New Park Street Business is Just Write

Often times, children in, or about to enter, the public school system, find themselves at an educational disadvantage, simply because they don’t have the “write” stuff.

That is to say, they may lag behind their peers, due to underdeveloped handwriting and/or fine-motor skills.

Just Write Kids, one of Medfield’s newest businesses, hopes to reverse that trend through a series of “fun enrichment classes,” which focus on “fine-motor and handwriting development.” 

Just Write Kids, located at 36 Park St., offers motor-skills development classes for children in the 3-5 year age range, as well as handwriting classes for students in the first through seventh grades, which prepare the children to meet “all of the demands of school.”

“In general,” Just Write Kids owner and occupational therapist, Rachel Carpenter, said, “in order to sit down and write, you need to have good postural strength, fine-motor strength, and shoulder strength.” 

“Kids these days don’t climb as many trees as they used to; they’re not digging in the dirt and doing the things that kids used to do,” Carpenter said. “[Even] babies and toddlers are not on the floor as much as they used to be, so they’re not pushing up [as much] and establishing that strength.”

“If you’re falling behind because you don’t have the strength or if you can’t follow instructions,” Carpenter said, “you can fall behind pretty quickly.” 

Carpenter’s self-proclaimed mission, through Just Write Kids, is to “get kids to print [and write] functionally.”

A Medfield resident and mother of three children, Carpenter said that when “I go into my own kids’ classrooms, I see so many kids that are making their letters upside down [or] they start [their printing] from the bottom. By third or fourth grade, it’s hard to keep up with notes and homework because they’re making [their letters] so inefficiently.”

Prior to opening Just Write Kids, Carpenter was an occupational therapist in the school system, working with children “with all kinds of special needs.” 

“A lot of times, the teachers would refer these kids who had fine-motor difficulties or handwriting problems [to me]," she said. "As a kid, I was a ‘lefty’ and had a hard time with writing [myself]. So I said, ‘How am I going to help these kids?’”

The answer came through her attending workshops sponsored by “Handwriting Without Tears,” a handwriting curriculum developed by occupational therapist, Jan Olsen.

“I thought ‘this is fantastic,’” Carpenter said.

After training to become a “handwriting specialist,” Carpenter began offering tutoring services to Medfield children and soon was getting so many calls she couldn’t fit them all into a private tutoring schedule.”

The obvious need for her services led Carpenter to launch Just Write Kids, which officially opened its doors in September.

“I have students starting the semester on Oct. 4,” Carpenter said. "The classes run for 45 minutes, once-weekly. The semester lasts for 12-13 weeks." 

Following each class, Carpenter provides parents with a five-minute update on their child’s progress and provides at-home activities so that children can practice their skills between classes.

“It’s like a sports skill,” Carpenter said, “It improves with practice. Practice is key.”

Although Just Write Kids caters to children aged 3-13, Carpenter says most of her students are children in grades three through five.

"I’ve had so many parents say to me; 'I’ve noticed it though the years and hoped it would get better and it never did,’” Carpenter said. “For the older kids, first grade through seventh grade; when you teach the kids how to focus on where they need help, they’re able to monitor themselves with spacing placement of letters, general neatness and consistency in the formation of the letters.” 

Younger children are “going to know their shapes and all of their letters” and strengthen their motor skills, according to Carpenter.

“They’ll have a boost, so that when they go to school, they’ll be less likely to fall behind,” Carpenter said.

Classes are conducted in a group setting, although plans for individual instruction opportunities are in the works.

More information and a Just Write Kids class schedule is available at www.justwritekids.com.

Rachel Carpenter can be contacted at (508) 801-8118.