MY SON HAS A BAD HANDWRITING: WHAT CAN BE BEHIND AND HOW TO IMPROVE IT

When children begin to learn to read and write, one of the things we focus on parents and teachers is in the way he draws the letters and how he writes his first words.

It is normal that the first strokes are not perfect, since writing is a skill that is acquiring and that is evolving little by little. But once this skill is already acquired, around the age of six, we can realize if the bad letter is maintained over time. Let's talk about what can be behind a bad letter and what can we do to improve it or help the child.

Writing is a skill for which the child is preparing from birth, and in which several processes are involved:

Development of psychomotor skills: to be able to trace the letters.
Development of laterality and spatial coordination: eye-hand coordination and the organization of writing in space are involved.
Mental development: translate sounds into letters and words.
Language development: ability to express and understand.

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Children with bad letter

What is behind a bad letter? Writing involves different skills including calligraphy, the way of writing of each person. Calligraphy are the strokes that give rise to the written letter and that is different in each child, depending on his personality and the moment, since it can change according to emotional state and behavior. There are days that make a letter more orderly and legible and others can write faster and messier, making the writing virtually illegible.

There are studies that indicate that children who have poor writing have greater mental agility. According to the results of an investigation by the University of Illinois, people who have a bad letter or "doctor's letter" have a higher IQ than people with legible calligraphy, and this is because your brain works faster than your hands. These people prioritize faster mental processing to put a nice letter when writing.

Bad letter vs dysgraphia

What we have to differentiate is if the child only has a bad letter (does not make the beautiful letter) or if there is something else behind: a dysgraph, which is really a difficulty in writing learning. Recall that this is something that should be observed when writing is assumed to be entrenched. from six or seven years old, not when the child is learning to write.

Dysgraphia symptoms:

Excessive rigidity or motor laxity.
Disproportionate and irregular size in words and letters, even within the same paragraph.
Difficulties to organize the letters within the word or phrase.
Change the address when writing.
Poor organization of space, is unable to write on a line and within some margins.
Fragment the layout of the letters.
The letters are illegible scribbles.

Dysgraphia can affect learning problems, lack of attention, fatigue or problems expressing yourself. Children who have dysgraphia can overcome their difficulties with the help of a speech therapist progressively until they get a good writing.

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What problems may be behind

Immaturity in the learning process

Sometimes it is simply that the child is not yet ready for writing. As we saw before, it is a process that requires a series of skills that will be acquired from birth. Forcing a child to do something ahead of time for something he is not prepared for is counterproductive. In that case, the bad letter it's just a matter of maturity and over time it will improve.

Visual problems

The existence of visual sensory problems It can also be one of the causes of problems with the letter. Pathologies such as nystagmus (uncontrollable and involuntary movement of the eyes), lazy eye, convergence problems, statism or the usual problems of refraction (myopia, farsightedness or astigmatism) are some examples that we can find.

It is important to periodically check the sight of children to ensure that it does not interfere with their learning and if so, find a solution. Your child may need to wear glasses.

Motor or coordination problems

It is also possible to find multiple type motor problems that cause calligraphy alterations, says neurosurgery Manuel Antonio Fernández. "This is because there are many mechanisms involved in the development of writing. Some are purely mental and others depend on the activity of nerves and muscles, as well as the coordination between them."

For example, a child suffering from a brain injury in the left region of the brain is likely to have problems in the control of movements on the right side. If the affected brain region includes manual control, it will be limited. In extreme cases, children who use the left hand are found not because they are left-handed but because they are unable to use the right.

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"On the other hand, the pathologies that affect the nerves or muscles such as neuropathies or muscular dystrophies can make it difficult to grasp the pencil as well as the speed of writing or the quality of the stroke," adds the specialist.

Learning disorders

Learning problems in childhood are an important cause of writing problems. Disorders like dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia they can have a negative impact on the evolutionary processes of child development. His knowledge and early detection is essential to find solutions that help the child to solve the difficulties they produce.

ADHD can cause poor writing and reading problems

According to the CADAH Foundation, hyperactive children often have difficulties in fine psychomotor activities. On many occasions hyperactive children have poor, disorganized calligraphy and frequent omissions. Two are the main reasons:

Many children have poor visual-motor coordination and perceptual-spatial difficulties that make writing difficult.
Others have acceptable motor coordination, but lack adequate automation. There are a large number of hyperactive children who, being able to write properly, get carried away by impulsivity and lack of habit. That is, they can write well but they need to concentrate too much to be able to do it constantly.

How to improve the lyrics

If we want to get the child to have a prettier letter, what we should do is as important as what we should not do:

What not to do to improve the lyrics

Rush learning: pretending that children learn to read and write when their brains are not ready for it is counterproductive.
Tell him he has ugly lyrics or crush him: we will not get better, but on the contrary; We will damage your self-esteem and you will end up hating writing. The lyrics are changing and will continue to develop throughout the school life.
Put it to do calligraphy cards left and right: in mechanized repetition there is no solution, the child has to see it as something motivating.

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What to do to improve the lyrics

A good posture: straight back and supported on the back of the chair that must be parallel to the table, without approaching the head much to the leaf (being located 25 or 30 cm.) and avoid moving the paper continuously.
A good pencil grip: the pencil should rest on the thumb and hold it using the thumb, index and middle fingers without pressing too much. This is a very frequent mistake that prevents the strokes from being smooth and harmonious. Nor put fingers far apart from the tip of the pencil, since they will not be able to control their writing. They should go at an approximate distance of 2 to 3 cm. of the sheet.
Coordination and relaxation exercises: make the children touch the fingertips with the thumb, first starting with the index and then with the little finger. They can even try with their eyes closed.
Practice fine motor skills: Let him play with clay, modeling clay, to skewer objects, with chopsticks, align dominoes and any type of activities that encourage clamp grip.
Games that reinforce hands and arms: play with handballs or any type of games that encourage eye-hand coordination.
Practice calligraphy while playing: It makes no sense to make calligraphy notebooks as a mechanized task because you will end up detecting it. Do it as a game, write your name and that of your friends with different calligraphy, copy a song you like, tell the shopping list by limiting the space with text boxes or lines ...
Consult with a specialist: if once the writing has been strengthened and despite trying to improve at home and in school, the bad writing is maintained over time it is preferable to consult with a specialist to determine if there could be any other type of problem behind.