UKC

I turn to the hivemind again...this time in desperation.  Sorry for the length.

My biggest is now in his fourth year of school.  He's a bright and interested boy but is struggling terribly with his hand-writing.  For the first years of his schooling it was something I just assumed would get better but he is now well into his first year at juniors.  Last parents' evening the teacher had asked them to do a piece of writing, presumably as a presentation piece for the evening.  I sat down with his writing and got a shock.  The first problem was I could barely read it, the second was that where I could read it the spelling was atrocious.  Words that I would have thought he'd have learned years ago were painfully misspelled.  Parents' evening did not go well.  I struggled to focus on what the teachers were telling us, they were trying to put things in as good a light as they could, he would be put in a special small group to work on his writing.  "I'm just terrified he's going to leave school and not be able to write!" I sputtered.

I talked it over with my parents, my wife and others.  We went back for a meeting with the teachers where I was able to engage more constructively than I had at parents' evening when I had been in a state of shock.  Since then we've been working with him, getting him to write every night for us.  The shape of the writing is much improved, when he takes the time to make it so, but the spelling is still very poor.  It's all phonetic...here's an example story he wrote tonight.

"Once there was a caveman from K**** (our own, which he had to look up on a postcard to spell), he was big, strong, fast and intelight.  He was relley good at quisis and new how to do etherting!  But one day he went away and never came Bak!  It was agis since he came but now no wone new him!"

So there we go.  I'm worried, worried that this seems much more difficult for him than others in his class and he is starting to get very self-conscious about it.  His teacher read out some work of his to the class the other day and he was mortified (I don't think they did it to belittle him, just picked the wrong kid).  He's also conscious that we are very worried about it, no matter how constructively we try to engage and gets very down on himself about it.  "My writing is terrible, I'm stupid".

I'm also worried about the support he can get in school.  His class is taught by a carousel of part-time teachers and supply teachers (it seems) and is a notoriously 'boisterous' class.  I know quite a few of them well through Beavers where I am a leader and the thought of trying to control them, let alone make progress in specific areas of weakness like this makes me shudder.  I'm really worried that at this stage in his education we are going to find it very hard to correct this, and feel terrible that I can't give him the time and one-to-one help he needs.  The busy routine of a two parent working family, with another child too, means that weeks and months just fly by. 

Please any help or support from parents who have been here or teachers would be massively appreciated.

In reply to Bobling:

I have not got any advice on how to improve it, but as someone who's penmanship is appalling it has never held me back. I scribble the odd thing in my notebook in work, but even 5 minutes later it is hard to decipher what I was trying to put down, it soon comes back. It has never caused me any real life issues at all, just meant I had to pay extra attention in exams to make my writing legible. At 7 there is still enough time for his handwriting to improve enough to get by with, but by the time he takes any meaningful exams in 9 years time there will probably be more computer based than handwritten based.

(My best handwriting is Helvetica or Arial)

In reply to Bobling:

I basically couldn’t write aged 8, was very unhappy and had lost interest in school.  These days I’ve got a string of degrees to my name and am writing a children’s book that’ll never see the light of day.  It wasn’t magically fixed but took a lot of work from me on the basics and on adaption/coping strategies with a special class for an hour/week at some expense:

I can read his story just fine.  It’s a good little story.  Tell him I want to know what happened to the caveman.  

It’s not his fault that English is a bloody stupid language that even a blind fool wouldn’t design for people let alone dyslexic people.  I still get a range of posters on UKC from abusive to helpful correcting me when I use the wrong spelling for a word.

Get a professional to meet with him and see if they think he is dyslexic or not.  You want an educational psychologist.  Your council will probably block and stall arranging this themselves as a diagnosis puts the onus on them to do something.  It’s worth paying your own money.  There’s a whole book published on how to force your council to do their legal duty with regards special educational needs assessments.

Next steps hinge on the dyslexia question and a specific diagnosis as to what is appropriate.

In general:

Teach him to type and so seperate learning spelling (on the computer) and hand writing.  I learnt to type aged 8 or 9 when I could barely write.   Proper typing on an actual keyboard with a typing tutor program.  

Consider working on spelling verbally to seperate spelling and writing.

Consider omitting learning joined up writing in favour of printing (block letters).  I print all my written text these days - it’s the only way anyone else will ever read it.

The big one that’s got me uncomfortable saying it - why did this comes as news to you at a parent’s evening?  Work with the kid on writing yourself.   If he likes writing stories, build on that together.  You may have to make some tough choices about your time. 

