Go for typing or stick with writing for 7yo?

[Devexity]

The kid is 7, Y2, and about to leave his infants school and go up to juniors. There's been a massive disparity between his reading and writing abilities since nursery. His teacher levelled his current writing at 2C last term - largely because of his reluctance to put more than the bare minimum down. I suggested that she let him type occasionally so she (and he) could assess his ability to put words together without being brought up short by his fine motor skills rubbishness.

Last week they sent home the memory stick with his independent project work, and I am suddenly overcome with doubt about insisting that they push writing in Y3. His typed work is miles better than his written work. Ridiculously so. The head strongly implied that I should have him assessed by an OT, but also made it very clear that because his motor skills were low normal instead of low, it would have to be a private thing.

Advice please! Will include sample of work below for anyone who's made it this far.

Cheers.

***

From the written report work at school:

London has been set on fire by Thomas Farriner. We interviewed him and he said "It was not me! Seriously IT WAS NOT ME!" The fire spread. we interviewed the king, Charles II. He said: "I do not know why the Mayor negected to explode 4 houses." "really I do not know." London is literally a inferno.

From the typed, independent story work he's been doing at school instead of phonics:

With a battle cry of ?Geronimo!? they pounded him down. He gasped and fell to the rock bottom, barely breathing, and hollered: ?Help!? at the friends on top of his big head, which could hold three of the children. He spluttered and bobbed up, mouthing: ?I?ll get my revenge!? at the friends on his head. They had a fun forty minutes on him, but try as they might he was too strong for them.

And:

The day before he had managed to wade through a sea of books, kick away mountainous mounds of letters, hike over the Andes of homework and get to his sleeping bag. He had to start all over again to get to the food stash he had in his bedroom. Norman had to sprint under a crevasse of stuff and lift a gargantuan weight of old rubbish which had his stash underneath.

[Devexity]

The question marks should be quotation marks. Stupid Word formatting...

[mrz]

I would continue with writing but I would probably use a computer for long pieces if writing if he is faster word processing. I think both skills are important and one shouldn't be at the expense of the other.
We have a boy in Y5 who has huge physical problems. The EP, OT, PT all said use a laptop... which we provided for him but his mum insisted he should also write. It was very much the right decision ... in Y3 he struggled to produce a readable sentence at the end of Y5 he is producing more than a side of beautiful hand written work.

As a SENCO I disagree with your head ask your GP for an OT referral you don't need to pay!

[IndigoBell]

Would you be happy if your son never learnt to write?

If you want him to learn to write, now is the time to do it. Yes he needs an assessment by an OT - but most of it you do at home.

'Speed Up' is an OT intervention school can do. You need to improve his gross motor skills and fine motors skills so that he can write.

It's really not rocket science. Daily exercises to target gross and fine motor skills.

I personally have pushed and pushed for my son (Y5) not to use a laptop, because I want him to learn to write. I don't care what level he is on. I don't need him to prove how clever he is. I know he can do better work if he types. But I don't want him to do amazing work. I want him to learn to write.

If you don't push for him to learn to write he will leave school unable to do so.