Graphic Rehabilitation: A Solution To Improve Writing – Being Parents

Although writing seems like a simple activity, developing fine motor skills takes time and takes a lot of practice. How many times have you said that someone has “a doctor’s handwriting”? Have you ever read letters in which the words seem to dance on the paper? These habits are common (and not just in children), but can be corrected with appropriate graphic rehabilitation.

What is graphic rehabilitation?

Graphic rehabilitation means, as its name suggests, relearning to write. However, it is not reduced to calligraphy, as is generally thought, but also covers the motor aspects or the organization of the content.

What does graphic rehabilitation consist of?

Now that you know what it is, you are going to ask yourself: “So what now?” We need to know more in detail in which areas this new learning improves our way of writing.

The Twelve Traits

Alphabetical writing consists of twelve strokes. These lines can be straight or curved in a vertical and horizontal direction. It sounds easy, but you have to remember that writing a single letter requires a lot of muscle use and very precise.

We will use your analytical knowledge so that you understand the importance of a good foundation. Take paper and pencil and write a cursive letter g, just like children do. Watch the direction changes to the right and left, as well as up and down. There are a lot of moves for a single letter, right?

Imagine that you multiply these movements until you get a sentence or a text. It is not a simple task. It is therefore essential to correctly integrate the movements so that it requires less effort from us.

Improve the presentation

Presentation refers to the cleanliness and organization of a text. There are times when the lines move up and down to create watermarks. The margins may even be nonexistent on the page.

A good presentation speeds up reading and helps to understand the text. When children have to summarize, read, or search for information in a text they have written, it can be overwhelming. Studying already requires great concentration. There is no need to complicate the task. It is already enough as naturally.

Graphic rehabilitation exercises

Graphic rehabilitation is a long-distance race, so you have to be patient and very constant. Fine motor movements and organization are assimilated over time and repetition. The important thing is therefore that writing becomes a habit.

Calligraphy exercises

Calligraphy notebooks are well known and useful. However, they are usually not sufficient for those who need graphic rehabilitation. In these cases, we need more consistency and repetition, in addition to correcting the movements of the whole arm. In addition, you will have to work on certain aspects such as handling a pencil.

Remember that timely correction of these aspects is not enough, because it is a habit that must be changed. It is therefore a specialist in this field who will be best able to correct these “faults”.

Instead, we’re going to suggest a few alternative exercises to make it easier for younger children to pick up the strokes of letters. For example, you can use raised letters to follow the shape of the letter or paint with their fingers so that children write with less effort. These are fun ways for kids to learn about letters.

Some tips for a good presentation

The best method to improve presentation is to have a template. Normally kids write in notebooks with lines or pictures, but the real challenge is in the blank pages. So we have to try to solve this problem.

Take a sheet of squared notebook and a black marker. Now draw a line every two squares below the top edge of the sheet and two vertical lines along the margins to the end of the sheet. Finally, draw horizontal lines every two squares until the sheet is filled.

When they have to write on a sheet of paper, place the square on the template and secure the sheet with two paper clips by the edges. Children will be able to see the lines of the dark marks on the sheet and will act as a guide for writing. If they are used to writing this way, they will automate the movements to write directly.