[senco-forum] Handwriting help

Handwriting<<<

In the long term he will probably want to be able to hand write, but
this is likely to be a long process and will prevent him 'keeping up'
with school work - he could be provided with some exercises to re
develop his skill, that could be perceived as long term therapy -
whatever damage his hands have received they will benefit from the
handwriting process, but not if there is a time pressure - most of us
oldies who did not have wordprocessing available when we were at school
or college, recognise that our handwriting style deteriorated uinder the
pressure of note taking!
Cheers
Judith

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Judith Stansfield
SEN ICT Consultant
BDANTC (Associate member)
Farm Cottage, 24 East Road, Melsonby,Richmond DL10 5NF
stass at onyxnet.co.uk 
01325 718139   07990572365
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-----Original Message-----
From: senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
[mailto:senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of John Bergin
Sent: 04 April 2007 09:38
To: senco forum
Subject: Re: [senco-forum] Handwriting help

>>>Handwriting<<<

...Compute....agreed ....Dragon...oh yes ...but....

Handwriting is very personal and criticism is like an attack
on one's personality.. So one must offer what will be willingly accepted
as 
help.
It is blindingly obvious that computing is more amenable
to 'support' enhancements .Yet there are a great many folk who want to
use 
their own handwriting. & there is still the stigma
of "being on the computer" that is in the literature .....I forget
the reference but not the phrase.

The physiotherapist or Occupational Therapist will have sets
of physical exercises and suggestions re posture, muscle
strain-cum-tone, 
pen grip etc; and suggestions re the various pens
and junk  that may help. Talking to them helps re that kind of basics.

Tension will be evident as will frustration so privacy is needed
when re-introducing HW. But it is not a "lesson" per se in terms
of length needed.....what is needed is 10/15 minutes per day
....daily.....consistently.....no excuses. (My weekly checks are longer
as 
I'm
an inveterate chatterer who just loves to talk! But then it is one of
my monitoring devices...when they chat back as they write then I know 
automacity is near. Well, that's my excuse anyway.)

Lesley, You say Teodorescu Scheme....... you using "Write from the
Start" or 
"Speed Up"? Or both? You aiming to teach loops
out of his ears as per the Teodorescu or non loop or loop
descenders, etc, or "he don't care what so just get him writin" routine?

1) The Teoderescu/Addy SU pre-writing exercises are fun if he
should/could 
do them. What does the physio or OT suggest?
I taught a double jointed Y 10 and refused to do any of the
stuff that could posibly 'pop' anything. That's an OT job.
I did do piano fingers and tense/untense fist gripping and wrist shaking
re getting rid of rigid hand holding. You know...the old
death grip as concentration gets going.

2) Kath Balcombe's "The Handwriting Files" (Thanks to Elaine re the tip
on 
this scheme) and Pippa Chudley's
"The MSL Handwriting Rescue Scheme" fit nicely together as
print offs or p-copies of letters and combine well with Teodorescu
/Addy patterns. Chris Jarman has some advice and downloadable fonts and 
review of schemes.... sorry, yeah, recommends italic.....great easy
style 
(....mixed up with horror stories of mad art teachers unfortunately
but if this dyspraxic can.....)
www.quiljar.btinternet.co.uk/sih/html
Sadly Tom Gourdie is no longer wth us and his books are long out of
print. 
He says patterns in his books.

3) Patterns, letter element patterns, letter patterns......the key to 
handwriting. Sand tray, big chalk board, big white board, newspaper or
big 
sugar paper , on A4 at the end.

4) mam-mbm-mcm-mdm-mem- &tc. The ancient letter speed pattern for
practice.

5) "Play, scribble, practice," wrote Arrighi over 500 years ago
....still holds good for today.

My daughter has to take betimes in the year 400mg pills of
ibruprophen and get osteopath massage at exam time because she chose to 
handwrite and not go total computer writing. I sure wish she
would have let me have a go at teaching some tips and hints...ah me,
one's own never do listen or become willing, do they?

Good luck to the young man......
John
(Oh, I've never found the 'perfect pen' yet and I've tried for over 40 
years!)