Handwriting Practice for Teenagers (Hacks & Ways To Improve)

Good handwriting can raise the chances of getting good grades for teenagers. With digitalization in many sectors, computers and smartphones have made handwriting redundant. Pen and paper have become a thing of the past. However, we tend to forget that your handwriting is an aspect of your personality.

But, hey, don’t you worry! If you are here looking for resources on how to improve handwriting for teenagers or tiny ones or maybe yourself, let us assure you that you are at the right place.

If you are a parent fretting over your teenager’s handwriting or someone who wants to change your handwriting even in adulthood, this post will help you. You will know the reasons for bad handwriting here and will also get some guidance on handwriting practice for teenagers especially.

However, these techniques will prove helpful for others as well. Let’s get started.

Jump To

• Reasons for Bad Handwriting
• How to Improve Your Teenager’s Handwriting?
• Online Support: 5 Apps to Improve Handwriting
• Tips To Remember
• Frequently Asked Questions
• To Sum Up…

Why Does Your Teenager Has a Bad Handwriting: Assess the Reasons

It is extremely important to know the root causes of bad handwriting for teenagers as it will help you to find ways to deal with it. Here are a few reasons that might help you understand the causes of your teen’s bad handwriting.

• Incorrect pencil grip
• Bad posture
• Lack of guidance and support from teachers and parents
• Inadequate practice
• Using a blank sheet to write without margins
• Acquiring bad habits from peers
• Dyslexia
• Dysgraphia
• Dyspraxia
• Joint hypermobility syndrome

Things you need handy to implement whatever you learn in this guide on how to improve handwriting for teenagers.

• Good table and chair that will help your teen with a good posture
• Right kind of pen or pencil
• Pencil Grippers
• Handwriting workbooks
• Worksheets for practice
• Tweezers to improve pencil grip
• Mobile apps (if you choose this method)

How to Improve Teenage Handwriting?

If your child is struggling with writing quickly and neatly, you can go through our tips on handwriting practice for teenagers which will help them improve their handwriting plus their writing speed.

The speed of handwriting depends upon the techniques used. As the techniques improve, handwriting speed also gets better.

1. Warm-up before writing

Just like our body, our hands too need a warm-up session before picking up a pen. Our hand muscles and fingers get fatigued so it is important to build endurance in them.

Try to give your teens some warm-up time before they start writing, especially something lengthy. Ask them to make shapes with their fingers and hands or stretch rubber bands a few times.

2. Correct posture

Posture plays an important role in improve teenager’s handwriting and speed. Bad posture can slow handwriting pace. When you sit correctly, it creates a strong core which helps the shoulders, arms, and wrists to become stronger, providing more support to the pen. This gives more control over the pen, which in turn helps to write more quickly and smoothly.

3. Choosing the right pen

Practicing with the right pen can speed up handwriting. To promote correct pencil grip, provide children with a triangular-shaped pencil or pen. It helps in fluency and control. While writing on lined papers, it is better to use fountain pens. Using roller pens or gel pens can also increase their writing speed.

Also, holding the correct manner is also equally crucial in improving handwriting. Make sure they do not press the pen or pencil too hard while writing. They should use the frog’s legs fingers without wrapping the thumb around the pen or pencil.

4. Working on fine motor skills

To address this question ‘how to improve handwriting for teenagers’ one needs to consider their child’s motor skill development.

Working on fine motor skills will also help improve handwriting a great deal. Increasing the strength of your teens’ hands and fingers can help them get more control over the pencil. Also, when you strengthen their fine motor skills, it will improve their endurance of writing tasks.

One of the easiest ways to improve fine motor skills is to get your teens to do activities around the house that will use and develop their finger and hand muscles.

Cutting, sewing, knitting, coloring, playing board games, kneading, and stringing beads are a few activities that can help speed up handwriting.

Using certain tools like scissors, and screwdrivers also help improve finger dexterity. Strengthening the shoulders and forearms can also improve handwriting. So, encourage your teens to take up activities like swimming and climbing.

5. Writing slow

When you write fast, all you are thinking about is your speed. Your handwriting gets neglected as there is no time to focus on your writing or letter formation. So, encourage your teen to write slowly. That’s how to improve teenage handwriting with just some focus.

