Dyslexia and handwriting

Like reading, handwriting is not an inherent skill and needs to be taught. Handwriting is 'a physical skill and requires a high degree of perceptual-motor co-ordination. (Snowling, 1996)(pg. 192).

For dyslexic children handwriting skills present a challenge. They can have short-term memories and poor motor skills. This means they find it difficult to remember all the rules required for creative writing and also find it difficult controling their writing implement. Some also have poor presentation, letter formation and inaccurate sizing of letters.

Poor handwriting is not due to a lack of motiviation. It is often due to a 'neurological dysfunction because the writing never becomes an automatic process.' (Ott, 1997).

The use of multisensory methods is a vital aspect when teaching children with dyslexia and of the four modalities, motor skills are the strongest.

An example of this is 'skywriting' which is used by Sp.Ed teachers when teaching children a new letter. This involves the tracing or drawing of letters in the air using their fingers and arms. This helps 'to develop a memory trace for the letter and to help pattern letter shapes.' (Ott, 1997).

The pupil stands beside the teacher, watches her demonstrate and copies the action. They then go back to their desk and write the letter on their workbook or alternatively on the blackboard.

If a child is having difficutlies with handwriting, there are ways to develop motor control away from writing. Activites such as play dough, rolling and playing with plasticine, lego bricks, mechanno and cutting shapes from paper can help to develop motor skills.

It is important to note that in light of the fact that many dyslexic children have poor motor control and spelling difficulties, spelling and handwriting skills should be practiced separately. According to Ott (1997) children with poor literacy and motor skills should not be taught both activies at the same time as this will cause an 'overload.'

Handwriting programmes

Jan Olsen began her programme 'handwriting with tears' in 1977 for her son, who was having difficulties with handwriting has been extremely successful and it is now being used in schools in California and Carolina.

Says Olsen, 'children need to move, see, hear, handle and touch while they're learning for opimum results.' Olsen's programme moves from print to cursive and children are shown how letters relate to each other, therefore focusing on their formation (eg. c, o, d).

See here for more information about her programme:

http://www.hwtears.com

Another fun and effective handwriting programme is 'Write from the Start' by Lois Addy. It offers an approach to handwriting which develops the muscles of the hand and includes over 400 graded exercises and activities to develop hand-eye co-ordination, form constancy, spatial organization, figure-ground discrimination, orientation and laterality.

It is important for parents and educators to be aware of the fact that some dyslexic children with more severe motor issues, or with difficulties like dysgraphia and dyspraxia may never succeed in developing their penmanship skills and that using a PC is the best recourse.

Ott writes about a Professor who is dyslexic who cronicled his dyslexic difficulties. He says, 'Writing for me has always remainded laborious; I simply do not go onto automatic pilot.I beleive it is essential that teachers should understand that what is just a reflex to some people is an explicit task for the dyslexic and requires specific time for its execution. (Ott, 1997)(pg 84).