In reply to Bobling:

Apologies for stating the obvious, but since you haven't mentioned it specifically: dyslexia?

T.

In reply to Bobling:

I would say he is 7......development is variable and some children take time. Its important to distinguish his writing from his spelling as difficulties in either need different types of help.

Can he manage other fine motor skills? Buttons, laces? Is he well coordinated or clumsy?

In reply to Bobling:

Dyslexia? Two of my sons have it to a varying extent. Your tale seems familiar. They've had extra support at school, and are coming on well. It might be worth getting an assessment. Good luck!

In reply to Bobling:

Tell him if he doesn't learn to write properly and concentrate on it he'll never be able to convincingly forge your signature to get out of PE/Art/school trips/steal your pension etc

Should give him a bit of motivation.

The fact you are bothered is the most important thing. As hard as it maybe, find the time to sit with him daily and do writing and spelling practice - say 1/2 hour every day keep his best each week, so in a couple of weeks time you can show him the progress he's making...maybe try dressing it up as a game (at least the spelling) but beware of dyslexia - by which i mean pushing a child hard on spelling when they have dyslexia can have unwanted side effects and is unfair - e.g. resentment of learning/behavioural issues/depression/self worth etc. To that end I don't know if it is too early to test for but it's something to think about (earlier diagnosis the better outcome from those I've know with it)

In reply to Bobling:

Short, as it is late.  Thanks all, particularly you Wintertree.  More tomorrow.

In reply to Bobling:

I've struggled with my handwriting my entire life, to the point where I avoid handwriting at all times. In my case, I got diagnosed with dyslexia at second grade. My spelling was atrocious. Got through school with the support of my dad plus private tutors. Got through university with extra time in exams, technology, and the odd fact that my English handwriting is somehow a lot less painful and slightly more legible than my Greek and my English spelling is infinitely better than my Greek.

In other words, my advice is:

• Figure out exactly what is going on, developmentally.
• Notify the school of the findings. This was *very* important in my case.
• Use all the support you can get.
• Support him yourself to the utmost extent, even if it means helping him study throughout school.
• Teach him to type. If I can manage to get to age 32 with an engineering degree and a career in software, so can he. Handwriting quality is not hugely important in the grand scheme of things.

In reply to Bobling:

My husband's writing is barely legible but he was an avid reader so not your classic dyslexia. He was diagnosed late on in schooling as being dysgraphic. Similar sort of condition to dyslexia. As others have said, get a full assessment done as there are many variants on dyslexic type conditions and ways of helping once you know what you are dealing with. 

In reply to Bobling:nothing to be concerned about, in sensible countries kids don't even start school until they are 7. But you should be prepared to invest as much time as the school, education isn't just a teachers job. They are masses of puzzle, drawing and activity books that will improve their skills, which don't just involve forced writing. 

In reply to Bobling:

Ask the school to get him tested for dyslexia. This will look for disparities between things like his vocabulary ( which looks pretty good) and his blending and spelling skills. His school should have plenty of ideas and resources to support him if this is the case. 

He's also very young and not far along the developmental stage. Keep reading ing to him and providing positive exposure to language, written or otherwise.

Also, Handwriting is an over rated skill in the digital age.

My son sounds similar to yours btw.

In reply to Bobling:

He has a big vocabulary and awful spelling? Medical school awaits!

In reply to Andy Hardy:

Was just gonna say the same about my line of work, IT. I'm dyslexic and so is everyone else I work with it seems. I don't ever bust out my utterly unreadable handwriting. Birthday cards give me the shivers. My partner is called Rebecca and it only takes one look at a card to forget if it's double 'b' or double 'c'. I can't begin to imagine what my work was like at 7. But it all went well from there. Tell him to get really good at maths. Way better subject anyway.

In reply to Bobling:  I'll modify a comment above - handwriting is an under developed skill in the digital age.   We also have a continual battle with both my sons handwriting.  After all the good advice above about testing for dyslexia, this is a skill that needs fairly continual practice to develop,  in a regular and painless form.  Personally I do this by keeping a diary of sorts into which I'll spend 10minutes or so every day writing anything, and, if you want to kill two birds with one stone , I also do a bit of sketching as well as that also, for me , requires pretty frequent practice.

In reply to Bobling:

I'm writing as a retired English teacher and headteacher. During my career I had responsibility for both English and Learning Support Departments. This thread is full of excellent advice which I won't repeat in detail. I'd just emphasise three points.

Don't panic: it's early days and I've seen much much worse.

Get him tested by an Ed Psych. Talk to the school and if you're concerned this route will take too long, pay for it yourself.