Ask them to pay attention to their grip and movement of the hand. Make them write purposefully and consciously. Once they master the art of writing neatly, you can focus on their speed without impacting their handwriting.

6. Write Small

Writing big takes time and slows down the handwriting speed. So, the key is to write smaller and also make sure to check the distance between notes. Using letter spacing will help your teens write smaller and increase their writing speed.

7. Practice daily

Practice is the only way to get better. When you make your teens practice, make them write neatly and smaller so that their hands get used to it. Encourage them to take some time out daily for handwriting practice. Sit with them every day and help them with their writing issues.

For handwriting practice for teenagers, one good idea would be to gift them a journal to write daily. They can pen down their thoughts in the journal regularly while ensuring that they are following the cursive rules. This way they would be involved and excited about handwriting improvement.

Online Support: 5 Apps to Improve Handwriting for Teenagers

To improve teenager’s handwriting, you can take the help of online applications as well. As it is the kids today are glued to their tablets, why not make some good use of them?

Most of these apps will help children trace letters with their fingers. Practicing with these apps will help them with letter formations and also with their grip and posture which is crucial for boosting their handwriting skills.

1. Writing Wizard

Writing Wizard is ideal for children from 4 years onwards. It offers lines and shapes, numbers, uppercase letters, lowercase letters, and words for tracing. Parents can decide the level of difficulty and program word lists.

One of the good things about this app is that you get visual and auditory cues when you stray from the tracing line. There are also interactive visuals for start and endpoints. Parents get the option to remove the tracing line, choose the font, and choose free play or 5 star mode where children have to correctly trace the line to proceed to the next letter.

There is also the option of user’s trace history so that parents can replay each trace to know where children faced difficulty. This app is fully customizable to suit your child’s needs.

2. Dexteria – Fine Motor Skills

Apps are a perfect solution for teen parents who are tired of looking at how to improve handwriting for teenagers the traditional way.

See, for handwriting enhancement one needs to consider their child’s motor skill development. This app does that and is perfect for middle or high school children and works on fine motor skills through letters and numbers.

This app is a set of hand exercises that work on improving fine motor skills. The unique hand and finger activities given here help build endurance, control, and finger dexterity.

A high amount of precision is required for the tracing tasks which can be sometimes frustrating for smaller children. For older children, these tasks can be motivating. The visuals used are engaging and playful.

3. Handwriting without Tears

Handwriting without tears makes handwriting practice fun. The recommended age is 4 and above. It is the app version of the classic wet-dry-try method. So, if you do not have the time and material for the wet-dry-try method, this is a good alternative. It provides uppercase, lowercase, and numbers for practice. For transitioning to writing on paper, this app works best with good visual cues.

It also has the option of putting the letters in the order of difficulty rather than the ‘ABC’ order. The only downside when using this method to improve teenager’s handwriting is that it may not be great for students who do not understand the verbal instructions well.

4. LetterSchool

Ideal for children above 4 years of age, this app includes great features. For practice, there are lowercase, uppercase, numbers, and shapes. With every letter, number and shape, it uses the tap, trace, and write strategy.

Children just have to tap at the visual start point and they can see the letter formation. First, watch the visual, then trace and write on your own without a tracing line. However, they will still be given cues for each start and stop point.

If at any time they get stuck with handwriting practice for teenager level, there will be visual cues to help them out. This app works great for children with limited motor control. If you want verbal instructions to aid your child, then you will be disappointed as the app doesn’t use any.

5. Ready to Print

Designed by an occupational therapist, this is a pre-writing app that progresses in a specific order so that children can master their handwriting skills. It teaches letters, shapes, and sounds. It offers letter tracing, connecting the dot pre-writing activities, and games where a child has to pinch and drag the pictures to match.

Activities are given in the order of most basic skills to complex ones. Tasks can be made more or less tough. The best part is there are plenty of activities where children are allowed to try writing letters independently after tracing with visual support. It also includes a wide range of pre-writing activities for strengthening the foundation of handwriting.

Tips To Remember

Are you still fretting over how to improve handwriting for teenagers?

Just keep these key pointers in mind:

• Figure out the underlying issue that your teen is facing when it comes to handwriting. Check whether the bad handwriting is caused due to bad posture, wrong writing tool, lack of guidance, false grip, etc.

