What is your 7 year olds writing like

[bigfatmom]

I suspect my 7 year old ds's writing is not as advanced as what it should be for his age.

His writing is crooked, he goes outside of the lines, and his wrting goes big and then small.

He is also still writing numbers and some letterS back to front as well.

He also despises writing he is perhaps okay with a simple sentence but will start moaning if its more involved.

Homework is a nightmare if it requires a fair bit of writing.

My ds's school gives out homework sometimes that requires much more writng than my ds is prepared to do, and I feel awful as the school obviously thinks he should be able to do it.

He has a project he has to do on a animal of his choice it has got to be done in book form, with a index, glossary, facts, etc, and I know I will end up doing most of the writing for him as he gets very angry with it all.

Is anybody having similar problems with their dc.

[Niecie]

I have a DS (also &)with similar problem but he has a dx of dyspraxia so it isn't his only motor skill problem.

There are various courses you can use to help with handwriting. One that the school was going to use for DS was Write from the Start. They decided to do their own thing in the end as I already had the book but it is helpful, if you can persuade him to do it. It only needs 5 minutes a day though.

The other thing that helped DS in Yr 2 was practicing jointed up/cursive handwriting - somehow it helped him regulate the size of his letters. They don't seem to practice it in Yr 3 though.

Have you talked to his teacher about it? Does she have any concerns?

Frankly, I think all the homework they have to do at 7 is too much, especially for boys who don't like handwriting. Sometimes I feel I have to sit with DS as he writes every single letter and I hate homework day!

You have my sympathy.

[Niecie]

That should say 'also 7' not '&'!

[pedilia]

DS is 7 and had this problem last year, when I spoke to his teacher especially about the writing back to front she said it was quite normal and nothing to worry about.
I did a lot of writing at home with him that was fun i.e writing a shopping list for me, writing a letter to Granny and it improved no end and is now very good.

Have you spoken to his teacher?

[ComeOVeneer]

FWIW, my dd (6) has terrible handwritting (just as you described in the OP. However she is on the G+T register in her shcool for maths, reading and computer skills. Face it some of us just have bed writting (look at docotrs ).

[ComeOVeneer]

And some of us have even worse typing/spelling!

[bigfatmom]

Yes I have she did say that there was a bit of a gap in his writng ability and some of his classmates but not all.

She suggested he write a sentence out of a book each night and then get a reward at the end of the week for doing it. He however has to try and do it with just glancing at the sentence and looking at it again if he forgets it.

My ds had to constantly keep checking it he may as well have the book in front of him and copied it.

In all fairness he does his sentence with not too much moaning.

I would love to see him at a stage were he can just go and write something thats in his head and not from a book.

I have to prompt and tell him how to spell the words all of the time.

[Niecie]

I know they need to know how to write but I do think they would be better off spending just as much time learning how to type properly

Can your DS do any of his homework on the computer bigfatmom?

[Christywhisty]

My DD's (10) writing at 7 was awful, and was still really bad up until Year 5. It was so bad one of teachers said she couldn't read it to mark it. She said it was such a shame as she is a very intelligent little girl with lots of good things to say.
Parents evening used to be all about her presentation, and about a year ago I wrote on here in desperation.She was reversing letters at 8 and 9, and putting capitals in all the wrong places

Howver in the last few months everything seem's to have improvement so much. Her new teacher says that she is "superbly bright", g&t at maths, and very knowlegable. The presentation is now only a small problem and as everything else is so good, who cares.

She is still not as neat as others and her writing still looks younger than some of the other books we saw from her class, but it is now legible which is what matters.

[Christywhisty]

Can't he do his project on the pc, DS is dyslexic and does all his homework on pc if he can.

[bigfatmom]

The school likes it all to be hand written.

Its a real pain.

[BreeVanDerCampLGJ]

My DS aged almost 7 has a reading age of 9 rising 10, his handwriting is not bad, but not brilliant.

He has however taken to writing lists, we told him on Friday, if he could write a list that we could read then he could then order the Chinese. He wrote the the list as clear as you like, he called it out to the lady(after an explanation re 6.5 ordering Chinese.)(I double checked it. )

When it arrived, we allowed him to hand over the cash, his first words to the delivery guy were... I wrote the list you know.

Last night he went to bed, he was quiet, too darn quiet....we crept up to discover him putting a notice on his bedroom door, Sorry we are closed.

He went from avoiding writing to loving writing in about two months, persevere.

HTH

[choccypig]

My DS is "very able" but his writing was pretty poor at end of y1, Big and small, some letters backwards etc., but it suddenly improved almost overnight at about 7. He used to say it hurt his hands to write. I think it's often a case of they are just not physically ready. The problem is in the meantime, if you or the school put too much pressure it demoralises them. It's hard to get the balance right. I found I could get him to practise by writing the shopping list, or sending me secret messages, but NO WAY was he going to practise handwriting for its own sake.

