Horrible handwriting and dictation

[Mumkins]

My oldest will be 10 this summer. We've been working on Cheerful Cursive all year. While far from neat, it's a bit better than printing. Her printing is awful. She still mixes in capital letters where they don't belong and never hangs a letter under the line like 'g' or 'p'. There's often not enough space between letters either. We've just started dictation. She's capitalizing the beginning sentence. She's spelling the words right. But there's capitals where there shouldn't be and therefore that makes it wrong. The first couple days I was excited, hoping that this would help her handwriting along. But nope. So after the dictation, I have her write each letter that was wrong 5 times properly. Next day, same thing all over again. It's taking about a week per passage. Do I just keep persevering? She'll be 5th grade this fall and her writing is barely legible. In math, she still reverses numbers sometimes. I'm at a loss as to how to help her.

[striving2Bprov31]

Good Morning!

What you are describing sounds EXACTLY like my nine year old son. His writing has improved in legibility, but all of the aspects you describe are just like him!

I have no advice for you because all of my efforts to correct his problems are just not working.

We are actually starting the process to find out if he has dyslexia or something like it.

For some time, my philosophy has been to cease all handwriting until we find out what is going on to cause this problem, if anything. I have had a feeling that something is just not right and that "pushing" is going to make things worse and just add frustration to our day.

I am certainly not saying that that is what you need to do at all, just that this is where we are at......and that I "feel your pain"! You certainly wouldn't want to take our course of action if your daughter doesn't have an issue like dyslexia.

Hang in there!!
Hope you get some other replies that will help you, and I wish I had some answers for you!

[Carrie]

Mumkins,

I'm thinking a few things. One is to ponder whether this is a habit your daughter has developed or whether it is truly rooted in another problem. Once your daughter becomes more fluent in cursive, I would move toward having your daughter write as much as possible in cursive to stop the habit of inserting capital letters within her words.

Next, I would drop back to the beginning level of studied dictation (Level 2) and make sure to begin there (if you aren't already). As she is writing for her dictation, whenever she inserts a capital letter in place of where a lower-case letter should be, I would stop her and have her erase it immediately and fix it. I would do the same in her written work. For any written work, have her dictate her work to you, while you write it on the markerboard. Then, have her copy from the markerboard, and as she copies have her erase the capital letters within her written work as soon as she makes the error.

Barring a major learning issue, steady practice in correctly written dictation passages and copywork will slowly change the habit. It took time to form the habit and will take time to undo it, but it is worth doing. You can plan for it to take a year of steady correction immediately as the incorrect letter is written before seeing a change in the habit. Less writing done better is actually the goal for awhile.

On a sidenote, I would stop having her copy anything she missed 5 times, as it sounds as if it isn't so much that it is a particular word she's missing but rather a habit she has formed of inserting capital letters in the middle of any word (likely in a random fashion). So, the copying isn't solving that particular problem.

Blessings,
Carrie

[striving2Bprov31]

I know this isn't my thread or about my son's problems, but thanks, Carrie!

You know, I think I may just try your suggestions while we "figure out" if my son has a learning disability. It may very well be that he just has bad habits ingrained at this point.....

Thanks for this!

[girlboygirlboy]

My son has vision perception issues and used to often do the same thing you have described. I would check to see if there is any patterns as to WHICH letters she is capitalizing mid-sentance. I found that my son would often do it for B,D,P & Q b/c it was hard for him to remember which way the b and d or p and q went in lower case. One exercise that he did in vision therapy which really helped(and was so much fun all my kiddos wanted to play) was as follows: Set up a dry erase board at a distance. The student, holding a dry erase marker, stands about 6-10 feet away. You say go and just as the student reaches the board call out a letter. The child makes the letter. If the child forms the letter correctly, they get a point. If not, you get a point. They go back and repeat and you call out another letter right when they get to the board. Whoever gets 10 points first wins. I would start out mixing the letters that seem to be the problem with letters that they know well and then focus more on the reversals and letters they tend to capitalize. It really helps with forming the automaticity in their little noggins:) You can even draw some lines on the board so they can practice making the letters that extend under the line.

Blessings!

[holyhart]

Perhaps your daughter might have disgraphia? A lot of what you are discribing sounds like it could be (not that I am an expert in this by anymeans!). It might be something to consider. Here is a sight that you can go to that will have more info on that.

http://www.diannecraft.org/

[Mumkins]

Thank you Carrie and everyone. I will look into Disgraphia.I thought she was dyslexic when she was younger as it took her til mid 2nd grade to read, plus some of the things she did with words. But she's a very avid reader now. Once she learned, she really took off with it.