Who should I speak to first about a 7-year-old's difficult handwriting before signing up for a tutor who mainly teaches writing ideas?
My 7-year-old can tell a whole story, but writing a few lines is slow and frustrating. I'm not asking anyone here to diagnose it. I'm trying to understand who to talk to before buying a term of writing tutoring that might be working on the wrong thing.
I'd bring a few ordinary writing samples to the teacher and pediatrician and describe what you're seeing: hard-to-read letters, trouble forming them, spelling, or organizing ideas. Those aren't interchangeable concerns. AOTA has a handwriting resource, but I'd use it for questions, not to diagnose: https://www.aota.org/practice/practice-essentials/evidencebased-practiceknowledge-translation/evidence-informed-intervention-ideas-handwriting-children-youth-5-21
Ask any tutor exactly what they'd work on in the first month. If they talk about paragraphs while you're asking about physically getting words onto paper, I'd pause the booking and sort out the mismatch first.
I'd keep an uncorrected sample too. My instinct is to tidy everything before showing someone, but then they don't see what the work actually looked like before I got involved.