Dysgraphia – Improve Your Handwriting

Dysgraphia – Improve Your Handwriting

There are over 25 muscles in the hand and fingers, so you can see why it is essential to have strong muscles, leading to good handwriting and drawing.

You will find lots of helpful information and excellent aids and equipment to help people with dysgraphia and handwriting issues below.

There are so many ways you help a student with dysgraphia/handwriting problems.  If you know the tools available to you, you will be able to help them very quickly.  The problem is that many people do not understand how to write correctly, and the ideas below should help tremendously with handwriting.

These are all tried and tested techniques; why not give them a go?

How to Hold a Pencil – The Tripod Grip

The ‘Tripod Grip’ is used internationally and is one of the easiest ways to hold a pencil to have entire movement for writing and drawing. Furthermore, this grip can also be used by right and left-handed people.

We have all seen some weird and wonderful positions with children holding pencils, but it will work wonders if you use this simple one!

Pencil Grips

If you use a ‘pencil grip’, you cannot fail to hold a pencil correctly. Some pencil grips are plain, while others are more decorative, like an ‘owl’, ‘dinosaur’ etc.

One of my grandchildren, who has a problem with handwriting, is just seven and has only recently been given a ‘pencil grip’ to help him with his writing. Guess what? The ‘pencil grip’ keeps ‘disappearing’ or gets ‘broken’! It is ridiculous to expect a child of that age to start using something that most of his classmates are not. It makes them stand out, and he is embarrassed.

Why not get them all to use pencil grips when they start school? That would probably sort out a lot of minor problems at the start.

Size of Pencil

Is the student using the correct size pen or pencil? If they are very young, cutting a pencil in half will save money as well.

Paper

Place your forearms on the desk. If you are right-handed, they should place their left hand on the paper to hold it still. The student should turn the paper slightly to the left.

Writing Slope 

Writing slopes – These come in different materials, enabling students to write at the recommended angle of 20 degrees. These sturdy slopes usually have a rubber grip to prevent slipping.

Sitting in the Correct Position

Many people wouldn’t even consider a ‘correct sitting position’ for handwriting. But this is important; the chair should have a straight back and be the correct height so the student can place both feet on the floor.

Wedge Posture Aid

This wedge posture aid helps balance and encourages proper sitting and correct posture while aiding concentration.

There are small bumps on the top of it.  It is smooth underneath, providing sensory feedback and helping children remain focused longer. It particularly benefits those with poor body awareness and low muscle tone.

You can find these valuable aids in the Dysgraphia Aids and Equipment Section.

Pick up a Pen and Write – it’s (not!) Automatic

Most people think writing by hand is automatic, but it’s not!  Handwriting involves far more than just picking up a pen. Before you write anything, your brain must think of many different things, such as composition, hand-eye coordination, fine motor control, visual perception problems, etc.  You have to remember or recall things such as:

• What do I want to say?
• Where do I put the pencil to start writing?
• Recall the information (word) already stored in the memory.
• Do I need a capital letter?
• How do I physically form the letters or numbers (which way do they go)?
• How do I spell a word?
• How big does the loop have to be above the line?
• How much space do I leave between letters and words?
• Do I need a full stop, an exclamation mark or a question mark?
• And so on.

So, when you think of all these actions that are needed actually to write by hand, you can see it is not entirely as automatic as it first appears, which is why children with handwriting problems struggle so much.  These children know what they want to say but then forget it because of the time taken to think about all those other things.

The article is taken from a book by Maria Chivers:

Alli Can’t Write: A Storybook for Children with Handwriting Difficulties including those with: Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, Dyscalculia, Dyspraxia & ADHD/