When my twins were in public school, it seemed a large amount of time was spent on handwriting in both their classroom and OT. And for awhile after I started homeschooling I worked on this too, until one day I had an epiphany...
They have such a hard time with handwriting and thier fine motor deficits make this such a hard, frustrating task for them...Why continue this? To what end?
I realized that typing would be a better use of the boys time, and since the boys have to type words occassionally into their communication device this was a very useful skill to learn. I also decided that a great way to have the boys practice spelling thier name and other words was to use letter tiles. We use the letter tiles that came from our Bananagrams game, but you could also use scrabble times, or other like items. Doesn't this look like a better way to work on learning how to spell your name than a handwriting task that ends in tears? I thought so too...
Great idea. I am going to be thinking about this and adding it to what I do with my daughter! Thanks for posting!
ReplyDeleteI love it that the bananagrams come in their own pouch. We bought the double set so that we could have plenty of "e"s and other commonly used letters when we get into making phrases and sentences practices. We still have the boys practice writing their first and last names but that is the only handwriting we do. Nice to see you here!
ReplyDeleteTHANK you! Our son has been working on writing his name (in school) for about 3 years. He can certainly spell it, but can't write without assistance. This is very helpful to me!
ReplyDeleteWe're fighting the handwriting/fine motor skills battle at our house too. Thanks for the tips! DD already has a Co-Writer program on the computer. I guess we just need to get busy helping her learn to type!
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