DS (7, nearly 8) is very able and doing well in school. However, he is very resistant to writing. He is G&T in maths and loves reading, and I think part of the problem is that he doesn't want to do stuff that he doesn't find easy. This is a problem for work in school (he has good ideas but doesn't get enough down on paper) and also for homework (we have an agreement with his teacher that if he doesn't get it done within 30 minutes, he will have to finish it in his break time at school).
Today I told him he had to write a book review as we had won a book on here, on condition that we gave feedback. It was a book he really enjoyed, and he has a standard format for book reviews, so I thought it would be straightforward. However, it took 2.5 hours, with me by turns trying to help him organise his thoughts, leaving him alone, and getting cross at him and threatening to take away screen time. And he produced this:
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In Captain Underpants 9th epic novel Tippy Tinkletrousers goes back five years where four bullies were being nasty and George and Harold were trying to stop the bullies.
The bullies are nasty and powerful. Tippy Tinkletrousers is half good - half bad. George and Harold are good, sly and clever.
I liked it when Tippy accidentally shot ice at his feet. I also liked it when Captain Underpants sat on a swing and said "Yo, Tippy Tip. Can I have some ice please?"
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He can produce much better work than this. Has anyone got any suggestions on how to tackle this, please?
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Bright 7y0 refusing to do writing
cornflakegirl · 11/05/2013 17:14
I could have written this. I am sorry to hijack your thread, but to give you an idea... My DS is the same age (7 and 9 months). He too is 'gifted' in maths, science and reading. He is very resistant to writing. What he writes is okay for his age (book review, written a few weeks ago with no support: Zoom Encyclopedia is a brillent book. You zoom in, have a look and then zoom out. It is a fantastic way to look at our wold and beond. From plankton to super clusters, you can see the world in a totally different way. Wherver you turn will be a big suprise.) But his handwriting is virtually illegible, he is very slow and he rarely finishes his work at school. His pencil grip is awful. If there are any distractions, he finds it hard to write and think at the same time. the review I posted was written by himself in his bedroom. He wouldn't have been able to do it in the noisy classroom.
Last week, I showed some of his work to a family friend, who happens to be head of learning support at a prep school. She strongly advised us to get him assessed for dyspraxia. I hadn't thought that his problems were serious enough for a label - and maybe they aren't, we'll see. The thing that was most significant, in her view, was how difficult and tiring he finds writing. A reasonably bright almost 8 year old should be able to write a half page in the classroom without dissolving into tears, apparently.
Has anyone advised you to get your DS assessed?
Sorry for the long post, and the hijack, but maybe we could support each other a bit through this thread 
??
Thanks cornflake ! I was so pleased with the book review, I posted it on Amazon (with the spelling corrected). Seeing that he can write well just makes me all the more determined to sort out the handwriting problem.
Incidentally DS1 can also write neatly when he has to, but everything else goes out of the window (eg content, spelling, grammar) and it takes him hours. The SENCO I took his work to thought that this was more significant than the quality of the writing - as it may indicate a developmental immaturity, apparently. I'll let you know how I get on with the occupational therapist.
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