FREE Tool to Help Handwriting Challenges
Published:
October 10, 2019
Contributor:
Sarah Shelton
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info.
Do you struggle with your student’s sloppy handwriting? Does it look like they are a “doctor-in-training?” You know what I mean, the chicken-scratch type of handwriting you see on prescription pads when you visit the doctor’s office. Often-times homeschool moms stress neat handwriting, but what if you have a child who just cannot write neat enough?
There is a free tool that you might want to check out to help with handwriting issues.
In the context of “Learning”, hand-writing is a skill on its own. Not being perfect in this skill –
- is no indication of the level of skill, knowledge or achievement in any other area;
- should not be a reason for slow progress or bad marks on test.
myScribe is a new tool, designed for children whose handwriting is illegible, or slow, or full of “creative spelling” (it is not a spell-checker!). It enables them to complete worksheets on a computer, laptop or tablet.
The Challenge Itself
Depending on the degree of difficulty, your child may spend so much effort in remembering the formation of the letter, so that the content goes out the window: the creative area of the
brain is six steps ahead of the writing area.
The result is a disjointed piece, and often sentences are missing words, or are grammatically incorrect.
Imagine the frustration that children who struggle with handwriting go through in trying to get on paper what is in their head. Often their verbalised ideas are so great, yet one’s heart grows heavy when one reads what is written.
And the heart grows heavier still because your child starts to believe their poorly written production is a reflection of their ability.
While their peers are displaying their knowledge in written form, those who struggle with handwriting are desperately waiting for that poster project or speech to show their knowledge.
How myScribe can help
Be your child’s struggle due to dysgraphia, dyslexia, ADHD, dyspraxia, visual processing difficulties or anything in-between, myScribe can help to even the playing fields.
myScribe enables children to complete any worksheet on the computer. This can then be printed and stuck in their book, or simply saved to the shared folder where the
teacher can access it later.
With myScribe your child can work independently, the teacher can finally see what your child is really capable of.
So how does it work?
With this web-based program worksheets can be opened from, as well as saved to anywhere: laptop/tablet/pc, or Google Drive (or similar). In this way the worksheets can be easily shared between the learner and one or more tutor(s).
- myScribe runs in Google Chrome browser, no installation required.
- Any worksheet, in .pdf format or .jpg or .txt, can be shared between child and tutor(s) using Google drive (or similar).
- Worksheets can be uploaded by the tutor, or copied on to the device via memory stick.
- Learners login to myScribe, open the worksheet, and save their work..
- The original worksheet is never altered: the learner’s work is saved as a separate file, with the
- learner’s name, worksheet name, and date of completion.
- Learners can choose to complete the worksheet in one of two modes:
- Split Screen mode displays the worksheet plus a separate text editor,
- this mode also provides a means of having the text read out audibly to the learner.
- Click and Type mode allows to click on the worksheet to create text boxes that can be moved and resized.