Autistic son and handwriting

[Holymolymackerel]

Evening all,
My son 6 is very anxious about writing. Its affecting all aspects of school. He is having meltdowns about it.
The problem is the teacher is expecting him to produce the same amount of work as the other children and he is losing parts of his lunchtime to catch up.
When he does write I cant read it, it's not on the lines, uneveningly spaced, strange letter formation etc.
I help in class as a volunteer so I see how upset he gets. Lip wobbling, looking so sad. Teacher has started to say that he's not going to pass his sats in anything including mental arithmetic which he is really good at, because of the writing.
Any advice about what i should expect school to do? How to tackle this please?

Move him to a different school

He clearly has a problem and needs help... and if they are only concerned with punishing him and sats it's the wrong school for your child

They should take his autism into consideration! Letting him do his work on a computer if it comes to it.
My kid's the same, we're worried about their (very) poor handwriting but ultimately, nobody hand writes anything important anymore thanks to tech so we're hopeful it won't be such an issue in adulthood. Just school 🙄.

My son isn't autistic, although there is a family history so who knows?! He is 8 in Year 4 and his writing is about 2 years behind where it should be. Last 2 school years staff just gave him extra handwriting tasks to do, constantly told him he was doing OK but needed to try harder.

Teacher this year just said his writing will improve, not to worry. He let him write with a pen like all the other children rather than having to still writ in pencil as his writing wasn't 'good enough'. My son has made huge progress in his writing since September. Its still probably a year or more 'behind' but is often now readable.

If your son is getting upset, the teacher needs to do something different, and now. I would get a meeting with the teacher, and if no luck there with the SENCO and the Head.

Your SENCO needs to get involved asap. Assessments and interventions are needed. I agree with PP who says basically he is being punished for not being as able as some peers.

Hope you get things sorted. Maybe look into dyslexia?

I was going to suggest Dysgraphia

Get him an assessment for dyspraxia which can be a part of autism, my ds suffers from hypotonia which was assessed by an occupational therapist, by getting this assessment, he is allowed to do all his written work on a laptop & gets extra time in exams, he is 15 but his handwriting is more like a 5 year olds.

Does he have an ehcp? My son can barely write his name due to poor motor skills but we had it put in his ehcp that he should use a laptop for written work. He started with a simple word processor type thing and ended up with a laptop which the school provided for use there. Used family computer at home

I agree with PP, he sounds like he has dyspraxia which often goes hand-in-hand with autism. My DGD has both and her writing is like your boy's. But her teacher is super supportive and knowledgeable about her condition.

Your boy's teacher sounds terrible ! Why isn't she helping instead of punishing and threatening him ? See your SENCO and get some action on this. And certainly get him assessed for dyspraxia - the writing is a telltale sign of it.

Teacher sounds awful. My DS struggles with handwriting. At that age all his brain power was taken up with letter formation that he found it difficult to think about what he was writing too. He still barely writes if he can get away with it but he met the ks2 standard.

So by restricting his lunch break the teacher will be exacerbating his anxiety over writing which in turn will become a vicious cycle as he'll probably find it harder and harder because his anxiety will be so overwhelming. You need to have a meeting with teacher and senco.

There are multiple ways that he can be supported in class depending on his current ability. My son had laminated cards with common key words. He used writing frames. Sometimes a TA would sit with him and he would verbally give a response which she would write out for him to copy into his book. Teacher sounds as if they do not understand autism so staff training would also be a good idea, maybe buy her a book on autism for Christmas!

My DD is 5 is autistic. She also has terrible handwriting!
It's very common for autistic children to struggle with handwriting as they can often find fine motor skills more difficult.
She has an hour of 1-2-1 every day where they focus on her writing. She also has a laptop that she does some work on.
I think your son's teacher is being very harsh here. Could you ask for a meeting with the teacher and the SENCO. I really think your son's teacher should be more understanding.

Oh your poor boy. My son (ADHD, ASD) also struggles with handwriting. We poured a lot of time and effort into it this year (two sessions of OT/week focused on handwriting plus additional practice at home and at school) and its really made little difference.

However at the same time he has worked through a touch typing program and is now doing the majority of school work on his laptop. Everyone much happier all round. He is 10.

