Do you want to help build a solid foundation for school success by developing fine motor control and learning letter formation skills for kindergarten or first grade readiness? Is illegible handwriting impacting on child’s ability to get his/her ideas across in writing? Is your child struggling to learn letter and number formation skills? Does your child shy away from cutting, coloring and writing tasks?

My mission is to provide quality, personalized instruction to develop foundational skills necessary for legible and efficient handwriting.  As a parent and pediatric occupational therapist, I have encountered a significant number of children who struggle with handwriting.  Some children do not "grow out of" their handwriting difficulties.  They develop poor writing habits, weak grasp patterns and inconsistent/atypical letter formation skills.  Early intervention is crucial!

The pre-kindergarten and the transition to cursive writing levels are optimal times to provide intervention.

Written production is a huge part of our children’s classroom experience. They are expected to write from kindergarten on to demonstrate their understanding of concepts and text in all subject areas. Standardized testing including the MSA and SAT now include written responses. To ensure academic success, it is important that young children develop solid foundational skills.

The goal of My Handwriting Helper is to provide effective coaching services to children in pre-writing, writing and fine motor development to prevent or remediate handwriting problems and provide a solid foundation for future academic success. Developing automatic, consistent and legible letter formation skills, spacing and alignment allows children to focus on spelling, sentence structure, punctuation and capitalization. When children have solid formation skills, they can focus on getting their ideas across.

I believe that writing instruction, to be effective for many children, needs to be provided in individual or small group sessions. I feel strongly that providing a multi-sensory approach in a developmental sequence and tailoring instruction to a child’s strengths, interests and learning style in a supportive/coaching environment is the key to success.

Services available:

• Diagnostic: An initial screening or assessment is required to initiate services.
• Intervention:
  - individual and small group formats
  - private pediatric services at your home or mine
  - pre-writing, print/cursive instruction, writing remediation, fine motor & sensory processing
• Consultative services:
  - parent trainings/home program development
  - sensory diets for the home environment
  - educator training for childcare & preschool providers, primary elementary teachers

I am committed to providing children, families and educational programs with the individual care, attention and excellence you deserve to help meet your child's needs.