Helpful Hints for Writing
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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