As others have suggested, pull the school SENCO in on this to help advocate for your son. He needs adjustments made for him otherwise his anxiety will keep rising, poor little frog.

Ds is 15 and recently diagnosed with autism. The community paediatrician referred him to an occupational therapist who assessed him. He has lax finger joints that cause pain and mean that his handwriting is poor. She also did a DASH test but Ds's writing was not quite bad enough for extra time in exams. She did though recommend laptop use for all extended writing and exams. My Ds has had to cope all these years without support so I would definitely contact the senco and get some advice.

DS has ASD (and ADHD).
His handwriting has always been several years behind his academic development. He is now 18 and it's just about legible.

Primary school did handwriting intervention (didn't help) and touch typing (turned out to be very useful).

Secondary school suggested an OT assessment, which found that his hands and wrists have hypermobile joints and low muscle tone. He has to grip the pen very tightly to be able to write, and writing for a long time without a break is painful. They tried various pens to find one he can use (Stabilo Easy works best, then Lamy Safari fountain pen).

In his GCSEs he was allowed to type his answers for subjects which involve extended writing.
He is doing A-levels which don't involve extended writing (maths and science subjects) so is able to handwrite for these.

Your son's school needs to make reasonable adjustments.

My son had terrible handwriting but he could write quite well, in the sense of it being readable, from before he was four. I remember his teacher going on about it not being in straight line and untidy but I told her it wasn't a problem and to forget it. Had he been incapable of reading and writing, that would have been a different matter but he wasn't. He was very clever and gifted (no boast, just stating a fact).

At age forty his handwriting is still pretty dreadful but he rarely writes anything (that seems to be the same for most people, I must say mine doesn't look so good these days).

Have a look at the Magic Link handwriting program. My autistic DS has/had terrible handwriting. He is 11 but handwriting looked like a 5 year old. We have just completed step 5 if 30 and the improvements are amazing, much smaller and leviable, looking like an older child's handwriting. Even his teachers have been congratulating him on it There is still a way
to go but I have high hopes that finally this is the method that works for him.
PS School should not be putting pressure on your. Child regarding his handwriting.

Teacher is an arse. Get the SENCO involved and see what adjustments can be made.

We fought for three years to get a laptop for my boy, he went from regularly writing three lines in an hour to three hundred words overnight!

My children both have/ had handwriting issues - they had scribes for SATs,KS1 and KS2.

DS has ADHD and his handwriting is barely legible, it's unchanged from reception. His school have been brilliant, god knows how many different types of pens, contraptions to try to adjust his grip, handwriting 'clubs' etc and then onto more formal assessments.

He's now in Y6 and he has his own laptop to use for all written work and will receive extra time in his SATS. His last class teacher also arranged to be his scribe for them in case the assessments were delayed.

You need to speak to your SENCO and get the ball rolling on extra help and time and kick the class teacher up the arse

I have had several heated discussions about this very subject this week. We should not be testing what children can write, we are looking at what they know. If he needs a scribe, that should be part of arrangements for a child with SEN which impact on their ability to write. Handwriting is not a skill that needs to be judged with the weight it is - we expect children to be IT literate then take this away when it is most important, yet in the real world it would be used. I cannot bear this insistence that children's handwriting needs to be in line with their knowledge. So many children condense their amazing ideas into one sentence as that is all they can produce. Emanuenes (scribes) are perfectly acceptable and need to be more widely used, so they are able to be used in exams as normal practice. Apologies for the rant, I get so wound up about this!!! (Senco by day, soap boxer by night)

Jesus- horrific. What on earth is happening with education when a child with a disability ( and their parents) are made to feel like this? 😥

I know many many schools where this would just not happen. You need to find him a more nurturing inclusive school. Sounds just awful.

@Punxsutawney my DS in a similar position to yours (age/diagnosis) - what is the DASH test? My ds also has awful handwriting and we’ve been wondering if a laptop would be an option in exams.

You definitely need to get the Senco involved and get some adjustments in place. My son has his 1:1 scribe for him except when doing actual handwriting practice. And your son doesn’t have to be entered for SATS, we aren’t planning to put mine through it. The school are also looking at speech to text options and long term we will probably look at laptops.

How awful.
Interesting reading all the responses.
My teenagers handwriting has steadily got worse over the years. I wish they could all just use a laptop like in the real world!