I have the handwriting of a serial killer squirrel wearing oven mitts. It’s not pretty! I was kept in for every recess, missed every gym and art class for all of grade 1 because my handwriting was so bad. It didn’t make it better and 30+ years later I’m still traumatized by the memories!

Liam’s handwriting is mostly illegible. IF (and it’s a big IF) he really, really takes the time and focuses, he can do it so-so. He’s currently in grade 3 and they are starting to work on cursive, but he is still missing the basics of printing. He forms letters the wrong way (bottom to top), he reverses things so that his d is a b, it’s big and bunched up together.

They are using handwriting without tears at school, but he only gets a bit of resource time each week, and also needs to concentrate on spelling and reading. The worst part is how much he FIGHTS us on it. He doesn’t care, it’s good enough for him, that’s they way he does it are the constant arguments.

Any suggestions? Should we maybe look into an OT? or should we give up on writing and teach him to type?

First off, Andy, I think your first sentence above should be the opening to a novel. That said, my experience is this: My oldest daughter’s handwriting is quite illegible most of the time, which makes note taking very difficult cuz we can’t read it later. She worked with an OT at school (and still does) from kindergarten onward. She was able to learn cursive in 3rd grade, and that was more legible – the OT said that many kids she’d worked with did better with cursive than with printing. The problem for us was that after 3rd grade, over the summer, she pretty much forgot the cursive lettering. There wasn’t time enough in the following grades to spend time with handwriting practice, which is what she would have needed to get the muscle memory to set in and make cursive handwriting automatic for her. She worked with the OT on it for 4th and some of 5th grade then they started teaching her to keyboard (type). She took a keyboarding class at an OT facility over the summer and did very well with it. She is pattern oriented and learning the key positions is patterning. So, she now types, though very slowly. I think going forward she will benefit from the early exposure to touch typing. I think, in your shoes, I might do both – work with the OT on the cursive handwriting and keyboarding skills. At a minimum, working with and OT will give you another eye on the situation and hopefully some good tips for working with it. Good luck!