Make sure he keeps reading - but for pleasure not practice. 

In reply to Bobling:

I’m 38 and my handwriting is an utter embarrassment to the point that my wife writes cards/fills forms out etc. I have tried a few times, as an adult with adult resources and motivation, to improve it and for whatever reason I just can’t make the same shapes repeatedly on paper. 

I’m also a pretty successful IT architect and can honestly say that aside from the occasional cold sweat when I have to write on a whiteboard it has had zero impact on my career. 

I’m glad you’re engaging positively with him over it. When I was in school dyslexia was barely a ‘thing’ let alone the lesser known related conditions. As a result my parents were of the ‘keep calling him lazy until it improves’ school, which I can definitely say does not work. 

In reply to Bobling:

I'm guessing your lad had hearing problems (glue ear?) when younger. His writing seems to be based on shapes of letters, but his word choices are ambitious and his syntax is sound. I'll bet he can pick out the correct spelling of a word from a list including misspellings. 

Others have said it above, but the most important thing is that he read for pleasure and that any "remedies" are not time consuming and fraught . I taught a lad like him who is at university, but because of heavy handed "help" he was always angry at school and when doing his homework. 

A "diagnosis" of dyslexia may be helpful to him in that he'll be able to use typing. 

In reply to Bobling:

Secondary teacher, not primary, and don't have any particular SEN training or responsibility - but just a few thoughts:

It sounds ridiculous to say it but by loving him and looking after him and doing stuff with him you are already giving him a great start. Helping him practice at home is brilliant, but do all the other stuff too - castles and museums and a globe in his room and acorns and worms and pointing out rivers are in the bottom of valleys and that man with the interesting-sort-of-hat is a called a Sikh and all that sort stuff. It all goes in somewhere and tends to start popping back out at GCSE. And the fun stuff too of course: football or bouldering or kites or bike or crashing remote controlled helicopters - I'm sure you've got all that covered anyway.

You may be able to ask the school to test him for dyslexia and other learning difficulties, but most schools are in a total mess funding-wise though so that might not be completely easy. Alternatively, you can do it privately with specialist psychologists - schools still have to respond to those reports. I teach a year 13 who has just been diagnosed with dyslexia in their final year of schooling, even if I need to try and remember to print things for them on blue paper which is a bit of a hassle!, it is great because it is a huge weight off their shoulders and they're much happier now and working better as a result.

I remember my middle kid in Y4 getting really stressed and down about not understanding maths (we had just moved from Finland to the UK, so it was a different system and he had had a couple of years less formal schooling). He got really down about it and thought he was "stupid". We did fractions using lego and that seemed to help, so keep going with helping as best you can - it'll be a hell of lot more than many kids get.

One slight word of caution from what some others have said - yes, once out of school you might not need to write ever again! But the English and Welsh system (and I think Scotland too) is still almost completely based on written exams. Some students get special dispensation to use laptops in their GCSEs and A levels due to handwriting issues - but their schools need show a history of specialist provision for them for years running up to the exams. The vast majority of kids are still expected to write their answers in terminal exams, old school style.

In reply to Bobling:

Reading is not necessarily affected, it varies from person to person. For example, my reading was never affected at all, just my writing.

In reply to wintertree:

Exactly what wintertree said. I was in the bottom group in Maths and English aged 7. After a bit of a crisis I was diagnosed Dyspraxic and Aspergic. I now have a PhD in particle physics. Just knowing that there was a reason for my finding some aspects of school harder than others did, led me to worry about it a lot less and focus on what I was good at.

It could well be that he's just not great at hand writing and spelling, but then again if there is an issue getting it found early and helped can make all the difference.

In reply to Bobling:

Assuming he's not dyslexic, the best way to learn spelling is to read, read and read more.  Then write as well, but reading lots of books from an early age means you see how it should be every day.

In reply to Bobling:

Schools will push back on assessment because A. There is no money and only the worst cases are getting funding. B. It won't make any difference to the support they are getting in school.

Paying privately for an assessment is ok but I there is a question of partiality as 'there's nothing wrong' isn't the answer people are looking for.

The replies on here are useful but adversarial, you vs school. You need to work with the school, understand what interventions are in place and back it up at home.

Find creative ways to get him using a pencil. Boys are notorious for not wanting to write, I get mine to draw treasure maps and label it, or design a robot. Or ask him to write the shopping list so he gets his favourite food etc etc...

But work with the school not against it.

