The development of handwriting is an important activity in the school curriculum. However, the process of handwriting involves the complex co-ordination of motor, perceptual and cognitive skills which do not always develop spontaneously but which require considerable explanation, demonstration, experimentation and practice. Many children struggle with this area of their education with an adverse effect of their confidence and academic attainment.
At Fountain House we use several programs to teach correct formation of both letters and numbers. However, when a child evidences arduous work production due to spatial and/or motor-control, we invariable use a specific spatially orientated writing course. This program develops the intrinsic muscles of the child's hand in order to gain the control required to form the necessary letter shapes and to create appropriate spaces between words. It also develops the perceptual skills required to orientate letters and organize the page. The program consists of a carefully graded series of graphic exercised to develop hand-eye co-ordination, form constancy, spatial organization, figure-ground discrimination, orientation and laterality. The pupil is expected to complete one page or five minutes, which ever is the least, each day often using a thick felt tipped pen thus enabling the child to use their full kinesthetic input (muscle memory). When writing becomes automatic the child is free to think about the other aspects of the multi-tasking task of creative writing. |
