Writing | ADHD Information

My 6 year old son has terrible handwriting! And everytime I have a conference with his teacher she gives me a hard time about it. She said she spoke with the OT and the OT seems to think his handwriting is just fine. Yet, the teacher still insists that my son needs to work on his handwriting.

My thoughts are this...He seems to write fine when he is forced to slow down and focus, otherwise he is just rushing through it to get it done. I have read this is common for ADHD'ers. As it stands now I don't worry about it. I'm afraid if I push the issue he will just get more frustrated and it won't help him any in the long run to be constantly harping on him over something so trivial. After all he is just in 1st grade and most of his peers are already 7 and he just turned six a few months ago....What are your thoughts?

LonerGirl39171.5737152778Hi, my dd also has bad handwriting. I worked with her a lot in preschool. We even did a little Handwriting Without Tears program. Now, however, it is what it is. I'm not going to fuss with her about it. I feel that in the grand scheme of things, good handwriting is not at the top of the list....    You should tell the teacher to back off. He doesn't need to be made to feel bad about himself because of handwriting!I have very poor handwriting, as does my daughter.  I, too, feel that the teacher should back off.  I have always found that the more pressure that I am under to write neatly, the more likely that I am to make mistakes and write sloppy.  My daughter is the same way.  I think that it is because we have to concentrate so hard that it exhausts or makes us nervous and the ability to focus suffers.  If left alone, the situation may correct itself.My youngest had such bad writing (messy and phonetic spelling) that her writing was unreadable and the effort was so much that her furstration built to the point that she refused to write. She is getting extra help in special ed for her writing as part of an IEP; and since starting meds, her printing and spelling have improved dramatically. She is now starting to re-learn how to write cursive in special ed.As a teacher I can tell you that most 6year old boys have terrible handwriting.  He sounds pretty normal to me.Ds 18 is ad/hd dysgraphic with a very low visual processing score.   I didn't stress about his handwriting when he was young because there were too many other issues which I felt were more important.  The down side of this was that he was allowed to develop habits of forming his letters wrong.  In first and second grade they ended up looking like they were supposed to, he just made them differently.  This habit ended up making it difficult for him to learn cursive (tchr told him to stop using it in 5th grade) and print legibly when he was in a hurry.  (most of the time )  He could not even read his own notes.  He ended up with a 504 which included a word processor and getting class notes to help.

The good side of all this?
Evidently there is an increase in small motor development between the ages of 17-22 and I have been witness to it in the last 6mos.  In December I figured that this was my last chance for him to learn cursive.  I taught him cursive using the  Loops & Other Groups alphabet model.  Much to my amazement, he has developed  legible cursive that flows!  Even his math notation is even and neat.  It looks like someone elses handwriting!