Handwriting: how to support students

A teacher-facing resource providing tips on helping secondary students with handwriting difficulties. Deborah Smith, an experienced paedeatric occupational therapist, explains how environmental factors, physical activities and adjustments can make a difference, and provides some simple suggestions including:

• warm-up activities 
• how to set the correct desk and chair height
• stretches for poor pen grip
• how to improve in-hand manipulation
• bilateral integration activities
• the correct shapes of letters for speed and legibility.

Deborah gives the context of the issues underlying handwriting problems in her article 'Handwriting in secondary school'.