Occupational therapy for poor handwriting: why it works

Most of our clients come to us to improve some component of handwriting or writing skill.  Parents often question why occupational therapists work with handwriting so much.  Handwriting is a very complicated neurological and anatomical process.  Usually poor or inefficient handwriting or penmanship is simply the symptom of a developmental process that is not functioning smoothly.   When a well trained pediatric occupational therapist evaluates handwriting issues, they should be evaluating specific developmental areas. 

Optimal handwriting skills also require fundamental skills such as:
core strength
sensory processing
fluency praxis
processing speed
trunk stability
bilateral integration
upper body strength
visual motor integration (also known as eye hand coordination)
visual perception (vision to brain processing)
pencil grasp, finger strength and
postural stability

This is why traditional handwriting tutoring by someone other than an occupational therapist may not give your child the improvement that they need.  Once a trained occupational therapist has helped a child to improve these underlying fundamental skill sets, then a child's handwriting will quickly improve. 

Mini Charmer's Preschool

The Mini Charmer's Preschool for kids aged 3-5 begins this Fall.  This school will be an opportunity for children to enrich their fine motor, gross motor and handwriting skills prior to kindergarten.  I'll be using the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum, to teach handwriting to this eager bunch of children.  With more and more private schools (such as Charlotte Latin, Providence Day and Charlotte Country Day School) requiring advanced motor skills prior to admission, this is a great opportunity to make those schools smile.