Why Does My Child Hate Writing?

When your child struggles with writing, it can sometimes be hard to know where to go.

Handwriting concerns can often go unreported and unnoticed until a child starts to exhibit behaviours such as avoidance (frequent toilet breaks!), emotional distress, tiredness or a lack of motivation around school-work. 

Caregivers and teachers often report the following concerns in relation to writing development:

- Poor letter formations, difficulty remembering the formation or illegible formations.

- An unusual or poor pencil grasp.

- Too light on the paper or too much pressure on the paper. 

- Poor or slumped posture, lifting the arm in the air when writing, moving the whole body when writing, rocking or falling off the chair when writing. 

- Pain when writing, avoidance or upset. 

-Writing very little.

- Letters spaced too large, too small or squished into the side of the page.

- Messy presentation, skipping pages, poor spelling or grammar. 

Although you may presume that all these concerns would be down to motor skill development, you could be wrong as there is a strong sensory and gross motor basis to writing which OTs understand and can support parents with understanding aswell. 

Regardless of where your child is struggling with their writing, solutions can be put in place so they can perform to the best of their ability and feel motivated to write again.

Handwriting difficulties are also more common than you think with reported prevalence worldwide amongst children ranging from 6% to 34% with a higher prevalence amongst children with Dyslexia, Dyspraxia/ Developmental Coordination Disorder and ADHD. 

Handwriting is dependent on good transcription skills, working memory, and executive functioning skills which can be difficult for children with Dyslexia, DCD and ADHD.

Although we are moving more and more into a technology dominated world, handwriting does remain an important skill for literacy attainment and motor coordination development. However, there is also a time to move onto assistive technology depending on your child's age, strengths and motivators.

What's my Area of Focus? Handwriting

So if you are looking for support around developing your child's handwriting, complete a Gabadoo, select 'handwriting' as your Area of Focus and make sure to include videos that showcase your child's posture, pencil grasp and writing from lots of different angles. One of our experts will review your information & send you back individualised, solution-focused strategies and fun activities you can use to develop your child's handwriting.