increasing writing speed

[VisionaryMom]

Does anyone have any ideas on how to increase writing speed? DS is apparently an incredibly slow writer. He's only in kindergarten, so it hadn't bothered me. It does bother his teacher, otoh. So...I need something to help him improve. I don't mind having him practice writing, but I'm wondering about non-writing things he can do.

I do notice that he holds his pencil funny, and as much as DH & I have tried to correct it, we've had no luck. What about those funny shaped pencil grips? Aren't they supposed to help with holding the pencil properly?

[momtoTnT]

My DS was a very slow writer too (he's now in 1st and still slow, but he's getting better). He also has an awkward grip - the OT we saw about his fine motor skills wasn't concerned about his grip, but did give us some suggestions for strengthening his hands - play with playdoh, practice cutting, use wooden spoons to write in rice/shaving cream/oatmeal, use fingers to write in rice/shaving cream/oatmeal, finger painting, sidewalk chalk, use a squeeze bottle of water and spray things, help cook, ball up pieces of newspaper with only one hand etc.

We did get some of these pencils for him to help encourage the "correct" grip - it did help a bit, but we've gone back to just regular pencils and are ignoring his grip (which has improved tremendously from a fisted grip to one where his pinky is down by the lead and he essentially uses all 5 fingers. I've also found that a heavy pencil (or pen) is easier for him to use.

HTH!

[VisionaryMom]

He does help with cooking and do painting/sidewalk chalk a bit. I like the idea of having him write in rice, though. He'd enjoy that! Cutting apparently is an area where he's really slow - not sure how much is fine motor and how much is perfectionism, though.

[AllisonR]

Originally Posted by VisionaryMom

Does anyone have any ideas on how to increase writing speed? DS is apparently an incredibly slow writer. He's only in kindergarten, so it hadn't bothered me. It does bother his teacher, otoh.

This sounds like it is the teachers problem, not your DS. She may be making it his problem though.

Why is writing speed important in kindergarten? JMO, but I would think the emphasis would be on writing any way they wanted, for the enjoyment of it and for basic learning, improving their letter forms through practice. Why speed?

I have a DD who has very speedy, but also very sloppy handwriting. It has gotten better only because she writes so fast that she can write more, which means she has had more practice. I also have a DS, who is more of a perfectionist. He writes very slow, and very carefully. His handwriting is neater, but he doesn't write half as much. At the end of the day, they have both gotten to where they want to be. But the process of getting there is different. And I don't think either is right or wrong, it is just their style and preference. I could see speed being an issue if they have to write a whole essay in long hand or a report... but I guess (hope) this isn't the case with kindergarten.

[eepster]

Originally Posted by AllisonR

Why is writing speed important in kindergarten? JMO, but I would think the emphasis would be on writing any way they wanted, for the enjoyment of it and for basic learning, improving their letter forms through practice. Why speed?

I could see how it might be an issue if the whole class is frequently being held up waiting for a single student to finish writing his name at the top of his paper before they can begin. Or, if the student isn't getting much work done in his math b/c it took him so long just to write out his name at the top. Or, if he isn't expressing himself as well as he would like to b/c he runs out of time.

That said, I think the teacher is handling the issue very poorly. I got the impression from previous threads that the teacher was making comments directly to him about it, and she has given you no guidance here.

It may just be a bad case of perfectionism, but I would think an OT consultation would be a good idea.

[orangecanoe]

I would also see about getting a private OT eval and let them know that handwriting is your main concern. Hand strength may be a big factor and there a many, many ways to encourage that. Playing with legos, finding small objects in play dough, picking up objects with tweezers or tongs, using clothes pins, etc. My dd was helped the most by using a slant board and pencil weight (pfot.com).

[VisionaryMom]

Originally Posted by eepster

Or, if he isn't expressing himself as well as he would like to b/c he runs out of time.

This is his issue. I emailed his teacher Friday afternoon. It turns out she was online then, too, so we chatted a bit about DS. I am going in to meet with her next Thursday about math, but she said that she does talk about "having speed" with your writing because some kids daydream. She said that DS is doing great, but he would like to be the first one done. He's not, and she thinks it's mainly because he's playing catch-up with needing instruction on the type of assignments they have since he started 8 weeks into the school year.

He is prone to hyperbole, so I assumed his "I'm the OOOOONLY one not finishing" wasn't true. The problem is that her system, which I don't like in general, is that the children have to plug through a set of required assignments to move on. So, although he knows the word list she gave him, he still has to do the assignments associated with them. That's why he feels slow - because he's still working on them but wants to be moving ahead. I'm probably not explaining this well, but the problem is part-writing and part-desire to be first in everything.