(Not a teacher but a teaching and learning governor at a primary school)

In reply to Bobling:

My kid is a clever kid - bright, articulate, eager to learn, but also dyslexic - he reads, but two years younger than his age would suggest, his spelling is atrocious, his hand writing is just as bad, but he is also happy.

We have got him a private tutor, one night a week, and also spend time with him developing his writing and spelling which he doesn't seem to resent (which is important, learning as a chore doesn't happen)  - he is about to move to senior school so will be in a new peer group, with new subjects and he is looking forward to it whilst we are concerned about it - but as long as he is happy then we will be happy.

We are teaching him now to type, with auto-correct for spelling, whilst keeping up his writing and spelling work - in school they are allowed to get laptops for exams, and even "scribes" to read out the questions if the kids struggle to read the question.

We went through all the different coloured papers, acetate rulers to help him stay on track of a line of words but none of them worked for him - sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

One thing that helped him was getting his tracking looked at and fixed - it stopped the words from jumping all over the page - playing slow moving ball games helps in this (badminton instead of tennis, rugby instead of football) - he now reads better because of this.

There are loads of good resources out there, you just need to look for them - now you have realised that your son needs help then try as many of them as you can, not all of them will work but some of them will - life eh, its always throws you a curve ball - good luck to you and your son. 

In reply to Bobling:

A  further thought on reading for pleasure. It's easy for this advice to sound glib - and god knows, I've given it to hundreds of other parents in my time. I notice you say, "he won't pick up a book to pass the time." Don't worry if it's not a book. Don't worry if it's not children's fiction. Comics, magazines and graphic novels are all good. You might well find material that's spun off from a popular movie that he's enjoyed. If he's got particular interests (and what young boy doesn't get through a bunch of these) there will generally be stuff in print associated with that. It looks like he's just discovered bouldering. I've got mates who spend a fair bit of time reading, but do it all between the covers of climbing guidebooks!

In reply to XXXX:

This is really important. He needs to have have strong fine motor skills for writing and pushing him into writing without these will just make him hate writing.

Make sure he's forming his letters correctly. It'll forever hold him up if he isn't.

I'm not a teacher but we home educate our kids and we see an awful lot of home educated kids. At age 7 they often have terrible writing compared to kids in school because they are often not pushed to write but unless they have specific problems they catch up later. Don't panic.

In reply to Bobling:

I really struggled with writing and spelling when i was young. My primary school was excellent and we spent lots of time learning how to identify birds and trees etc....but when it came to joining secondary school there was real talk about being held back a year because my spelling was so poor. Same as others have mentioned, my reading was fine. I had to go to Saturday school (the horror) to catch up. But i worked through it. Took a year or two. Ultimately, I managed to go to university (and get a first) but spelling always requires a deliberate and conscious effort from me. For me, i had to learn loads of tricks for remembering how to spell words i.e necessary is one coffee (c) and two sugars (ss) otherwise i end up with nessaccary. 

In reply to Bobling:

I believe that bad spelling and poor handwriting are linked. When I was at school, my spelling was atrocious (it still is, but I now have different coping mechanisms), when I couldn't spell a word I developed a technique of writing the word badly so that the teacher would get the gist of what I had written, but couldn't actually read it properly. That way wrongly spelt words slipped through unnoticed Somehow being picked up for bad writing didn't seem as bad as being picked up for bad spelling, and I became quite crafty at this camouflage deceit. Maybe your son is trying the same? I still do it when I'm uncertain on spelling and have no means at hand (eg a computer) to check.

In reply to MeMeMe:

I would not push anything without a solid idea of what is actually wrong.

In reply to Bobling:

Secondary teacher here with dreadful handwriting.

I type as much as possible.  However it is possible to improve handwriting with practice. 

I would go with making it fun  (treasure maps as suggested above is a great idea)

I'd also work on fine motor skills rather than just writing, colouring in, threading beads, sewing,  using tweezers and scissors, there are lots of ideas if you Google.  

Lots of good advice above. 

I'd also practice with him using maths equipment, compass and ruler.

Perhaps you could try different pens and pencils.  I have pens I find easier to write with, try the liquid or gel ink ones.  Some are much smoother on the page.  Some pencils are easier to hold.  You can get grips that go on the pen.   

Oh, and knock the "stupid" on the head.  Tell him doctors are clever and known for bad writing. Remind him of the stuff he is good at.  

In reply to Andy Clarke:

Thank you!  Yes comics seem to go a bit better, TinTin (skip the casual rascism!) etc  Most recently 'The Land That Time Forgot' the Graphic novel.  We're also going through a revival of the old Ladybird books - they are so engaging and durable (also skip the casual rascism!).  Mostly he'll just spend hours looking through old Lego catalogues though!  

