My Fine Motor Challenged 8 year older moving to Bigger

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mrsrandolph
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My Fine Motor Challenged 8 year older moving to Bigger

Post by mrsrandolph » Tue Oct 27, 2015 8:50 pm

My 8 year old son is moving to Bigger in a week. Handwriting is the only issue. He is brilliant academically. It looks as if science notebooking is the only area where we will have to do more writing than he has currently done. I am wondering how to handle it. I thought of printing out the verses on a "traceable" font and gluing that on the notebooking page and having him just trace it.. But I also don't know how well he will do with the diagrams and such in the One Small Square books.

Thoughts?
Shannon Randolph LOVING HOD & Running 4 Guides & DITHOR
Mommy to 4 Precious Blessings
Cassie (15- World Geography),
Will (14- Rev2Rev,
Ellie (12- Res2Ref), and
Jack (10- CTC)

Rice
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Re: My Fine Motor Challenged 8 year older moving to Bigger

Post by Rice » Tue Oct 27, 2015 9:51 pm

One comment I have is that I've read caution against having them trace. I'm not sure of all the reasons behind it but I believe that forming their own letters is crucial to fluency and improving in the skill, or something like that.

I would say to expect of him only what you see as appropriate and continue to increase it a little at a time. Don't expect of him, right off the hop, all that the guide seems to expect. It's okay for him to grow into it. If the physical act of writing is all that would hold him back, then accommodate as needed.

FWIW, I started typing instruction for my "allergic to pencil" DS (he had dysgraphia tendencies but I never had him tested) when he was about Grade 2. Just 5 minutes a day at first on something like BBC's Dance Mat Typing (free online) or some other typing program. Then, when they start written narrations I allowed him to type some of them (not everything, but enough to take the pressure off). It was a tremendous help and still is, now at age 13, in R2R's writing program. He now writes (or I should say, prints - despite his cursive being beautiful and his print bordering on illegible, he still chooses to print) his Preparing Extension narrations, dictation, written history narrations, notebooking pages, etc., but types his R2R writing (Medieval History-Based Writing Lessons) and R2R Science written narration (D3). (I know, interesting combination of subjects and guides, but that's where he's at. :wink: )

I'm sure others will have some good suggestions, too! Blessings,
Rice

DS 21 - GRAD '20: after WG
DD 19 - GRAD '21: after WH
DS 17 - GRAD '22; did CTC-WH + 2yrs non-HOD (🇨🇦)
DS 15 not using a guide this year (DONE: LHFHG-MTMM)
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LynnH
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Re: My Fine Motor Challenged 8 year older moving to Bigger

Post by LynnH » Wed Oct 28, 2015 7:20 am

I have also seen caution about having them trace. My son didn't do Bigger so I don't know if what he is copying is already in front of him, if not then I would write it on the same type of paper that he is going to use and then let him look at that as a model and set a goal for how many words he has to do and then slowly build that up. As for the diagrams and drawing in the notebook I am a firm believer that doing those is a good way to build up their hand strength. My son has CP with hand tremors and when we first started HOD he couldn't draw at all. I just never gave him an option when it came to drawing and I took whatever he was able to produce and kept encouraging him. I have seen huge gains through the years. His handwriting is still typical of someone with dysgraphia, but his drawing is actually very good and something he enjoys doing in his free time. I attribute that completely to HOD. I feel like God really used the activities in HOD to build his fine motor strength.
Mom to:
dd 22 college graduate and employed as an Intervention Specialist
ds 18 US2, Loved Preparing, CTC , RTR , Rev to Rev, MTMM ,WG, WH and US1
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Nealewill
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Re: My Fine Motor Challenged 8 year older moving to Bigger

Post by Nealewill » Wed Oct 28, 2015 8:52 am

How much writing did he do in Beyond? What did you do for Beyond?
Daneale

DD 13 WG
DS 12 R2R
DD 10 R2R

Enjoyed DITHOR, Little Hearts, Beyond, Bigger, Preparing, CTC, R2R, RevtoRev, MtMM

wonderfilled
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Re: My Fine Motor Challenged 8 year older moving to Bigger

Post by wonderfilled » Wed Oct 28, 2015 12:08 pm

I could have written this opening post! I don't know how our children compare, but I've often said that my son is good at a lot of things, but fine motor skills is not his strong point. I've been modifying some of the writing so he doesn't have to do as much. We are slowly trying to work our way up to doing all of it. Sometimes I'll do some of it for him; sometimes I just let him copy a sentence instead of a whole paragraph.

As for the diagrams, I'm slowly learning to let him do what he can and not stress too much over it. I usually model these for him, but he still has a hard time following along. I know that he is learning a lot about the subject we're studying while strengthening his hand control even if the drawings are not ending up like they should. I've already seen quite a bit of improvement since the beginning of this year and am eager to see where he'll be at the end of the year.

