Instead of having my son, who has handwriting difficulties, do worksheets or copy things from a board for language arts, I let him type paragraphs from books he enjoys. I don't get mad if he changes the words around a little to make a funny, which he often does, just so long as he uses proper punctuation. He enjoys this and is able to type very well now. He would not use the typing program I got for him to learn to type a couple of years ago. He developed his own method, first one-handed, then using both hands. Somehow, he learned to type quickly--I am guessing about 50 wpm. My husband told me that his older highly gifted son from a previous marriage also taught himself how to type when he was young but insisted on doing it his own way and once tested at over 100 wpm, but my husband's older son did not have sensory or motor issues to deal with. I am happy that my son can type as fast as he can. There is no way that my son could write that fast or write that much, so I haven't been having him practice handwriting as much as I probably should. The doctor even recommended having him learn to type two years ago and it worked so well that I just haven't had him write that much any more.
How long should a kid with handwriting problems practice? I'm sure I will be asked about this when he sees the doctor.
The doctor might ask me how he learns the boring rote memorization things like spelling and I haven't decided if I should tell her about letting him do this while playing video games. He is learning an average of 100 words a week this way. He says he has to keep his mind active and he has always been able to do things like listen to the news while playing games in another room and remember more of it than I do. He told me yesterday that if he doesn't do something like video games while doing something boring, he makes up stuff like changing letters of words around in his head to see if he can make anagrams--even while he listens to people speak. He wanted to know if this was weird. He was worried that other people might think it was strange.