In reply to marsbar:

Thank you Marsbar - I was hoping you would check in!

In reply to Bobling:

Again a HUGE THANKS to all who have taken the time to post.  This thread has almost reduced my wife to tears, thank you so much folks.  The internet's (sometimes) wonderful isn't it?

In reply to Bobling:

There are lots of really good responses here, your worry about your son is commendable. To show that your performance at school at the age of seven does not necessarily doom your future I'll quote a poem written by my mum, written about me at that age:

Slow reader

He can make a sculpture
and fabulous machines,
invent games, tell jokes,
give solemn, adult advice-
but he is slow to read.
When I take him on my knee
with his **Ladybird** book
he gazes into the air,
sighing and shaking his head
like an old man
who knows the mountains
are impassible.

He toys with words,
letting them go cold
as gristly meat,
until I relent
and let him wriggle free:
a fish returning
to its element,
or a white-eyed colt-shying
from the bit *- who sees
that if he takes it
in his mouth
he'll never run
quite free again

        Vicki Feaver

Despite this poem, that was used in the GCSE curriculum, I made it through school and my handwriting is now professionally incomprehensible Drs handwriting that only my secretary Helen can decipher.

In reply to althesin:

Wonderful.

In reply to Bobling:

I don't have much to add, other than wishing you good luck with helping your son.

One thing we've done with my 7 yo is to encourage him to write to his grandparents.  Letters are only short and usually include a drawing or two, but it's a relatively fun way to practice and nets the pleasure of getting a letter or a card in return (often with some goodies thrown in).

In reply to Bobling:

When I was 8 I was way behind my peers having come from a schooling system 2 years behind the UK. I couldn't really write at all. After about a month practicing copying copperplate script (this did not go at all well) I could write OK. At least well enough to pass exams and so forth. My writing has never been that great and is now almost illegible again, but it is possible to learn to write with much practice fairly quickly - it is mostly a mechanical skill.

The spelling is trickier - things that require correct spelling? Word games? Scrabble?

His school sounds awful - you have my sympathy. I like his caveman story - he's clearly not short of imagination. 

In reply to Bobling:

I (like many here it seems) have always had atrocious handwriting and when I was at school I was made to go to special handwriting classes but they never really made much difference. As others have said, schools encourage kids to write joined up and this only makes the problem worse. My joined up writing, even now is horrific and I end up missing out whole chunks of words or writing the wrong letters. It's not that I don't know how to spell the words, but that my hand doesn't do what my brain tells it to.

I'd recommend pushing back against the school if they are insisting he writes joined up and encouraging to go back to basics. (Nowadays if I have to write anything that has to be readable by other people I do it in block capitals. It's better to write like this and be legible, then write in cursive and be unreadable). While I was at school I always worried about getting penalised in exams and for work because the examiners wouldn't be able to read what I'd written.

It wasn't until I went to university that someone suggested I might have Dyspraxia and I put myself in for an assessment. I wish this had happened years before as suddenly I had all this extra support, and got extra time in exams so I could take my time to write more slowly and clearly.

It certainly sounds like your son may have Dyspraxia, or Dyslexia or a combination of both. I would definitely recommend getting an assessment done on him to see what extra support/help you can get for him. Even if all you get is the extra exam time, this will be a massive help to him. The sooner you can get it diagnosed the better it will be for him.

The good news is, as a, lot of others that I doesn't really hold you back in life (school will be where he encounters the biggest obstacles). I have a masters degree and a successful career in engineering. In the real world, you very rarely need to actually write anything by hand.

As others have said, if you haven't done already get him typing and using word processors and get him to do the majority of his school work on the computer. I know a lot of people see spell check as lazy, but it can actually be really helpful for learning how to spell things since you can see straight away when you have made mistakes and how things should be spelt.

My typing still isn't brilliant, similarly to my handwriting, my brain knows how to spell words but my fingers still press the keys in the wrong order or press the wrong keys altogether. But at least when typing I can see and correct my mistakes.

Good luck.

In reply to Bobling:

Is he left or right handed?  Sorry if that's already been mentioned and I've missed it, but I couldn't see anything about that. 

Lefty's are disadvantaged in certain ways, but there's things he could do to overcome them if that applies. 

In reply to Bobling:

I was in a very similar place at his age, probably more backward at both writing and reading. Spelling I could not get my head around even into my teens. I would now possibly be diagnosed as mildly dislexic but this was 1960 so I was punished instead! I still have letters I wrote home from boarding school as a 7 year old and I am truly astounded that I made it in life.

