Area of Concern:  Writes too large

• provide boxes for each word or individual letter as necessary
• use dotted lined paper with a middle line
• highlight the boundaries for writing, for example, the area between the dotted middle line and the bottom writing line

Area of Concern:  Writes too small

• work on a vertical surface to encourage larger arm movements, for example, chalkboard, easel, paper taped to wall
• make posters encouraging the child to write big
• use boxes that eventually get larger in size

Area of Concern:  Writes too light

• experiment with various types of pencils and/or pencil grips
• encourage hand strengthening activities - play games with resistance such as clothespins and clay; encourage squeezing and pulling activities
• make crayon rubbings - have the child use a brightly colored crayon to color a picture, pressing very hard; color over that with a black crayon; use a fingernail or toothpick to "scrape off" some of the black to create a picture

Area of Concern:  Writes too dark

• experiment with various types of pencils and/or pencil grips
• place a piece of foam or a folder under the child's paper
• encourage the child to write like a ghost, as light as possible
• work on a vertical surface

Area of Concern:  Writes words that are too close together or too far apart

• use a popsicle stick as a spacer to place between the words when writing
• place small stickers between each word
• highlight the space between each word; if the highlighter touches any letters, the words are too close together

Area of Concern:  Written text does not start at the left edge of the paper

• place stickers at the beginning of the writing line
• draw a red or pink vertical line down the left side of the paper

Area of Concern:  Letters and/or words are not on the writing line

• highlight the bottom writing line
• thicken the writing line

Area of Concern:  Letters and/or words are not between the lines

• change the line size/height, for example, if a student in kindergarten can not write large enough to fill up the space, try using narrower paper such as first grade paper
• highlight the bottom half of the writing line - area between the dotted middle line and the bottom writing line