Cursive Writing for Mild Hypotonia/fine Motor Skill Delay

I would have her practice Form Drawing this will give her control. She'll have to practice though. Look up form drawing in the waldorf school. It can do wonders. If you give it a try have her do it first with stick crayons and simply practice on large paper before moving on to pencil.

Another thing that will help with writing is if she would take up kniting and sewing. Kniting regularly creates balance in the brain. Also work on a balance beam, jumping rope, lots of play outdoors climbing, running etc. Having her recite a poem as she walks forward and then backwards, she can also do this while reciting her times tables. I know this may seem strange but it is a matter of direct body, brain connect. If kept up, this will do wonders.

I'd also check with an O.T. someone from handwriting with out tears. it did wonders for my son's handwriting. The writing would be nice and dark at the top of the page and almost transparent by the time he got to the bottom of the page. and the spacing between words and within words was not optimal. if you're worried about it, then work on it. otherwise she'll keep getting comments like "keep it neater", etc. Good luck! ~C.~

Heck now-adays many children are not even taught (or at least master) cursive. So if it were me, I'd talk to the teacher and see what could be done. The problem will be that the whole class may learn d'nelian (the textbook or materials may be such), so you may have to work it out with the teacher that you will help her with cursive, so long as it's the traditional, if the teacher will be more lenient/understanding with her grading of the cursive.

I talked to a teacher last year about cursive and she said they will show your child each letter and practice but it is not as big a deal as it was back in the day. I wouldnt worry about it. my 16 and 14 dont ever use it. when I ask them to "sign" their name they look at me like im crazy. lol so i wouldnt worry to much about it.

Check out the Diane Craft writing program at http://www.dianecraft.org/

Her home therapy program is excellent! She also makes house calls and regularly offers workshops nationwide. Check her calendar to see if she's going to be in your area anytime soon. Even if you can't see her lecture or hire her to personally help you, she offers videos of her lectures and more.

Another option: Find a Brain Balance Center or Learning Rx center in your area. They offer OT in this area. Just google them and you can find a center on their locators.
You can see samples of her lectures on her web page or on youtube.com

She's very popular in the homeschooling community with familes homeschooling special needs children.

Handwriting Without Tears by Jan Olsen is an excellent way to teach handwriting. I highly recommend this. It is much easier than the D'Nealian approach, and many schools use it to teach handwriting, my own children's school as well.

If I were you, I'd have your child's doctor write a note to the teacher asking her not to require the D'Nealian approach. Order one of the Handwriting Without Tears cursive notebooks and use it instead. Also, look for an OT who specializes in handwriting. I found one for my son from looking at one of those free magazines they have in ped's offices that advertise all kinds of programs for kids - like summer programs and summer camps, that kind of thing. This OT ran group sessions of handwriting help, using Handwriting Without Tears (nice that our school used it too!) This was perfect for my son because all the kids were doing it together. Breaks were spent playing with "fun stuff" which was really hand strengthening and physical work with large balls that was specifically for sensory integration issues. (The kids didn't know that - they were just having fun!)

I hope this helps.
Dawn

My son is in 8th grade now, but has never been able to write cursive. He has dysgraphia, low muscle tone, etc. We found that writing Italics came pretty easy for him. The link below is to the series that he uses.

http://www.handwritingsuccess.com/italic-handwriting-seri...

Wow! They're actually teaching cursive? My now 6th grader only got very minimal instruction in writing cursive. I would let the teacher know that your daughter is having problems and see if she has any solutions.

Looks like what our school teaches.
My son had some fine motor delays. He's 9 now and might have a wee bit of writing fatigue, need a water bottle "started" etc.

What helped him was a fatter pencil, or O. with a cushy grip slipped over it. Maybe a triangular pencil might help?

I can't speak for what the best cursive style for fine motor skill delays is, but I can tell you (after looking at it) that D'nealian is the style of cursive I grew up with. All of the "front tails" are there to make the transition to writing actual words easier. Since when we write in cursive, all of the letters are connected, this style already has all of those connecting "tails" in place.