Common handwriting problems and solutions

By the time they’re about four-and-a-half, most children will have settled on writing with their right or left hand. ‘Being left-handed in itself isn’t a disability, and most left-handers learn to write perfectly well,’ says Dr Angela Webb, an independent psychologist and chair of the National Handwriting Association. ‘But research tells us they tend to achieve writing fluency slightly later than right-handers.’

One possible theory for this? Instead of having to drag their hand across the page with English script (from left to right) as right-handers do, left-handers have to push it. ‘There are also minor issues with finding the correct position,’ continues Angela. ‘It’s easy to for a left-handed child to either conceal their work with their hand when they’re writing or to smudge the ink if their hand obscures the writing.’

Poor handwriting can sometimes be associated with developmental disorders like dyslexia, dyspraxia, Autistic Spectrum Disorders or Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Reasons your child’s handwriting is hard to read could include:
 

• Poor motor ability – they can’t control the pencil and may form letters inaccurately.
• Visual-perceptual problems – they may not yet understand the concept of letter forms; for example they may form an ‘a’ as a ‘u’ and a ‘g’ as a ‘y’ or reverse letters.
• Attention deficit disorder – they write too fast, losing accuracy.

‘But writing illegibly doesn’t necessarily point to a disorder,’ cautions Angela. ‘If your child hasn’t any other disability then it could be an isolated writing problem. This is sometimes known as dysgraphia.’

The way most of us hold a pen or pencil is known as the ‘dynamic tripod grip’. ‘We pinch it between the ball of the thumb and index finger, with the middle finger underneath to support it, and the ring and the little finger closed,’ explains Angela. This is the best way to get maximum stability and writing speed, and most children will learn to do it by the age of six.

Being able to grip a pencil correctly is important at school. ‘There’s no link between intelligence and writing well, but there’s a high correlation between academic achievement and writing well,’ says Angela. ‘Basically, if your child can’t write fast by the end of primary school they won’t be able to produce the content needed in lessons and tests.’ 

Another reason it’s worth encouraging the right way to hold a pencil is that certain grips can cause wrist strain. ‘Any grip which means the hand is closed, for example, can cause problems later on’, says Angela.

Children’s early writing tends to be large as they learn to control a pencil. But most will naturally learn to write smaller once they’ve mastered what they’re writing with. Another motivation is wanting to copy adults. When they see that adult writing is smaller they tend to want to do the same. ‘If your child’s writing continues to be large by the end of KS1 it needs to be checked out,’ says Angela. ‘It may be that they don’t have enough motor control to reduce the size.’