[smartiejake]

It really bugs me the way some teachers go on about presentation like it's the be all and end all. DD2 has legible handwriting but not particularly neat but WHAT she writes is just fantastic. Her stories are amusing and expressive and she writes science reports at a very high level. But when we went to see her teacher she seemed to ignore the content and went on and on about her handwriting.(which isn't that bad really)

In the SATs tests full joined up well formed handwriting is only worth 3 marks out of a total of about 100 for the whole english level mark.

[smartiejake]

It really bugs me the way some teachers go on about presentation like it's the be all and end all. DD2 has legible handwriting but not particularly neat but WHAT she writes is just fantastic. Her stories are amusing and expressive and she writes science reports at a very high level. But when we went to see her teacher she seemed to ignore the content and went on and on about her handwriting.(which isn't that bad really)

In the SATs tests full joined up well formed handwriting is only worth 3 marks out of a total of about 100 for the whole english level mark.

[mamapetal]

DS(6) too has awful writing and it's causing me a great deal of concern. Letters are all different sizes, cannot write on a line, no finger spaces. And he too hates writing. I only have to take the pencils out and he moans and groans . I regularly do tasks which require the use of fine motor skills such as cutting & sticking, beading, and colouring but nothing seems to help! I was thinking of approaching the school to see if they could arrange a one-to-one with him to practise writing.

What concerns me most about his bad writing is, as nobody can read what he writes, nobody knows how well or otherwise he is doing in class!

Sorry, I know this is of no help to you!

[gigglewitch]

my ds1's writing is everywhere. As you say, he also gets quite frustrated and annoyed with it. In our case it is quite extreme and we are almost sure dyslexia is in the mix here, and have introduced him to the computer for word-processing (and games to improve his rubbish short term memory) with huge success. Down to the fact that he enjoys it, he is willing to work at things for ages on the computer, and as the school are well versed with his difficulties they think that working on computer / word processor is the way to go.

I also remember being told that my writing was ridiculously untidy until i was 15 - then overnight it got neat, and by 16 everyone in school wanted me to write the stuff for the wall displays

[Playingthewaitinggame]

Just to put some perspective onto things, my 23 year old brother (dyslexic and dyspraxic) still writes like a 5 year old, sometimes I can barely read what he has written. Hasn't stopped he graduating uni with a 2:1 in Archeaology and Ancient history recently! I also have a couple of very dyslexic friends (with very bad handwriting) one graduated with a 1st in biochemistry and now has an extremely well paid job as an IT consultant and the other is now a junior doctor. Oh, and I am also dyslexic with bad handwritting but it really has not effected my academic performance long term (still went on to uni), I even got an A in my English Language A level! Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, your DC's handwritting may improve in time but even if it doesn't that does not mean it will effect his overall academic performance

[admylin]

You can get the handwriting to improve just by practise. ds had really bad writing but we printed off practise sheets and he did a page a day and now he has lovely writing. It was hard work though and only just turned 8 it started to improve, now he's 9 and he's made it.

[titchy]

Parent of 2 dcs with attrocious handwriting here! dd is 9 and it's legible, but has only become so in the last year or so. ds is 7 and has dreadful writing. On the one hand he hates writing with a vengeance, on the other he's frustrated cos he can't go on to do joined up writing till it improves. Mind you I have crap handwriting too! TBH these days (god I sound like my mum!) in eams and the world of work everything is done on a pc so bad handwriting doesn't really get in the way of anything. For the projects I'd say encourage him to do 3 or 4 lines handwritten, then do the rest on the pc.

[titchy]

in EXAMS I meant...

[prettybird]

Ds is 7.5 and in P3 (equivalent on Y2). His writing until recentyl was very similar to how you describe your ds'. Large, irrgeualr sized wiritng and very uneven acorss the page.

Just recetnyl it has really improved. It is now much smaller and much neater. I commented to the depute head (who also has a son a year older than ds who is very simialr to him - a late reader but bright) and she told me that now it would go though a phase of getting really really small, before settling out at omething "normal". And that is exactly waht he is doing!

Ds does a lot of "practice" (off his onw bat) writing "football magazines" and his own versions of Captain Underpants stories. Is there anyting like that you can encourage him to do like that?

If it is an animal of his choiuce, is there one that wold really enthuse him? Does he like Primeval or Docotr Who - and could he do one of the "imaginary" animals? Ds loves Docotr Who and often wirtes his own Docotr Who stories. (Don't be too impressed - until recently, his "free" spelling was so eclectic we would have to get him to read the sory so that we could work out what words he had meant to write)