Presumably the many years of detentions for bad spelling etc. worked as eventually it all fell into place - much later, but it did.

I'm sure it will come for him, just a question of whether you take the route of attempting to diagnose a problem and "cure it" or simply say, "don't worry but do your best". 

In reply to Moley:

Your post set me thinking about Wintertree, Sr.

“Don’t worry do your best” was always my dad’s advice and I’m 100% behind that.

However a diagnosis isn’t really about “curing it”.  It’s about understanding the causes and signposting adaptions and coping strategies, not cures.  The adaption and coping strategies are worth trying regardless of a diagnosis.  However, a diagnosis may:

(a) give the child a reason to help them understand why they’re doing badly compared to peers, as opposed to the default option of saying “I’m stupid”.

(b) unlock extra support from the school.

(c) enable extra time and the use of a computer for written examinations.  I shudder to imagine my GCSE results if I’d had to write them.  At school in the 1960s my old man was booted out at 15 with one O-Level (woodworking?) and branded as thick.  It didn’t hold him back in the long run but can’t have been much fun at the time.  (Who am I kidding?  The 1960s sounded like a hoot to be young and in possession of a motor car)

Having said that, studies of human vision are starting to find causal factors in the development of the eyes with regards (lack of) a dominant eye that could one day lead to cures.  I’m hopeful that the school system will adapt to the absolutely normal and healthy range of human abilities before we start doing gene therapy in the womb to “cure” something that isn’t in my view a defect.

In reply to Timmd:

If you're referring to the L-R order of western text, and the potential for the hand obscuring what you have written, that can be fixed by how you hold then pen. I've never obscured what I write. My handwriting is shocking, though, but my spelling is fine. My fine motor skills are poor for writing, but very good for other tasks (technical drawing, model-making, etc).

In reply to Bobling:

I'm sorry I can't offer any advice. But if you are looking for things that a boy of that age can read for pleasure, then Captain Underpants and Dogman (both series by Dav Pilkey) are the top hits with our son. They're both series of graphic novels, written in a kid's style with messy handwriting and the odd miss-spelling, so seem quite approachable.

In reply to captain paranoia:

You can angle the book or page left of centre too, or rotate it clockwise so the top points towards 1 or 2 o'clock.

In reply to Bobling:

Handwriting advice only:

1. Get him to focus on always leaving the same size gap between words (eg width of little finger).

2. Then focus on all words sitting on the line. 

Simply doing this may significantly improve things.

3. Height of letters - all small letters the same size - about 1/3rd of the line height and large letters 2/3rds. 

This, without worrying about letter shapes etc. may help.

In reply to Bobling:

No direct help, but this is my experience - I've struggled with handwriting since forever. Didn't help that school really tried to get me to write with my right hand - I'm very left handed! I was also forced to use a weird pre-phonetics thing called ita, which had all sorts of odd spelling. I was a voracious reader, but continually struggled with written work. I also spent my early teens covered in blue ink from dragging my hand across my work as I wrote with a cheap fountain pen. My exercise books looked like a  Rorschach test.

It's gone from a concern at school to a bit of a joke amongst family. I know everything is much more test driven these days, but 7 is still young enough to resolve without panicking yet. Despite this I've got a reasonable set of school exam results, 2 degrees and I still read lots, I let my wife write the christmas cards, and can write things on a white board that still look like my 7 year old self did them, but that people will pay attention to regardless. My punctuation is still quite iffy.

In reply to toad:

You have reminded me of the joys of the fountain pen, either filling them from the ink bottle or the handy cartridge ones. I think our whole world appeared covered in a film of blue ink at times. Desks, clothes, belongings, everything was stained with blue splodges. 

Kids have got it easy these days.........

In reply to Bobling:

Something I remembered today, maybe an idea, maybe not: even when I was nineteen my handwriting was still that laborious school-script, stiff and untidy. I sat down and wrote down letters in a way that felt easy for me. It only took a couple of weeks and I could write fluidly in my own script.

My oldest boy who has more trouble with handwriting tried this a few years ago and it made a difference. He was about eleven then, and had been taught a very anal joined-up cursive - I could barely read the teacher's samples - every letter so pedantically linked it all looked the same - like monkish black-letter. Anyway, it helped develop his 'flow' so to speak. Just a thought.

In reply to Moley:

Personally I enjoy a fountain pen - my writing tends to be more legible when I use one.  Having said that, the relatively expensive pen I have now is infinitely better than the cheap ones I had in school.

