Common Reasons for Poor Handwriting

Why do many people have poor handwriting? What are the common reasons for poor handwriting? Is it possible to fix poor handwriting? Is it a matter of simply learning to write more neatly? Or is there something more complex in the background? 

• if someone has low vision. When you can’t see well, you’ll probably have poor handwriting.
• when someone spells poorly.  It’s easy to hide spelling mistakes in messy handwriting.
• when someone has letters moving in his/her head when s/he looks at a page.  Movement makes handwriting indecipherable.
• if someone’s internal pictures fade away quickly.  Then the person won’t have time to notice the details in the pictures, thus in his/her handwriting. It takes time to notice details. Plus the movement [fading] of internal pictures will cause a blur / mess in the mind – and therefore also handwriting.
• if someone believes that there’s something motorically wrong with their hand or arm.  This belief will provide an excuse for poor handwriting and a barrier to the person’s motivation to try to improve it.
• when someone writes fast. Writing neatly takes longer. When you have no time, you won’t write neatly. This is why doctors and other professionals under the pressure of time are notorious for poor handwriting.
• when someone is ungrounded. We need to be still if we want to write neatly.

Do you have poor handwriting? Or does your child or someone you know have poor handwriting? Even if there is something in the background that causes your or the person’s poor handwriting, we can fix it. If you’d like to improve yours or help a child or the person you’re thinking of improve theirs, it’s easy when you know how. NLP has strategies that can help. And I’ve shared many in other articles on this website. Let’s talk about how.