Quills, Pens, Pencils: Let's Talk Handwriting!

In my last post I wrote about perceptual motor skills - eye hand coordination and have been asked to go into a bit more detail about graphomotor skills.  Jargon aside:  Let't talk about handwriting.

Graphomotor Skills involve highly specialized coordinated eye-hand-finger movements for writing (and writing only).  Drawing, interestingly enough, is not a graphomotor skill as it involves different muscles and different eye-hand coordination.  [Drawing is considered a fine motor skill.] Many people can play musical instruments, draw, knit, and perform other fine motor actions but have horrendous hand writing.  That is because handwriting has its own very specialized memory-motor, and eye-hand-brain feedback requirements.

What do Kids with Graphomotor Weaknesses Look Like? Basically, kids (and adults) with graphomotor weaknesses have horrible handwriting. My husband calls his handwriting chicken scratch because it looks like a chicken scratched it out.  My son's handwriting is equally illegible. He is in college and his notes still look like a second grader wrote it.

These kids either hate writing, or they write cryptically keeping whatever must be written down as brief and simple as possible.  My son took it even further, he hated writing so much, he learned to do most of his math in his head.  This was quite a problem as most teachers want to see the work.  Because his handwriting was so poor, his 4's became 9's, 3's became 8's, 7's became 1's and to save himself from getting the problems wrong - would simply work them out mentally.  My son was lucky - he has a phenomenal memory and could get away with this until high school.  Then things fell apart again.  




What are some factors affecting handwriting?

• Visual Discrimination - kids must be able to visually recognize and distinguish each letter of the alphabet so they can accurately interpret and reproduce them.  A "b" has to remain a "b" and not look like a "d" or "p" or "q".  "Gun" must look like "gun" and not "pun" (as in Woody Allen's letter in the clip above).  Otherwise others it can't be read and it makes no sense. [Note that visual discrimination skills effect reading as well as writing.]
• Orthographic Coding - students must not only be able to discriminate between letters recognizing how each is different and unique, they must remember how to print or write them.
• Motor planning, motor memory, and execution - kids have to be able to remember letter shapes and the muscle movements necessary to make and execute those shapes.  They then have to remember or plan how to make those shapes.  
• Kinesthetic Feedback - Finally, kids have to monitor their progress as they write, constantly evaluating feedback that the brain receives from the muscles, nerves, and eyes.

For example, when writing kids must remember what the letters look like, then begin to recreate them.  As they write, they have to monitor what their handwriting to make sure the "a" looks like an "a" and the word "act"  looks like "act"  and not "aot" or "ect" or "acl" etc.

 Strategies and Accommodations For Kids With Poor Handwriting: 

• Practice in private. Have kids practice penmanship, but at their own pace and in private (at least until there is less embarrassment).
• Have your kids trace letters and words in sand or even in jello (if you don't mind the temporarily sticky fingers).  Tracing in sand and jello or even in the bathtub adds some resistance and can build stronger muscles and muscle memory.
• Experiment - try out different types of writing utensils and different types and sizes of paper and line width. Try different sized pens and pencils.  Large pencils for example are easier for kids with weak muscle control to use.  My son hated the "feel" of pencils on the paper and was much more comfortable using a pen. My husband prefers the feel of quills as they glide over the paper.  Experiment.

Note: As with most interventions, some help some but not others, my advice is to try and if necessary move on if not effective.

• Strengthen hand and finger grips.  Squeezy toys/objects can help.
• Keyboarding.  This helps for some - not others (my son still prefers taking notes by hand). 
• Pen/pencil grips - When handwriting sometimes the pencil grip is an issue.  In this case try using different types of pen/pencil grips.  My son had more of a sensory-integration issue (he was too sensitive to the paper and grip and pencil) and the grips did not help.  
• Graph paper - For those who have trouble with letter size, experts suggest practicing print hand writing on large-boxed graph paper, using one square per letter [practicing privately].
• Provide ample work and writing space on each page. Make sure there is enough space on mathsheets or worksheets and tests for you child to comfortable fill in the required response.  You may want to discuss this with your child's teacher(s) 

My son, who is actually quite good in math was failing because this teacher put 30 problems on one page lines (_______ ) for the answer and no room to work out the problem.  The teacher expected the students to turn the page over and show work there.  My son's 3's became 8's and 4's became 9's, etc.  At that point his teacher was testing my son's copying ability (which he obviously failed).  After convincing the teacher to keep the same problems while providing work space directly on the page (and not have students turn it over or recopy to work) my son earned A's not F's.  The point:  make sure your child has enough space to work in.  If not, talk to his or her teacher about it.
These are just a few suggestions.  Let me know what you have tried (successfully or otherwise).  Also, please let me know if you have any other questions or issues.

These are just a few ideas.  Please let me know what you have tried (successfully and unsuccessfully), and please let me know if you have any other questions.

Some helpful websites to visit:

• http://www.cdl.org/resource-library/articles/graphomotor.php 
• http://www.paperpenalia.com/handwriting.html 
• I have other 'handwriting related blogs you may want to look at:
•  Ways Around Exceptions:  Handwriting and Dysgraphia (10/11/2010)
• No Brainer:  Handwriting Trains the Brain By Creating Multiple Memory Paths (10/5/2010)
• Understanding Spelling Errors to Raise Better Writers (9/13/2010)

What are Perceptual Motor Skills and How Do I Get My Kid Some?