In reply to kathrync:

I think good handwriting by fountain pen is the best, unfortunately letter writing is a near dead art and with a fountain pen even more so. 

Long may you continue to use it, but I bet the pen is better than the leaky Parker's I endured.

In reply to Moley:

Yes - I also remember the horror of cheap leaky Parker pens!  I don't know how much my nice pen cost, but it was a present from my parents when I finished my PhD and I suspect they spent a little more than the £10 one of those Parker Vectors costs!

In reply to kathrync:

Doesn't look as if you can get those cheap ones anymore - 

http://www.parkerpen.com/en-US/shop-online

In reply to Bobling:

I can only speak from experience with my children, the eldest, also in year 4 has beautiful handwriting but it didn't come naturally. Both my wife and I are quite regimental when it comes to homework, especially spellings and maths. We practice spellings daily, once our children start to get full marks we work on neatness of the words, this is not because we are overly strict, simply that other children have marked our eldest down for not dotting her i's or crossing her t's. 

We practice the words and that practice has paid off, and as such we have started to do the same with our youngest (in year 1), but must admit she struggles a bit more with neatness due to being left handed. That said her handwriting has come on leaps and bounds. I can't say this would work for you as every child is different, and then there is dyslexia to consider. All in all though I wouldn't worry too much about your child's handwriting, today a lot of things are done on computers and as long as your child is happy going to school and to be learning, then that's the main thing.

In reply to pneame:

Right here:

http://www.parkerpen.com/en-II/vector

In reply to kathrync:

Hah - yes the Parker Vectors!  I loved them!  The beautiful click as the lid fits on, or the joy of a few cartridges of full ink in a new packet.  Perhaps I should try one of these.

Loads to think about and investigate here folks, and lots of thoughtful replies, as I have said upthread it's lovely that I can virtually throw this one out and get so many different and considered opinions, what a great community.  The Wintertree/Moley exchange about 'curing' a problem vs 'just do your best' was thought-provoking.

Oh - he's not lefty, and has not had hearing problems that I am aware of.

Sidenote - For the first time ever a dislike has me riled - why would anyone feel the need to dislike my OP?  A concerned parent trying to work out how best to help their kid along in the world and asking for help and opinions gets a dislike?  

In reply to Bobling:

You (and everyone else) can get a dislike just for logging on, ignore it, the dislike god moves in mysterious ways.

In reply to Bobling:

mistake from a phone user ?

In reply to lithos:

Yeah probably!  Good point.  Stand down Bobling!

In reply to Bobling:

Bit late to the party, but a topic which I can relate to. My handwriting was awful and would cause great anxiety when I was younger, caused my parents stress too. 

I can't comment on the spelling and grammar aspect but I can provide some practical notes from my experience;

Making too big of a deal of it may cause him to have anxiety about showing his works and being proud of what he has done. To this day I have confidence issues about submitting work (even when typed) due to my old short comings. I used to dread parents evening as I knew what was coming (friction and tears), I loved school but this stuff has stayed with me and influenced my professional behaviour even though it is beneath my now developed thick skin. 

Don't force him to join his letters. Not joining up my letters was the breakthrough moment for my handwriting. Its still not brilliant but at least it's legible.

Special writing pen - parents got me a semi expensive (£30) writing pen , it wasn't specifically for handwriting but just to make me feel special and to try focus me when writing. Just a shame it was a big bright red Lamy which was in no way elegant and stood out like a Goat's erection.

Practice makes perfect. Focus and practice slowly writing neat lines, repeatedly!! Good luck on trying to not make this one come across as a punishment though. It helped me, but was gruelling from what I remember. 

Good luck. 

I am sure it will get better. 

In reply to Bobling:

I didn't start school until I was 7 and had barely done any writing before this. 

I recently looked back at my old work (my mum kept my old school books) and your son is doing very well compared to where I was at the same age.

In reply to alan moore:

How can handwriting be over emphasised? That's a digital age trope if ever I heard one. 

In reply to Bobling:

If it’s any consolation, I can’t spell for sh1t. I did just about scrape through GCSE English Language, having failed the mock. I didn’t write a single word in my Cambridge entrance interviews and the exams at the end were mostly numbers.

My spelling improved considerably in about 2010 when I invested in an iPhone with autocorrect.

In reply to allanscott:

What I mean is;

In schools there is still a strong emphasis, during primary school years, on the quality of your handwriting.

By the time kids are sixteen they are as likely to be tested using IT skills as by handwriting.

