[senco-forum] Handwriting

Have you tried the "Airfit" pen by Zebra? It's a gel pen, and my absolute
favourite for taking the tension out of the grip.
Mary

-----Original Message-----
From: senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
[mailto:senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of Ruth Newbury
Sent: 06 March 2007 21:44
To: keithholland at keithholland.co.uk; 1BECTA Senco
Subject: RE: [senco-forum] Handwriting 

And I could add to this - all those children who hold onto their pencils
with a death-like grip - and their muscles are tense all the way up their
arms.

Keyboard players tend to have the best balance as to just how tight you need
to hold your pencil so you can guide it properly - they are taught about how
to play with a relaxed arm movement and get used to altering the amount of
weight they are going to put into their hands and fingers.

And if a representative of Berol is reading this - please can they think of
introducing a nice stubby pen - like the handwriting pens - but with a nice
soft rubbery bit where you grip please.  You appear to have to use thin pens
and biros to get this extra bit of comfort, which enables many children to
write in comfort for longer periods.

Regards

Ruth

-----Original Message-----
From: senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
[mailto:senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of Keith Holland
Sent: 06 March 2007 20:48
To: 'Julie at key4u'; senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk;
gregory.lambert at btinternet.com
Subject: RE: [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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