The Home School Corner

Making Handwriting Fun

"My son gets BORED when I try to teach him cursive handwriting. Any suggestions for this and other "boring" areas?" wrote a parent recently.

Doctors have a reputation for bad handwriting so I went to my readers for this one and got some great feedback that I will summarize here.

The first question you must ask is this: “Is handwriting really necessary at this time?” What we model –- writing notes, grocery lists, writing letters or writing in our journals – motivates. If you use the computer for all these tasks you might consider teaching typing first.

Moreover, there is software that will type for the child as he dictates (Via Voice or Dragon Speaks). Some children have a passion for language arts – reading and writing – but just don’t have the fine motor skills needed for handwriting. This software can be a great solution to free the child to use his gift of language.

Will those children ever learn handwriting? Yes, it will come later when they find they want to write, the computer is too inconvenient and their fine motor skills are ready. In essence, where there is a will there is a way.

When it is time to teach handwriting the academic issues are: Speed/ease (pencil lifts); legibility (similarity to printed fonts); and transition from printing to cursive, including letter slope. Let’s look at these issues one at a time.

One aspect of writing that really frustrates children is that they can think much faster than they write. In writing, the more the pencil leaves the paper, the longer writing takes and the harder it is. So when picking a handwriting program, take a look at the number of “pencil lifts” – the fewer the better.

Legibility is the second issue. Both the child and the parent must be able to read the writing. Because the child is just learning to read, many suggest that handwriting look like the fonts seen in books. This means that you would print without loops or serifs on your letters. (These loops often get entangled with one another, decreasing legibility.)

The transition from printing to cursive often has three concerns: how the letter is formed, how much of a slope do the cursive letters have and how many letters change in shape from printed to cursive. Again, the fewer changes, the easier it is to teach.

In my informal handwriting poll the parents seemed evenly split between two programs: Getty Dubay and Handwriting Without Tears. Both score very high on all these academic issues. Whichever curriculum you chose to get your child to practice you can easily make it fun. Some of the important tips are:
1. Try short practice periods (5 - 10 min.) several times a day.

2. Keep the pace fast.
3. Give positive feedback.
4. Vary the exercises or lesson format at times.
5. Chart progress.

Lesson Variations:

Visual learners will enjoy writing as ART. Let them choose the implements, material and media. Use all different methods to practice handwriting, from card making to lettering a fancy sign for their rooms.

Use a variety of writing materials: calligraphy pens, gel pens, markers, tubes of fabric paint, pencils, cake decorating tubes, chalk or even paint and brushes. Use colors, styles, and sizes that appeal to them. Try paper that is colored or textured or graphed. Let them use an easel, dry erase board, or the driveway. Go big with paintbrushes and rolls of butcher paper or go tiny with extra fine pens and write a mini book. Do craft projects associated with whatever letters they are learning (glue beans, yarn or glitter on the letters).

For the kinesthetic child, standing or moving while writing helps keep their attention. What also helps is the feel of the medium. Try a tray (or plate) of salt, fingers in paint, or fingers in a tray of sand (preferably colored sand). Try writing in the dirt with sticks, or in a tray of corn meal, or something tasty like dry gelatin or granulated sugar, rice, or a thin layer of pudding or yogurt.

Once you are beyond letter formation and into writing words you might consider the Cursive Bag. (See Dear Dr. Phonics) If you place a page of handwriting under the gel bag it will make it easy to trace an adult's writing first, then write the same word(s) underneath.

Allow them to watercolor paint the outside of a sliding glass door. You print for them on the inside (letters, words, sentences, Bible verses) and they can copy them outside. You can also have a graffiti wall (covered with Butcher paper and attach a colored marker to it.)

In general don’t call it penmanship – call it art, a fun break or making secret messages.

In Depth

Problems linked to ADHD

“ADHD is not a benign disorder. For those it afflicts, ADHD can cause devastating problems.” Russell A. Barkley, Ph.D., Professor, Depts. Of Psychiatry and Neurology, University of Massachusetts Medical School

According to Dr. Barkley, the following percentages show the high rate of difficulties for those with ADHD: “Follow-up studies of clinical samples suggest that sufferers are far more likely than normal people to drop out of school (32-40%), to rarely complete college (5-10%), to have few or no friends (50-70%), to under perform at work (70-80%), to engage in antisocial activities (40-50%), and to use tobacco or illicit drugs more than normal.”

School Problems:

Learning Disabilities

Many children with ADHD—approximately 20 to 30 percent—also have a specific learning disability (LD).¹ In preschool years, these disabilities include difficulty in understanding certain sounds or words and/or difficulty in expressing oneself in words. In school age children, reading or spelling disabilities, writing disorders, and arithmetic disorders may appear. A type of reading disorder, dyslexia, is quite widespread.

Oppositional Defiant Disorder

As many as one-third to one-half of all children with ADHD—mostly boys—have another condition, known as oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). These children are often defiant, stubborn, non-compliant, have outbursts of temper, or become belligerent. They argue with adults and refuse to obey.

Conduct Disorder

About 20 to 40 percent of ADHD children may eventually develop conduct disorder (CD), a more serious pattern of antisocial behavior. These children frequently lie or steal, fight with or bully others, and are at a real risk of getting into trouble at school or with the police. They violate the basic rights of other people, are aggressive toward people and/or animals, destroy property, break into people's homes, commit thefts, carry or use weapons, or engage in vandalism. These children or teens are at greater risk for substance use experimentation, and later dependence and abuse.

Anxiety and Depression

Some children with ADHD often have co-occurring anxiety or depression. If the anxiety or depression is recognized and treated, the child will be better able to handle the problems that accompany ADHD. Conversely, effective treatment of ADHD can have a positive impact on anxiety as the child is better able to master academic tasks.

Car accidents and increased promiscuity

“Moreover, children growing up with ADHD are more likely to experience teen pregnancy (40%) and sexually transmitted diseases (16%), to speed excessively and have multiple car accidents, to experience depression (20-30%) and personality disorders (18-25%) as adults, and in hundreds of other ways mismanage and endanger their lives,” noted Dr. Barkley.

Jamie C. Brehaut, Associate Scientist for the Ottawa Health Research Institute, studied over seven years 1,026,873 total children with 16,806 on Ritalin. She confirms that not only car accidents, but also everything from falls to fractures are increased starting at about age five. Please notice that these children were being treated with Ritalin, which did not prevent their accidents or even normalize their accident rate.

Some research² indicates that medication can suppress the behavior by half. This may mean that these accident rates would have been higher without Ritalin. It certainly means that ADHD children need to learn non-drug adaptations because drugs will not prevent injury.

Dr. Barkley reported, “The genetic contribution to these traits is routinely found to be among the highest for any psychiatric disorder (70-95% of trait variation in the population), nearly approaching the genetic contribution to human height.” In other words, just as nearly all tall parents have tall children, nearly all ADHD parents have ADHD children.

If ADHD is so genetic, what can parents do? See the next issue of this quarterly newsletter.

¹Wender PH. ADHD: Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in Children and Adults. Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 9.

²The MTA Cooperative Group. A 14-month randomized clinical trial of treatment strategies for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Archives of General Psychiatry, 1999; 56:1073-1086.

Rocket Phonics!