And in the world of work, you are now likely to be judged as lacking, if you still rely on handwriting to communicate.

In reply to Bobling:

I have been a primary teacher for the last twenty years or so. I have also been involved with writing moderation at Year 6 for STA. Having taught many children in your son's position I have some thoughts about it. Handwriting is a very particular fine motor skill which seems to me to have little relation to intelligence or creativity. It is however a barrier to some learning. Spelling is one of these types of learning: It is difficult to learn to spell words if you write them in a way which makes it hard for you to read as you may read the letters in them in a number of ways at different times, depending on letter formations. If children are avid readers, these issues in spelling are often negated as they are seeing the correct spellings written frequently. If not, they often are only seeing the spelling of words as they write them. This reinforces incorrect spellings. Reading more and with an adult would certainly help this situation, especially if you talk through and practice spelling patterns during reading.

In the bigger picture, if he is happy at school, enthusiastic about learning and the school doesn't place too much emphasis on a successful learner being someone with neat handwriting who spells well, I would be inclined not to be overly concerned at this stage. Boys do mature later and often tend to make great progress as this occurs during the final stages of primary education. Without knowing your son and seeing a range of examples of your child's writing it is hard to comment further. A close working partnership with your son's teachers will help. This will mean that you are able to provide some additional support from home and support the school. The spelling would concern me much more than the handwriting, which as we all know is a skill which will not be required in the adult world. If you are working on this, I would go for legible rather than beautiful; letters on line, formations in the correct direction, letters of the correct size (including capitals). Not sure how much help this has been but there you are. This year I have a number of able boys in very similar situations (year 4) who have been hugely assisted by some small daily group work, the use of a computer when working on larger edited pieces of writing and really well thought out writing relating to topics that excite them.

James

In reply to james mann:

Thank you James.  Extremely helpful, and reassuring!  It's very touching that everyone has taken time to write such eloquent responses.

In reply to Bobling:

There's a lot of good advice above if your son is struggling with individual learning difficulties.  Dyslexia and dysgraphia are both worth looking into if things don't improve over time.  However, on the evidence that you have supplied above, I'd be surprised if this was the case. 

In your initial post the following passage stood out:

"His class is taught by a carousel of part-time teachers and supply teachers (it seems) and is a notoriously 'boisterous' class.  I know quite a few of them well through Beavers where I am a leader and the thought of trying to control them, let alone make progress in specific areas of weakness like this makes me shudder."

This would be my focus.  He's not going to fulfil his potential in a class with these issues - even if his handwriting was beautiful and his spelling near perfect.

In reply to alan moore:

Not if you go into teaching

In reply to Morty:

Hmmm, yes, and this is a big source of anxiety and frustration.  yet short of changing schools which would be an enormous upheaval I don't know what I can do about this other than quietly grind my teeth.

In reply to rhudson:

These days it is quite possible to teach with little or no handwriting. Far easier than when I trained. Reports are on the computer, marking feedback can be typed and emailed to students, or printed and glued into exercise books and communication is generally by email.  Lesson information is projected from a computer screen and writing notes for pupils to copy is considered a poor use of time, so the notes are provided not written on a chalk board. 

In reply to Bobling:

Complain (nicely and in a constructive way) to the headteacher.  If supply teachers are an issue the head needs to know, and to do what they can.  For example it may be possible to give that class some stability with another member of staff swapping for a supply teacher.  Kids whose teacher is still somewhere in the building are less likely to misbehave for a supply teacher.  If you don’t raise your concerns nothing will change.  

In reply to marsbar:

I think rhudson may be aware of these technological developments and may even have been using some of them in his job as a primary teacher. I also still hand write at times, especially when teaching children to write.

James

In reply to james mann:

It was more a post (rather than a reply) for anyone who, like me, struggles and may think it’s a job that they cannot do.  I trained back when it really was chalk boards and it was something that I had to work on.  Now it is much easier.  

In reply to Bobling:

I've not got time to read through the answers, and others may have said the same.

My son's handwriting at that age was unreadable, although his reading age was very advanced. Even today it's barely legible. His written work when typed, however, is really, really good.

He did have some diagnosed issues with fine motor movement and hyper-mobility, and was given some exercises to help. He was also given extra time in exams and was allowed to use a laptop, rather than hand-write - that was very helpful. Speak to the school about that sort of support, if you feel the need.

He's now three-quarters of the way through his degree, doing incredibly well and has a strong career path ahead of him, so it's not really held him back at all.

In reply to steve taylor:

That is great to hear.