Treatment for handwriting difficulties
Handwriting is a complex skill that relies on a variety of body systems, including vision, fine motor, cognition, visual perceptual skills, core strength, gross motor skills and stability. Difficulties in any of these areas may make writing more difficult for you child. Occupational therapists are well equipped to assess and determine where you child may be having issues and can create specific interventions to target those areas and handwriting as a whole. Children who struggle with writing often also struggle academically, getting good grades leading to decreased self-esteem and increased anxiety.
Factors and challenges that can impact writing:
- Dysgraphia: Children with dysgraphia struggle with forming letters, words and sentences, spelling, placement or alignment on paper and organizing their thoughts on paper.
- Fine motor difficulties: Some children may have fine motor skill deficits, making it difficult for them to manipulate their writing tool, such has hyper-mobility of joints or reduced in-hand manipulation skills. This can affect the legibility of their writing and increase hand fatigue.
- Visual-motor integration issues: Writing involves the coordination of visual input and motor skills. Children with visual-motor integration difficulties struggle to motor plan what they are seeing and impact their ability to copy letters.
- Working memory deficits: Writing involves multiple cognitive processes, including working and long term memory. Children with working memory deficits may struggle to hold and manipulate information in their mind while writing.
- Attention difficulties: Children with attention issues, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), may find it challenging to sustain focus during extended writing tasks, leading to incomplete or disorganized work.
How Polka Dot Kids can help
Occupational therapy helps target the reason why your child may be struggling with writing then forms a treatment plan to gain or improve the skills they need to overcome the reason or challenge. This could include adaptations to writing tool or paper, unique visual motor activities for skill acquisition or improving visual perceptual skills.