Issues with fine motor skills may affect speed, fluency or legibility of written work. This difficulty may also be evident in poor planning or organisation. Students may require additional space in the classroom or assistive technology.
Provide handouts rather than require copying from board.
Consider providing lines for written work.
The size of the answer space may need to be enlarged.
Match words and definitions from a word bank.
Hands-on activities.
Provide outlines and notes.
Encourage highlighting from text rather than taking notes.
Voice recognition software.
Assistive technology and software (eg. Laptops).
Consider alternative methods for student response (e.g. voice recorder, oral reports, etc.).
Allocate group roles so only one student acts as a scribe.
Allow outlining instead of complete answers.
Allow answers to be dictated or typed.
Accept short answers.
Allow use of preferred writing implement.
Avoid penalising spelling errors or sloppy handwriting.
Rest breaks.
Adaptive writing utensils or equipment eg. pencil with rubber grip.
Allow for a scribe and grade for content, not handwriting. Allow for use of computer.
Don’t penalize student for mixing cursive and manuscript (accept any method of production).
Peers may be used as scribes.
Photocopying of peer notes may be appropriate.
Allocate other students to take notes in group tasks.
Issued handouts of summaries and lesson notes
Redesigned worksheets to clearly identify answer spaces and working-out areas?
Explicitly taught note-taking and study skills?
Arranged for special provisions in assessment tasks – writer, extra time, separate supervision
Provided assistive technologies