One more question... I am finding great difficulty in teaching Xander how to write his letters. He has the interest (sort of..lol) but doesn't 'get it'. It's as if he isn't seeing what I mean. Any ideas??? Anyone use tactile letters?? Recommend a certain type?
You may want to check out "Handwriting Without Tears" and use that. They have neat ways to teach how to form letters. And you teach them in groups of similar letters.
For instance some lower case letters (a,d,g,q,) all start with "magic c". So you teach "c" first. Then on say "a"(handwritten a, not typed a) you teach them "magic c, up like a helicopter, slide down, bump". D is the same but the helicopter goes up higher. It teaches kids to bump the lines too and it shows little bumper cars there to teach them how to use the lines.
You typically start with capitals though. There the kids favorites are the frog jump letters. D,P,M,N,B, and I forget. You start in the top corner and make a straight line down then frog jump back to the top.
Once you learn how to write each letter the HWOT way what I would do is make him or get him a big chalkboard for his wall, or a white board, etc. Teach him there with the BIG arm movements. It is great to use a board because you can erase it.
There are also these special sticks you can use to make all the letter. It is a great manipulative to teach them how the letters go together. There are mini chalkboards or magnet writing boards to practice letters on. Those are designed for the capitals but you can use them for lower case as well.
Other ideas are forming letters out of clay, writing them in shaving cream, tub paint, sand, etc.
Does he have good prewriting skills? Can he draw vertical and horizontal lines, /, +, and circle? He will need those first before he can master letters. YOu can practice those the same way. Doing things on a vertical with big arm movements sometimes helps to really ingrain those skills.
(Can you tell I have spent the majority of this year teaching handwriting? Just ask me about pencil grips and we can really go to town.)
Just wanted to put in another good word for HWT. We've been doing it for a year with our OT and it really helped. Eric was really resistant to writing because it was hard for him and now after a year he can write almost all his letters and numbers. The approach is really good. You can order a lot of the materials yourself online.
I also suggest HWOT. You might try using it in conjunction with "How to Theach Your Child to Read in 100 EZ Lessons"(EZ100). With one of my ASDs it came down to realizing the abstract relationship between the symbol and that it had a value applied to it, in this case a sound (or two).
Good old fashioned macaroni art is good too, though my kids like pinto and black beans for those types of things, but same idea. Also making the letter out of clay or having them make it on a mirror with a washable marker. Like Renee said, big arm movements really help. It's the exagheration of the motion, first introducing the motor skill as a gross motor skill then refining it later into a fine motor skill.
I agree with the HWOT recs.....it's tempered though by the fact that even with this tool remembering letter names, sounds, how to form them....etc is extremely difficult for our DS (7) He's been dx'd with a reading disability though, so he has issues going on other than fine motor stuff. He's still reversing some letters, numbers and getting lowercase b's and d's mixed up. So with him the program is good but takes more review than other kids may need. Plus school was using a different method so he got all mixed up. I may do the lower case (yellow) book this summer for a review.....we'll see how the ESY and reading tutoring goes.
It's pretty inexpensive too. Even the chalkboard and wooden block shapes are pretty cheap. I made some shapes out of that thin easily cutable craft foam (small curve, big curve....etc) and glued a sheet of magnet to the back. Then we used it on his Magnadoodle To leave the shape of the letter there. It's great for the Caps. We could make the letter with the shapes and then turn the shape into something that starts with that letter with the doodle part of the MagnaDoodle. So an R turned into a Robot with some drawing.
You did remind me of the one minor downfall of HWOT. If you have a rigid teacher who insists that letters be written her way only then it could be an issue for him if he has already learned them the HWOT way.
The letters look the same and most are formed the same but some aren't quite. The HWOT ones are easier. It really isn't as much of an issue with printing as it is with cursive.
Also, most K teachers would be just thrilled if a child already knew how to form letters pretty well so I doubt it will be an issue, but I know we have had a few teachers through work who insist that writing be done by what ever curriculum they are using and that does confuse the kids.
However, as an FYI, I convinced David's K teacher to begin using HWOT for her entire class starting next year. She used it at the end of this year for Dave's class and loved it. I taught Dave that way and it helped tons. Mostly I just supplemented with the letters he was having a hard time with.
Mike's teacher uses it for the whole class for cursive and I really think it has helped huge. Mike would have had such a hard time with any other cursive method.
