Six Year Old Writing Letters

You can also ask the teacher (or pediatrician) about how he grips things. Does he have problems with coloring and scissors, too? My DD was grabbing crayons with a fist grip last year and they suggested I work with her to form a pencil grip. It's made a difference. And, frankly, I don't make her write a particular way. If the lines get on the page and it looks like a letter, it doesn't need to be "standard".

A fun way to practice writing is to use bath crayons or bath markers.

For some kids, it hurts to hold a pencil or crayon. You may want to start by strengthening his little hands. Give him a stress ball to squeeze and let him play with Playdoh.

Put some shaving cream on an old cookie sheet (or get one from the Dollar Store) and have him form the letters with his fingers for practice. You can also put sand in the cookie sheet and let him trace in the sand.

Use a smaller pencil, like a golf pencil. It may be easier for him to hold.

Write the letters with a highlighter and have him trace them. Then, start leaving out parts of the letter and have him 'finish it' for you.

Finally, do both of you a favor and limit the amount of practice time! Use a timer and tell him that "we will practice for 10 minutes and then you are done". He really doesn't need much more time per day than that.

Good luck, he will get it!

Get workbooks, in which the child traces.... over the dotted lines of the letters.
This is about fine-motor skills. And practice.
Have him do mazes, coloring books etc.

Don't loose your patience.
My Mom used to loose her patience w/me per certain academic things... and after awhile, I HATED doing anything school related with her. So then, I just was closer to my Dad.

What does your son's teacher, say?

Boys are very active. How long... are you having him do this?
1 hour?
10 minutes?
It makes a difference.
Make it fun, for him.
Not a "chore."

Try not to lose your patience.

If you are not good at working with him on this, get someone who is. You can get a tutor and maybe even hire a high school or college student who wants to study in education to help.

At our school, we have the letters which are drawn out with hyphens and the children trace them then make a line of them on their own.

Another thing we do is to use a highlighter and allow the children to trace them.

Children LOVE to write on the teacher's desk so we will let them write the letters on the desk with dry erase markers.

Another fun but messy way is to use shaving cream or finger paints and write the letters in those.

Make it fun, don't make it a "job" where he will get turned off and not want to try.

Good luck

I got my son this little contraption called the writing claw to help his pencil grip. My son is a lefty and has a hard time with his grip. This little thing is a huge help. Check it out, my son loves it :). Ordered mine from amazon.

http://www.writingclaw.com/Pages/default.aspx

Good luck!

This site has some great suggestions for improving fine motor skills and most of them seem to be more like playing than learning, which may help him be successful, as well as provide less stress for you.

http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/

You know, you might try to get someone else working on this with him.

Depending on his age (is he a "young 6" -- going into 1st grade -- or an "old 6" -- going into 2nd?) and the extent of the issue, this somebody could either be an occupational therapist or a program like Kumon.

I say this not because I think this is a serious problem and not because I think you're anything other than a wonderful, capable mom, but because one of the hardest, most important parenting lessons (for me) is that you can't do it alone. Frustration is sometimes a (divine? subconscious?) message that it's time to expand your circle.

Hi L.,
First, do not lose your patience, he is just 6 yo. Some kids learn to write later than others, but being impatient only will tear down his enthusiasm and ruin his motivation. Do not expect him to write for one hour or more; it is more fruitful if you make it short and fun. You may want to try the following activities to help him first to develop his motor skills:
Write big letters with highlighter and have him to trace them (use different colors to make it fun and more noticeable);
Give him tweezers and 2 little boxes. Place the boxes apart, and place cheerios or pompoms (craft store or Walmart) in one of them. Have him to pick up one by one with the tweezers from one box into the other box.
Draw circles, rectangles, triangles with a thick point marker, and have him to cut through to practice turns.
Enjoy!
A.:)

Why do you lose your patience? You actually know your son is having motor problems, but you lose YOUR patience? Bless his heart, I'm surprised he hasn't given up.

Your son needs HELP. Where is the school in this? Have you had him evaluated by an occupational therapist? Have you had him evaluated by a pediatric neurologist?

If you don't get him some help, he's going to suffer in school from now until he drops out of school, L.. Get on the stick and get him some help. And stop losing your patience.