Adapting Handwriting Booklets for Individual Students

A few years ago our county developed handwriting booklets for kindergarten and first grade students.  The booklets are basically okay for most students, yet many of the students who receive OT in the schools will benefit from fewer repetitions of letters and eliminating the laborious sentence copying that is on some pages.

For a student I've recently begun working with in first grade, I added a "bookmark" to her handwriting book.  The bookmark is a clear page protector that has a list of tips to read on one side and a photo of the student's pencil grasp on the other side.  The tips are for the classroom aide, to remind her of how to present and supervise handwriting practice.  The photo is for the aide and the student, to remind them of a functional handwriting grasp to use when writing.  Here's hoping this adapted handwriting practice will encourage the student to write her best during brief practice sessions and improve her legibility over time.

Here are the tips:

 Student demonstrates to adult how to hold pencil correctly.


 Adult asks, “Where do we start our letters?” and student answers, “At the top!”  (Thank you, HWT!*)

 If it’s a round letter, like the letter “O” the adult asks, “Where do we start our letters?” and the student answers, “At 12 o’clock,” or “At the top of the clock.”

 Round letters are formed counterclockwise.

 Point out which line of the letter should be made first and have the student “draw” that line in the air, using their index finger, in the correct direction. Do this for each part of the letter before picking up a pencil.

 Keep your eyes on the student’s paper while they do the following step. Be ready to help them form the letters in the correct direction.

 On the page, have the students trace the guide letters and then write two letters on their own. (We want them to make two well-formed letters, then stop.) Do not trace words or sentences until later in the year.

 Avoid erasing, just cross out a poorly-made letter.

*Handwriting Without Tears has a great song to sing to remind students about where to start their letters.
http://www.hwtears.com/

  

Sky Writing for Handwriting Remediation

Oh, my goodness, this is unbelievably fun to watch:

http://www.ictgames.com/sky_writing.html


Found it, and other interesting resources at:

http://www.judyphelps.net/handwriting.htm

Website for Handwriting Worksheets to help teachers

This is a great website for free handwriting practice worksheets because you can customize the appearance, layout, font size, number of repetitions.....all very helpful for teachers who only have access to commercial handwriting worksheets, or none at all.  Encourage your teachers to have students copy a letter or word just once or twice so that the quality of the students' work doesn't deteriorate from too many repetitions.


Free Handwriting Worksheets

Fine Motor--Language Rich Activity for the Holidays

This morning the speech-language pathologist (SLP) and I ran an activity group for high schoolers who are in a class for students with autism.  Overall, the students in this classroom demonstrate good eye-hand coordination and dexterity but often have poorer hand strength and endurance than would be expected for their age and general physical ability.  The co-led group is primarily language focused and OT inserts fine motor challenges and adds sensory opportunities to whatever activity is planned.
The students needed a little help with using the hot glue "device" but improved as they several opportunities to place glue on the wooden base.  I helped them by pushing down on the glue stick whenever they pulled the trigger, since the glue was a little reluctant to flow, at times.  You have to be very careful when using hot glue, since the barrel of the device is hot as well as the freshly emerged glue.  Another caution--examine the wood carefully and look for lurking bugs who might be hiding inside any crevices.
The photos will led you through the sequence of the activity.  Note that an adult drilled a candle-sized opening into the wooden bases prior to the activity.  You could hot glue the candle onto a flat base, but it probably wouldn't remain sturdy.

Result:  A festive candle holder which makes a pretty gift for families, favorite teachers and school administrators.

Range of Motion as a byproduct of fun

Plain exercise can be boring.  Get the music going, arrange safe materials to explore in an easy-to-reach location and let the students get their UE exercise in a fun way.

Enjoying the Sensory Flag

Visited the high school yesterday where the creative teacher has placed the sensory tent with all the lights and streamers for students to view and explore.  One student, who usually is only attentive to shiny materials, was seated near the "sensory flag" and was moving his hand across its surface, exploring the sewn-on felt leaves, silk leaves and other items attached to the scarecrow flag.  Lots of active movement going on!

Get a head start on those Christmas trees

When you only work with a student once a week you have to start your holiday-themed fine motor activities long before the special date actually arrives.  On Monday I walked into a classroom to see the cute bread dough turkeys sitting, all lonely, on a drying rack because they hadn't been ready to head to the students' homes in time for Thanksgiving.

Well, we're starting our Christmas trees now so they'll be completed in time for December 17th--our last day of school before the break.  This task is excellent for planning, size discrimination, sequencing, tracing, using paper clips (one smiley face slides on top of the paper and one smiley face goes under the paper,) cutting, assembling, glueing and creative decorating. 

I usually make a tree alongside the students in order to model different ways to approach cutting, drawing decorations and sighing, "It's okay," when something doesn't turn out so perfect.  I had a little guy start to tear up today because his first triangle wasn't perfect but he got over it by the third one.  Besides, the trees look more artistic when they're not perfect.

P.S.  Cutting out those pointy stars is pretty difficult and drawing them is downright impossible for many youngsters.