[senco-forum] Handwriting

Dear Julie

I read the forum regularly, although I am an optometrist and not a teacher. I work mostly with children with a range of learning difficulties (and have assessed around 12,000 in twenty years). Part of what I do centres around writing, and I have a great bee in my bonnet about it! One of the big issues is the grip used by so many. We don’t develop finger / thumb apposition until about five, but ask children to hold a pencil at three upwards (or sometimes younger) before they are physically able - and then give them no guidance on what to do later. I love the old Graphomotor test in the Aston Index. It amazes me how many right handed children with poor grips, who have never used their left hand, when asked to do the pattern with the left hand instinctively pick up and hold the pencil with a normal tripod grip - despite having an awful and restrictive right hand grip! 

What is needed is a coherent policy for pre-schoolers and years r,1 & 2 to develop these skills - and TEACH grip and posture for writing, as happens in most European countries.

Thought I would add my three pennyworth...

Keith Holland

-----Original Message-----
From: senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk [mailto:senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of Julie at key4u
Sent: 06 March 2007 12:54
To: senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk; gregory.lambert at btinternet.com
Subject: [senco-forum] Handwriting 

Re Handwriting : extra time and assessments: 

        PATOSS website has handwriting speed assessment http://www.patoss-dyslexia.org/Handwriting_speedtest.html

        I have recently heard of a newly product:  DASH:  Detailed Assessment of Speed of Handwriting, Anna Barnett, Sheila E Henderson and Beverley Scheib, 2007 Age Range: 9 years to 16 years 11 months  (These authors are from the National Handwriting Association) DASH is ( or will shortly be)  available from http://www.harcourt-uk.com/product.aspx?n=1315&skey=3762 

Re what to do to teach teenage boys handwriting:

I am currently writing a book on handwriting for teachers (due for publication autumn 07) www.teacherspocketbooks.co.uk

In the mean time I can recommend ‘Teaching Handwriting A guide for teachers and Parents’ by Jean Alston and Jane Taylor QEd Publications Alston and Taylor’s book offers good sound advice for the teaching of handwriting. 

I recommend using collections of a variety of different student and adult handwriting (including students own) and highlighter pens – Taking the key elements of handwriting ( see Alston and Taylor’s book)  the students mark up the samples ie if you are looking at ‘making ascenders and descenders parallel’: use the highlighter pens to draw over and extend the ascenders and descenders. The aim is to assess how the writing meets, or fails to meet the particular criteria and then transfer that learning to their own writing. Then the students do this with their own writing and re do a piece of writing focusing on improving that one aspect. Just focusing on one aspect at a time makes the task of improving writing easier. It also focuses the mind on exactly what they need to do to improve their own writing.

You might be interested in the National Handwriting Association website http://www.nha-handwriting.org.uk/ 

Kind regards

Julie Bennett

www.key4u.co.uk  

01234 781698

-----Original Message-----
From: senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk [mailto:senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of senco-forum-request at lists.becta.org.uk
Sent: 06 March 2007 12:00
To: senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk
Subject: senco-forum Digest, Vol 42, Issue 6

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