May is clearly here.  Ball games, swimming, outdoor sports...all here.  But for some of us, these sports are daunting as participants.  We're klutzes and perceptual motor skills are our bane!





Perceptual motor skills refer to our ability to coordinate small and/or large muscle groups to accomplish some task we visualize doing.  It requires our integrating eye-hand or eye-foot coordination (or eye-any other body part) so we can button our shirts, writing our names, enter our blogs (even after accidentally erasing them...yes this is a rewrite), jumping rope, shooting hoops, skiing, etc.

Who has it?  Who doesn't?
The Harlem Globetrotters; jugglers, dancers, athletes HAVE IT.
Klutzes - like me - and Homer Simpson don't.

I love dancing...when I'm not tripping and twisting my already weak ankles.  On the other hand, my daughter dances hip hop and can move her hands, arms, feet, body at ridiculous speeds.  My dad tells us how in the army, he had a knack of finding the holes and ditches - he'd always be the one tripping over them.  I took piano lessons and clunked out the songs, my other daughter plays and her fingers glide with grace and agility over the keys playing songs that I could never play (when she's not juggling or fencing).  We are either blessed with strong perceptual motor skills (like my daughters) or we have to painfully gain muscle strength and memory to compensate for weak perceptual motor skills.

What's the big deal about these skills?  We are constantly calling upon these skills when we write, walk, play games/sports, eat, dress...you name it.

A Day in the Life of Perceptual Motor Skills:

• Dressing: sorting through clothes, taking clothes off the hanger, unbuttoning/ buttoning, unzipping/ zipping, snapping, tucking, tying, covering/uncovering ALL require perceptual motor skills.
• Getting to work or school:  walking, driving, biking, running;
• If you take a bus: getting out your pass; climbing large stairs, walking down the aisle of a moving vehicle, etc.
• Entering work or school- opening doors, lockers, desks, drawers and taking out what is needed;
• Navigating the room to get to the desk - either moving around a classroom or large/small office;
• Taking out books and turning to the correct page;
• Writing or typing information;
• In class - handling what teachers call "manipulatives" or chips, disks, cubes to help visualize a problem or classroom topic;
• Computing a math problem:  navigating a page of problems and calculating a long problem requiring carrying, writing, computing;
• Lab skills: handing different types, sizes, and weights of equipment;
• Eating:  cutting, carrying a tray to a table and sitting with others making sure not to spill your food over the heart throb across from you, clearing dishes, washing dishes, etc.;
• Recess/play time:  any kind of ball playing, jumping rope, skipping, running, playing any game with movable pieces;
• Getting ready for bed - brushing hair and teeth, clearing the bed, laying out clothes,

You get the idea.  There are perceptual motor demands in EVERYTHING we do.

How to help your child build and strengthen these skills:

• Practice.  Break down the task into manageable subparts and practice them.  Build muscle strength and muscle memory by doing them over and over again.  With your child who is weak or learning - make sure she or he practices in private at first because it can be embarrassing.

For example, if your child is is learning to throw and catch:  Practice at home.  Use larger ball and/or lighter equipment at first.  Initially throw and catch at close range with the lighter, larger ball.  Once she is confident widen the range.  Slowly increase the weight of the ball.  Then gradually decrease its size.  Train her eyes and hands in terms of what to expect vis-a-vis range, weight, depth, etc.

• Use light weights on arms and/or feet to improve awareness of the muscles needed for the desired task.  This will also help build strength and coordination.  You or your child can also use light weights to build muscle strength.

• Target weak muscles with activities that strengthen arms, hands fingers, feet.  Erasing the board is a great for strengthening arms.  If your child has weak upper body muscle control, ask the teacher if he or she can help erase/wash the board.

• Practice the desired movements in front of a mirror or in front of a video camera. This can help provide visual feedback for monitoring body position. 

• Help your child visualize what he or she should be doing.  Go through the steps just picturing what has to be done and then slowly have him or her do enact the steps just visualized.

• Hand grips, pencil grips, and squeezy balls often help build finger and hand strength needed for handwriting.

• With handwriting issues, experiment with different sizes and types of pencils and pens.  Sometimes kids find pencils easier to write with, some pens (my son was a 'pen kind of guy' and he hated the grips- experiment - everyone is a bit different).

Note:  There are different types of perceptual motor motor skills.  Those pertaining to either large muscle groups  are called "gross motor skills" involving jumping and walking, for example.  Those pertaining to small muscle groups are called "fine motor skills" involving buttoning, sewing, piano playing, for example. And there are "grapho-motor skills" involving fingers and hands and handwriting. Handwriting, a grapho-motor skill while relying on perceptual motor skills requires its own post as there is a lot involved.  Please visit this post for more information on FINE MOTOR, GROSS MOTOR AND GRAPHOMOTOR SKILLS.

I have only touched the tip of the iceberg.  Please let me know if you have questions or issues you'd like me to cover in greater detail.  And please, in the comments let all of us know about your successes or strategies.