Mary Kostka teaches handwriting self-correction using a simple yes/no checklist for spacing, letter size, and legibility. Use a pencil under letters to check straightness, and focus on one target at a time so students don't get overwhelmed.
Aloha, Mary Koska here with ohana occupational therapy, ohanaot.com and this lesson in our how to improve handwriting is all about self correction. How do you help somebody when they.
Don'T catch their own errors?
My favorite thing to do with that is to have a little kind of.
A self check box that, that lists some things and I will give you that in the downloads. So be sure to open that up.
And it just has yes, no. So they actually look at their work.
And see if they did certain things. So did I use spacing correctly? Are there spaces between my words? Is the size of my letter correct? Does it fit correctly? Is it consistent? Are they all different sizes?
Are my letters formed correctly?
Can I tell the difference between an H and R and a V and an N? Or do they all look kind of.
The same and are they on the line? Are my letters on the line? One of the tricks I like to.
Do for that is have them take their pencil and go under the bottom.
Of all the letters.
And usually, you know, kind of looks like this, like a roller coaster and.
And then color in that space. And so the next time they can see, oh, it's straight, I did better.
So it's a visual feedback. I'll provide an example of that, a picture of that so you see what I'm talking about.
And can I easily read my own writing?
That's a big one.
And a lot of kids don't erase all the way.
And that's really what makes it hard to read their writing. So did I erase fully? So when I made a mistake, did I erase it all the way? You want to make sure they have a good eraser because that's a big problem, that it just kind of smears or they just write over it. So did I erase it all the way?
That's a simple one. So that's basically it. So teach them to check their own work.
And it's easier to accept your own.
Feedback than somebody else's.
So it's a great tool.
Tool. And then depending on the person, you might have them check all of those things or you might just pick one if they're actually trying to make a change. If they tend to have a lot.
Of things they're working on, it's really better just to pick one at a time and then just give feedback on that one. Otherwise it can just feel too negative and overwhelming.
But if they're generally pretty good and.
They just want to, they're doing better and you just want to check, check their work in general, then they could do.
All of them. So thank you. And that's it for self correction and have a great day. Aloha.