 

• Know that some conditions responsible for your teen’s bad handwriting are dyslexia, dyspraxia, joint hypermobility syndrome, etc. If your child is struggling with any of these conditions, make sure not to compare their progress to other children and support them and help them out to learn at their own pace.

 

• Help them out by providing them with the right kind of writing tool, and appropriate furniture for writing, making them practice using handwriting worksheets or workbooks and encouraging them to write slowly and small.

 

• Encourage them to participate in household chores like kneading, sewing, knitting, stringing beads, and those that involve the use of screwdrivers, and scissors as it improves fine motor skills. Make them take part in indoor activities like coloring or playing board games and outdoor activities like swimming and climbing.

 

• The adage ‘Practice makes the man perfect’ stands true when it comes to handwriting. So, when you know how to improve handwriting for teenagers, just encourage them to invest some time to practice daily.

You can also keep them interested in writing practice by gifting them a journal to jot down their thoughts and feelings every day.

• Remember to be gentle in your effort. Compliment them whenever they show improvement and always make sure that you are pointing out their issues in a gentle manner. Do not put unnecessary strain on them as it might impact their progress negatively. Whenever they are bored or feel tired, allow them to take short breaks.

Related: Calligraphy Classes Online | Lyric Poem Writing | Grammar Courses

Frequently Asked Questions

Q 1. How to handle handwriting problems in autistic children?

A. Fine motor development is essential when it comes to writing without difficulty and autistic children lack these fine motor skills. By focusing on fine-tuning fine motor skills, parents can help autistic children with handwriting issues.

Here are a few tips to help you with:

• Consult a professional
• Make them do hand and finger exercises
• Use therapy putties
• Use sensory scribbles for training the hand
• Make them write words in modeling clay or wet sand
• Use handwriting practice apps

Q 2. Which exercises improve handwriting?

A. If you want to know how to improve teenage handwriting, there are a few exercises that can help.

• Make parallel lines and draw clouds for five minutes a few times a week. Make sure that every line should be of equal length and every part of the cloud should be proportional

 

• Write two rows of one cursive letter then proceed to the next letter.

 

• Try writing the whole sentences in the air for 5 to 10 minutes daily. Make sure to use your entire arm and not just your wrist till the shoulder.

 

• Practice capital and lowercase letters slowly. You may use spaced and dotted lines for practice. Do this daily for a few days.

 

• Write down all the letters. Now review the shape, size, and clarity of each letter. Underline 5 letters that look bad. Write them again slowly 10 times. Now repeat the entire process and again write the problematic letters 5 times.

Q 3. What are experts’ strategies to improve handwriting?

A. Few expert strategies that help the betterment of handwriting for teenagersare:

• Teach letter size differentiation. How tall letters and small letters are written, how descending letters should drop below the line. Practicing writing on highlighted papers can be beneficial.
• Leave a reminder strip with uppercase and lowercase letters on the desk.
• Use small smiley face stickers between words to teach them spacing between words.

Q 4. Are there any activities that help with handwriting improvement?

A. Few activities that can help you to improve teenager’s handwriting in an indirect way through motor skill enhancement are:

• Swimming
• Climbing
• Kneading
• Playing board games
• Using scissors and screwdrivers
• Sewing
• Knitting

Q 5. How to improve the handwriting of a 12-year-old?

A. Few things that parents of 12 year old can do to improve their handwriting are pay attention to the child’s posture, give them the correct writing tool, check their pencil grip, see how their letters line up, and ensure that all loops are closed, look at the Ts and dotted Is.

Reach a conclusion about what’s the root cause. Is it just a lack of practice or something else? Accordingly, follow the corrective measures.

Q 6. How to improve handwriting for adults via worksheets?

A. There are many handwriting worksheets available for adults to practice writing. Worksheets will help you master fonts and strokes thereby developing your unique style of writing.

They also help you decode letters, add some accent to their composition and create impressive handwriting. These worksheets can also come in handy if you are searching for resources on how to improve teenage handwriting.

To Sum Up…

Good handwriting for teenagers is crucial not only to get good marks but also is a life skill that needs mastering. It will help boost your teen’s confidence and help them succeed. Making teens practice handwriting can be a daunting task. However, be persistent and encourage them to practice, maybe through mobile apps or journalling.

Even if you are an adult, it is completely possible to improve your handwriting. Though you won’t be able to change it 100% but you can definitely make it look a lot neater and readable.