ds (10) handwriting deteriorating - help!

[mimsum]

ds is in Y6 - he has TS, AS, ADHD and anxiety as well as being officially gifted (i.e. has exceptionally high IQ but frankly not showing much sign of it at the moment )

his handwriting has always been pretty awful, but just about legible, however in the last few months it's been going downhill and his teachers are now really struggling to read what he's written.

He's been given some handwriting sheets to do over the half-term, but he just cannot cope with the more complex patterns

his school's booked him onto a touch typing course after half-term but he does need to be able to write at least a bit...

I had a look at his work from Y4 and his writing was much much better - what's going on? He's on clonidine for impulsivity/aggression/tics but it's not working so well now as he's had a growth spurt and I'm wondering if this is having a knock-on effect on his writing.

ds2 (7) is currently working his way through Write from the Start (he has dyspraxia and fine motor skills problems) but I'm not sure if ds1 is too old for this - any ideas, please?

[talky]

Hi. You need an appointment with your Paediatrician or CAMHS Doc. I'm not sure about side effect of clondine, but this should be considered. And your observations should be passed on to him/her. Have you noticed any other fine motor or visual perceptual difficulties? Have thes been assessed by your OT? (Occupational Therapist), if you have a baseline, you could suggest a review to see any poss detioration.

Write from the start is brill. As for him being too old, not sure, I would say it could be ok. Why not try the Dycovery Center website, they have agreat message board for these sorts of questions.

You could do with knowing the root cause of his worsen hand writing. Is it fine motor? Visual? Visual perception? motivation? Medication side effect. Try to get an OT referral.

How did he do the sheets over half term?

Good luck

[mimsum]

thanks talky - we have another psychiatrist appt next week so will see what he says re medication - also try for an OT referral

weirdly the sheets with letters on weren't too bad - not great either, but just about legible - but he couldn't cope with the ones with patterns at all - it's like he just couldn't see what he was supposed to be copying

[talky]

Could be visual perception.This is easy to test. Could it be motivation? good luck