So I would encourage you to just gently challenge him with the assignments, but not let it become a time of stress for either of you.
Enjoying Heart of Dakota for our fifth year using:
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mrsrandolph
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Re: My Fine Motor Challenged 8 year older moving to Bigger

Post by mrsrandolph » Wed Oct 28, 2015 10:16 pm

In Beyond, the only writing he did was his spelling words. He uses a twist and write pencil recommended by an occupational therapist friend that REALLY helped him.
Shannon Randolph LOVING HOD & Running 4 Guides & DITHOR
Mommy to 4 Precious Blessings
Cassie (15- World Geography),
Will (14- Rev2Rev,
Ellie (12- Res2Ref), and
Jack (10- CTC)

rodandmegs
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Re: My Fine Motor Challenged 8 year older moving to Bigger

Post by rodandmegs » Thu Oct 29, 2015 4:36 am

I actually disagree with the poster who caution against tracing. He is only 8 years old. You could start out having him trace the verses, and as the year progresses, expect him to write a little on his own. For example, let him trace the verse, but have him write the reference on his own. The diagrams and such are not difficult to draw. My 7 year old and 10 year old are doing Bigger, and their work differs from their skill levels. Just know what to expect from his skill level and don't stress about it! It's just a notebooking page, not the whole curriculum. :lol:
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Gwenny
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Re: My Fine Motor Challenged 8 year older moving to Bigger

Post by Gwenny » Thu Oct 29, 2015 5:36 am

Tracing some could be okay, but I think the time and energy would be better spent by actually writing the words himself. One line of a few words written would go farther than tracing a whole verse. There is a big difference in the two. When you watch someone trace something and then watch them write that same thing on their own, you can see the difference in effort and pressure and how much they have to "think", and how accurate they have to be doing it. Tracing helps the most when first learning letter formation in print and in cursive. My 8 yo is doing the Cheerful Cursive book right now so I'm watching it again in action. He does all the tracing really well, and then the first few times he writes it on his own, not quite as easy. :) The tracing helped, but only so far.

It helped my boys the most when I would write the line they were to copy directly above where they were to write. Faithfully writing a line or two every day you will see great improvement. Trying to look back and forth at something, and try to think about writing each letter, and the spaces, etc was way too much. My son who is 11 now struggled more than my 8 yo ever did. Until this last year, he had to stop and really think about how to form each letter, it was tedious. I never thought he'd improve, things were so slow. But, I finally listened to Carrie and Julie and so many on here saying that a little bit consistently will get you there. :)

I would encourage you to also make sure you are watching the whole time he is writing. Making sure that he forms each letter correctly each time at this point in the process is key! That part is so hard for me because I so wanted something they could do on their own while I got something else done--but....It won't be forever, but it's really important. Also, with how tedious it is for them, when I would have to correct him later with something, or he had to fix something, that was torture for him. It was better if it was immediate feedback.

I hope this helps! He WILL improve. :)
Nancy
Dd29 married (w/2 sons 1/2/14, 5/24/16), ds27, dd25 married (w/dd born 8/9/16), dd25, dd22
Dd 19 HS in special ed
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LynnH
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Re: My Fine Motor Challenged 8 year older moving to Bigger

Post by LynnH » Thu Oct 29, 2015 8:14 am

I completely agree with Nancy. What she posted is why I cautioned against tracing. We tried everything with my son who has dysgraphia and he could trace, but it was a totally different skill than writing it on his own, due to the thinking involved. When he traced it was more like drawing and not writing, if that makes sense. His hand didn't learn to flow and he didn't have to think as much about what the letter should look like. That is why I think having the model for him to write from is better and it integrates the brain plus the muscle activation.

Since he wasn't doing all the writing required in Beyond then you would want to start out slow with requiring a little writing each day and also the drawing in the notebooking. Then increase it as the year goes on with the goal of having him completing the guide as written by the end. I know it is really hard to push your child who struggles, as I have had to do that each year with my son, but it really will pay off in the long run. The Twist and Write pencil is what my son used for many years. He then went to mechanical pencils and now actually prefers an erasable pen when he does write, but usually he prefers to type.
Mom to:
dd 22 college graduate and employed as an Intervention Specialist
ds 18 US2, Loved Preparing, CTC , RTR , Rev to Rev, MTMM ,WG, WH and US1
http://www.graceandfur.blogspot.com/

Nealewill
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Re: My Fine Motor Challenged 8 year older moving to Bigger

Post by Nealewill » Thu Oct 29, 2015 8:55 am

I agree with many on here about not tracing and trying to write a little bit at a time until you can increase his speed.

One thing though I would like to add and do wonder is have you taken him to a specialist to evaluate why he struggles with his fine motor skills? I know it is a pain and can be expensive but my son had the hardest time writing and cutting until last year. Every year, writing was torture. We tried several things. We ended up using the oversized pencils and those helped tremendously. But I did end up taking my son for OT and his hand muscles were overly weakly along with him not having much flexibility in the tip joint of his fingers. He couldn't "bend" his fingers correctly. So we did therapy off and on over 3 years and that helped tremendously. I also did push him to write more and more. When I started Beyond with my son, he would write about 1/2 of his math, spelling words, and then copy the poem for 1 minute. That was all. 1 minute! Then I upped it by 15 seconds every couple of weeks. By the end of the year, he was able to write for 5 minutes. Progress!!!! And it looked good too. When he started Bigger, some times we would take 2 days to do some of the writing activities. But by the end of the year, he was finishing everything in good timing. This year in Preparing I can see that all his hard work has paid off because he can write the volume required. He can't spell LOL so I am still right by his side. But he can write!

I would just encourage you, if you haven't already, to possibly consider getting an evaluation if you can (again if you haven't already) to find out why he struggles so much with writing. There are many reasons why someone struggles and this can help you better plan for the future and for what might help him better with writing.
Daneale

DD 13 WG
DS 12 R2R
DD 10 R2R

Enjoyed DITHOR, Little Hearts, Beyond, Bigger, Preparing, CTC, R2R, RevtoRev, MtMM

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