You may want to check out "Handwriting Without Tears" and use that. They have neat ways to teach how to form letters. And you teach them in groups of similar letters.
For instance some lower case letters (a,d,g,q,) all start with "magic c". So you teach "c" first. Then on say "a"(handwritten a, not typed a) you teach them "magic c, up like a helicopter, slide down, bump". D is the same but the helicopter goes up higher. It teaches kids to bump the lines too and it shows little bumper cars there to teach them how to use the lines.
You typically start with capitals though. There the kids favorites are the frog jump letters. D,P,M,N,B, and I forget. You start in the top corner and make a straight line down then frog jump back to the top.
Once you learn how to write each letter the HWOT way what I would do is make him or get him a big chalkboard for his wall, or a white board, etc. Teach him there with the BIG arm movements. It is great to use a board because you can erase it.
There are also these special sticks you can use to make all the letter. It is a great manipulative to teach them how the letters go together. There are mini chalkboards or magnet writing boards to practice letters on. Those are designed for the capitals but you can use them for lower case as well.
Other ideas are forming letters out of clay, writing them in shaving cream, tub paint, sand, etc.
Does he have good prewriting skills? Can he draw vertical and horizontal lines, /, +, and circle? He will need those first before he can master letters. YOu can practice those the same way. Doing things on a vertical with big arm movements sometimes helps to really ingrain those skills.
(Can you tell I have spent the majority of this year teaching handwriting? Just ask me about pencil grips and we can really go to town.)
Renee
Andie,
ITA with Renee. The HWT program is excellent.
visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
Just wanted to put in another good word for HWT. We've been doing it for a year with our OT and it really helped. Eric was really resistant to writing because it was hard for him and now after a year he can write almost all his letters and numbers. The approach is really good. You can order a lot of the materials yourself online.
Katherine
I also suggest HWOT. You might try using it in conjunction with "How to Theach Your Child to Read in 100 EZ Lessons"(EZ100). With one of my ASDs it came down to realizing the abstract relationship between the symbol and that it had a value applied to it, in this case a sound (or two).
Good old fashioned macaroni art is good too, though my kids like pinto and black beans for those types of things, but same idea. Also making the letter out of clay or having them make it on a mirror with a washable marker. Like Renee said, big arm movements really help. It's the exagheration of the motion, first introducing the motor skill as a gross motor skill then refining it later into a fine motor skill.
~SG_1Niner
I agree with the HWOT recs.....it's tempered though by the fact that even with this tool remembering letter names, sounds, how to form them....etc is extremely difficult for our DS (7) He's been dx'd with a reading disability though, so he has issues going on other than fine motor stuff. He's still reversing some letters, numbers and getting lowercase b's and d's mixed up. So with him the program is good but takes more review than other kids may need. Plus school was using a different method so he got all mixed up. I may do the lower case (yellow) book this summer for a review.....we'll see how the ESY and reading tutoring goes.
It's pretty inexpensive too. Even the chalkboard and wooden block shapes are pretty cheap. I made some shapes out of that thin easily cutable craft foam (small curve, big curve....etc) and glued a sheet of magnet to the back. Then we used it on his Magnadoodle To leave the shape of the letter there. It's great for the Caps. We could make the letter with the shapes and then turn the shape into something that starts with that letter with the doodle part of the MagnaDoodle. So an R turned into a Robot with some drawing.
Good luck!
Chrystee
You did remind me of the one minor downfall of HWOT. If you have a rigid teacher who insists that letters be written her way only then it could be an issue for him if he has already learned them the HWOT way.
The letters look the same and most are formed the same but some aren't quite. The HWOT ones are easier. It really isn't as much of an issue with printing as it is with cursive.
Also, most K teachers would be just thrilled if a child already knew how to form letters pretty well so I doubt it will be an issue, but I know we have had a few teachers through work who insist that writing be done by what ever curriculum they are using and that does confuse the kids.
However, as an FYI, I convinced David's K teacher to begin using HWOT for her entire class starting next year. She used it at the end of this year for Dave's class and loved it. I taught Dave that way and it helped tons. Mostly I just supplemented with the letters he was having a hard time with.
Mike's teacher uses it for the whole class for cursive and I really think it has helped huge. Mike would have had such a hard time with any other cursive method.
Renee