ASD teen can’t write ✍️, need tips to teach him.

[liveinthesticks]

I need to do something about this!
DS attends a private special school, council funded - long, long story and a very tough road to get appropriate education provision.
Questioning it all now, he has been there for 3 years and still can’t write. To be honest not really sure what he is actually learning, feels like he is just being babysat.
He doesn’t have a learning disability but huge barriers to learning mainly due to his early years educational experience.
Currently due to Covid he is only actually in school 3 days a week, which they want to reduce.....because he won’t do anything! Which I’m rather cross about as they are meant to be the experts.
I work full time in NHS .... but I can’t waiting for it all to fall in place at school.
I just cannot let him enter Adult hood to being able to write. He does read.
Help please, anyone in same boat ? Any ideas on how to start at the beginning again and teach him myself?
DS had a wicked sense of humour and often jokes he needs to start at nursery again to learn this stuff!

Just read post back and rather embarrassed that I didn’t proof read first!

Writing in sand. Triangle attachments from WHS for pencils. Phonetics of his interests. Eg football or whatever. Labelling around the house. Baking tins of letters. Make words with the cake letters. Hide letters around garden. Collect to make words. Worsearch games

Basics. Can he draw?
Does he like to draw?
If so, you can move sort of sideways to drawing letters
More basic. Can he hold a pen/pencil correctly?
Get him some paper and felt tips.
You do some dotted lines, zig zag , curves etc for him to trace over. Get good pen control.
Get him to draw and colour too. All good pen control.
Then start forming similar letters.
Ooooooo goes on to aaaaa (not as clear with fancy type on phone) from aaaaaa go for dddddddd or gggggg
He doesn't need to write words to start with
Iiiiii rrrrr nnnnnn mmmmmm
When he is confident at a few letters, make short words mum mummy giggle gig dad
A few minutes at a time. Maybe 10-15 mins twice a day, when he is in a sitting mood.
Places like the works usually have wipe clean books with letters to trace over
Find words about things that interest him.
Triceratops, velociraptor
Lorry, engine, carburetor

Dont focus on sentences or anything yet
Find something like an old argos book
Help him cut out some things he likes and write 1 or 2 word descriptions.
Red bike. Silver watch.
When he can label things, and get recognised, it should encourage him to carry on

If you have a printer and laminate (or school do) you can print some lines with letters on for him to trace.
Start with important words. His name. His favourite food choices. Things he would want to write

Does he like gaming?
My ASD boy seems to be teaching himself to write on Minecraft after years of refusing to pick up a pensil.
Typing seems to be easier for him. Plus auto-suggest is teaching him to spell.
I do find with mine that he can't concentrate at all if it wasn't his idea.
Then he'll get some random special interest and all of a sudden he knows everything about it.

I think you need tailored special advice from an Ed Psych on strategies to engage him . Possibly also from an Occupational Therapist on developing his motor skills. Does the school have these in house that you can chat to or will you need to bring them in? You can call an emergency annual review of his EHCP and request these assessments.

Since he has quite some self-awareness about this issue, would it be possible to unpack with him what exactly makes writing hard for him? Is it sensory or physically uncomfortable, does it bring up bad memories, does it trigger shame? Once you've got more information on what the blocks are it can become easier to find the right intervention. Same with getting occupational therapy. This can be very helpful, unless bringing in outside people to help him is one of his triggers. Is this discussed during EHCP reviews? If you think OT would be helpful I think the school should be providing it, not something else you have to pay for.

Try Ion Teodorescu: Write from the Start. Available on Amazon, It takes you from pencil control all the way to cursive writing. I have used this successfully with students.

Thank you all I am reading your comments.
I’ve just told him week after next I’ve got 2 weeks off and we are going to start tackling this. He will resist but with a weeks warning he has time to process that we are going to start unpicking this.
He had had Ed psych reviews until the cows come home and won’t engage in any shape or form with OT at school.
He can text his friends etc.
Will start with just practicing holding a pen/ pencil.

Does he see a physio ? My ds improved massively after simple, physio sessions. Look for chunky, triangular shaped pencils. He had those and a pen attachment that was adapted for him.......he's also a lefty and has a clutch grip rather than a normal grip but his writing is very readable now.

Write from the start is supposed to be a good program. I say supposed to be - I have it and never got anywhere with Ds2, though he wasn't ready when I tried it with him.

I'm not sure at his age I would bother with learning to write. How often do we need to write something down?

If he can produce work by typing I'd get him to practice this and using voice recognition software? I'd focus on those skills.

At his age it's unlikely he will learn to write unless he wants to. I wouldn't put him or you through the stress.

I also wonder whether it will be almost impossible if he doesn't want to learn. I wonder if you should just focus on touch typing? There are some programmes out there that are more like gaming.

I would also be very worried about his school, but not sure what the best way is to approach this if you genuinely don't have another choice of setting.

I would teach him to type. If he won’t engage with OT, it might be because it is physically painful to write. OT earlier would have helped with this, but maybe it’s time to cut his losses.
If he can text, he can ‘write’ as in ‘compose messages’ - does ‘handwriting’ actually matter?

As an OT I would be moving on to assistive technology at this age and alternative methods of recording.

My 10y has ASD, dyspraxia and dyslexia, it's an awkward combination. The ASD makes him perfectionist and rigid about outcomes, the dyspraxia frustratingly poorly co-ordinated, and dyslexia difficult to learn word parterns and form letters efficiently and the correct way round.

He uses a chromebook for longer writing, but still writes for shorter answers, labelling. He finds gripping a pencil painful and tends to apply excess pressure and cramps. We saw an OT a year ago that was useful at unpicking some of DS's difficulties such as confusing his holding hand and doing hand. Unfortunately DS tends to be resistant to following practical advice...

Has the nature of this difficulty been unpicked?

BogRoll, sounds similar to my DD (10) who was also flagged as possible PDA partly on account of extreme reluctance to write by hand (like your DS, OP, linked to experiences in early primary).
I have quite relaxed about the lack of writing now, as, after watching DD1 get into 'writing' to friends on WhatsApp on my phone during lockdown #1, the school provided a laptop after some wrangling, and suddenly this barrier to writing all but disappeared. DD now uses a laptop for all writing, both at school and at home, and writes a lot by comparison.
If your son can read as well as type / text, I think you can relax a little. Good luck!

Interesting AdultHumanFemale (love your name!) the non-writing DC here newly diagnosed with PDA here is typing a lot too,

Can he type? Can he use voice to text programs? (Theres one built into word you can try)

Oh I could have written this! Even down to the special independant school I battled for.

He does write but its massively big, hard to read, heavy pressure on the paper, HUGE full stops, etc. I was cringing internally as he was doing some worksheets today.

I tend to lean to "oh well he can type and text" but even so I feel it puts him at a disadvantage not having legible writing.

Watching this thread with interest.

We had to buy triangle pens or grips for dd, she found coordinating writing hard despite being able to read fluently way above age and converse at almost adult level. At 7 the school gave her a laptop to use at school which really helped. She learned though, it was perseverance that paid off coupled with bribery