It’s never too late to improve your handwriting. Here’s 4 tips for adults, from a Pitt OT.

We may live in a digital age, but expressing sentiments in a handwritten note - whether it's a message in a birthday card or a love letter - conveys intimacy and care, if you can read it, that is.

A program hosted at the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences' (SHRS) Wellness Pavilion, part of the University of Pittsburgh's Community Engagement Center in Homewood is helping young people improve their handwriting. Through Hope for Handwriting, held weekly throughout the fall and spring semesters, occupational therapy doctoral students in SHRS offer one-on-one support to local youth.

[Read more about the program from SHRS.]

"Learning to write by hand is being dropped from school curriculums and there's a rise in the use of technology in its place. Hope for Handwriting is filling a need in the community," said Kelsey Voltz-Poremba, the program's coordinator and assistant professor in SHRS.

The program, now in its fifth year, is also an opportunity for occupational therapy students to gain community-based clinical experience and practice teaching fine-motor, sensory-motor and visual-motor integration skills.

The handwriting skills participants learn in Hope for Handwriting will be used over a lifetime, long after school is done, said Voltz-Poremba. And while the program's focus is on promoting clear penmanship in youth, the practices taught in Hope for Handwriting can help adults write more legibly, too, she added.

Here are four strategies Voltz-Poremba recommends to help adults achieve better handwriting:

Track your progress

Learning to reverse poor penmanship requires paying attention each time you write by hand. Create a checklist of your handwriting's weak points and then track your progress in correcting them. Failing to close the tops of "o"s and "a"s, cramping letters together or irregular spacing between words are just a few examples of habits that can make writing unreadable.

Adjust your grip

By the time you reach adulthood, the way you hold a pen is reflexive. Experiment with how you place your grasp before you begin writing - maybe clutch the pen looser or tighter or adjust how you situate your fingers and thumb on the pen. It's hard to change grip once you're older, but it can impact your handwriting legibility.

Slow down

Writing by hand takes longer than typing. Give yourself extra time when tackling handwriting projects.

Take five

Your emotional state can be reflected in your handwriting. Feeling rushed, overstimulated or frustrated? Take a few breaths and get centered before you start your writing task. Taking a moment to check in with your feelings before the pen hits the page can help set you up for success.

Read some of Voltz-Poremba's tips for parents in Pitt Magazine.

Photography by Aimee Obidzinski