Absolutely nothing is working with DD9 right now. Suggesting that she write anything send her into a major meltdown of epic proportions....We do have worries about her spelling, grammar, etc. her work looks like that of a child at least 2-3 years younger
One of my kids has been
exactly the same way. He had to do a book report (due today) and I was concerned that the stress of all that writing would push him over the top. His letters were sloppy and poorly formed and they looked like first-grader had drawn them.
On a whim, I decided to tell him precisely how to write each letter. Examples:
- When you write an l, make sure that it goes STRAIGHT down, like this (write letter correctly). Don't write it at an angle, like this (write letter at angle)."
- "When you write h, make the backbone straight, and make sure that the lower lines are parallel, like THIS. Don't let the lower part of the h drift out to the right like THIS. See the difference?" Etc.
The changes in his attitude and his output were astounding. He started making pretty letters and then got engaged in the whole process. He worked for an hour and a half and was cheery
the entire time. He started noticing his own mistakes, and he didn't get upset about them. He said things like, "That's an A+ letter! That's an A+ WORD!!" One of our neighbors (who doesn't know about his writing issues) saw the book report and gushed about how gorgeous it looked. He was beaming.
The most amazing thing about all of this was that he didn't reverse any of his letters --- and he has a history of reversals.
I'm thinking that he's been quite aware of how bad his writing has looked over the last couple of years, and that maybe he's been feeling miserable --- or even ashamed --- of how bad his letters look. Maybe it made him feel stupid. Yet he may also have felt powerless to fix the problem because he just didn't know critical details about precisely how to form the letters. I suspect that the shame over the bad lettering was driving the meltdowns. Who wants to sit around failing again and again and feeling powerless to change the situation?
By second or third grade, it's assumed that you know how to form your letters, so he wasn't getting the help he needed.
Anyway, he's got a long road ahead of him, but I think he's finally on the way to learning how to make nice letters. He'll have to go slowly for a while, but I'm optimistic (for the first time) that he may be able to eventually write nice letters more quickly without stress.
Just a suggestion; hope it helps someone.
