LoopDeeLoop
Handwriting from a Seventh-Grader
Here’s a tip if you have a child with ADHD, or autism, or crummy handwriting.
What we know about writing by hand is that there’s a special link between the brain and the act of handwriting. I see in many of our students a sense of being overstimulated and exhausted at the same time. At the same time, our kids spend so much time with their technology toys, their handwriting suffers. We can’t let this happen; it’s too important to the development of the brain.
I’ve developed a simple tool to help a restless child calm down. I draw some loopy loops across the page. In the illustration above, you can see where I made the first row of loops. I asked the student to simply copy what I did. As you can see, in the second row, he couldn’t keep them in the same line. But with practice, he got better.
Guess what? Kids love doing this. It feels good to them. And as a teacher, it feels great being able to give them something they can do. Success!
Writing Sample on the Same Day
On this sample, you can see that at first, I took dictation so the student had some point of reference. Then, I had him start writing his story (the red arrow) trying to keep his work legible and organized. A great improvement in only one day.
CONCLUSION: Kids need quiet space and time and they need time with grownups to show them the way! It’s not rocket science.
You are so right. A calm environment really does help my son. He was first diagnosed ADHD, then Gifted. He doesn’t care for overstimulated, crowded environments. He says he feels suffocated. He enjoys sketching his own tribal art on paper which seems to calm him, and get him focused. Lots of that tribal art his repetitive lines, shadowing, waves (like the loopdeloops), shading in, triangles, lauhala mat designs, etc.