Heather,
I am an elementary teacher with mild cp myself...Here's my two cents
on your issue. Do whatever you can to make the handwriting practice
a game. If it is "Dylan, we have to stop playing now and sit at the
kitchen table to practice handwriting now" type of scenario, you
won't get anything out of him. Perhaps you could get a whiteboard or
chalkboard and practice that way? Or put pudding or shaving cream on
a cookie sheet and have him "write" first with his finger and then
with a straw or pretzel stick in the pudding (and eating the pudding
and "pencil" after a successful practice is a great reward). Perhaps
he would enjoy it more if he could use markers or crayons or a
paintbrush. I'm not an OT, and I know some of what I suggest may not
promote the exact hand/finger motions that "real" handwriting
requires, but it might bring the fun back into it and then you could
possibly get him to spend five minutes with a real pencil and paper.
And, on another very controversial note (I've had several
"conversations" with parents and other teachers over the years as a
5th grade teacher about this)...Technology is infused in just about
everything we do. While I don't think we should abandon handwriting
altogether, I think learning to type is by far a more important skill
to have for the 21st century. As long as your son can recognize and
read cursive and print letters, write his name in cursive and print
relatively legibly to fill out a job application, I wouldn't stress
over the handwriting too much. Heck, I have a former student who is
now in his freshman year of college with a reading/writing learning
disability and once he had me and all my computer training in 5th
grade he blossomed. His cursive is unreadable, his print still looks
like a 6 year old wrote it, but he owns his own laptop and types
everything, including his notes in classes. He is VERY successful in
school now and doesn't require other "adaptations and accommodations"
other than his laptop to be "like the other kids". He's studying web
design and is now "consulting" with us to design my husband's
business' website (and he's better and cheaper than some of the
companies we've used in the past!)
Linda
On Mar 24, 2007, at 8:26 AM, [log in to unmask] wrote:
> Since most of you are adults I thought you could be really helpful
> to me in my perspective.
>
> My son, Dylan, is almost 6 years old, is very happy, chats a LOT
> and has mild CP. He is in kindergarten and finds handwriting to be
> laborious and aversive.
>
> I try to work with him on handwriting at home (per the OT's
> instructions) but he is very resistant -- it's not much fun and I
> have yet to find a way to make it fun. (But I've really, really
> tried!)
>
> For those of you who have had handwriting issues, how have you
> worked around it? What was helpful to you in school and what can I
> do, as a parent, that will be helpful to my son (especially in
> terms of my attitude)?
>
> THANKS SO MUCH for your input,
>
> Heather (mom to Will, age 9, and Dylan & Brandon, both almost 6!!)
>
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