success, it is possibly because the

goal is not developmentally appropriate.

nna

Texas Autism Advocacy

www.TexasAutismAdvocacy.org

Texas Disability Network

Calendar of Events

www.TexasAutismAdvocacy.org

[Guest guest]

If the child has an interest in writing at 3, there's no reason not

to encourage it, just make sure you let them go big -use markers or

crayons instead of pencils/pens and give them ample space large

sheets of paper, chalk boards, etc. you would also want to encourage

proper pencil grip and proper ways to form the letters/numbers (so

they don't have to unlearn bad habits later when they have more

formal writing instruction).

I guess it depends on the interests and personality of the child -

my son is almost 5 and he still won't color more than being forced

to make a representative color scribble in each section of a picture

(grass gets one or two green lines, that sort of thing) but he was

interested in writing actual letters,numbers and words very early.

We started working on writing at 3 with my son because he has a high

level of interest in letters and numbers and he refused to practice

the prewriting skills with the OT (copying lines, slants, making

shapes, etc.) it wasn't until we let him do numbers and letters that

he would work on any of that stuff (he kept calling the vertical

lines ones and the circles zeros, and he refused to do any other

lines or shapes because they didn't mean anything to him -when we

tried capital letters he would trace and try to make on his own, but

if you wanted him to trace or draw lines from a model he would

refuse -he didn't see it as a productive use of his time) We had to

go and find a writing program to do with him so we could make sure

he would learn the right way to form the letters (the OT was just

letting him do them his own way, so we felt he really needed to see

there was a specific way to do it). Now he's almost 5 and he still

needs plenty of space to write (we use those 3in. x 24in. sentence

strips just to get his name or a really short sentence) or he'll

refuse to write or stack the letters on top of each other, but if he

has plenty of room his handwriting is very legible because we did

take the time to help him learn how to write the letters/numbers

when he was interested in learning it.

[Guest guest]

I'm going to repeat what my son's OT told me recently. Her practice is

filled

with clients who were forced to write before their hands and fingers were

strong enough. The 2nd BEST thing for a 3 year old who is interested in

writing is to let them draw with crayon, paint with brushes. The BEST thing

is to play with playdough and learn to make little teeny tiny figures out of

playdough first, then move on to clay. Stick beans in the playdough, and

have them pull them out. Things like that. It's more important to build up

finger strength with other activties first, then wait until 5 to write (if

you can get away with it. I am miffed at my daughter's preschool for

pushing as much writing as they do for 4 year olds. Ridiculous.)

If the child is VERY interested in letters, then put about an inch of rice

or sand in a 12 " by 12 " pan and let him trace the letters in the sand. Let

him play letter games with the LEAP FROG letter board where he learns the

names and sounds of the letters and can learn to spell simple three letter

words--if he likes that kind of stuff. My son LOVED that kind of stuff.

Just my opinion,

Handwriting Programs

Can someone please share some of their experiences on what has worked

best and what has not worked in teaching handwriting to their child?

I am very familiar with HWT but this does not seem to be working for

the child. The child is 3.

I just wanted to hear some other insights from other people on

programs they have used and have been successful with.

Texas Autism Advocacy

www.TexasAutismAdvocacy.org

Texas Disability Network

Calendar of Events

www.TexasAutismAdvocacy.org