Advice wanted on 6yo writing ability (pic included)

[KikiAndJiji]

DD is year 2, summer born.
We have had little progress in terms of handwriting and spelling for the year. She will spell inconsistently and our current aim from school is to learn one spelling a week. These she can spell in a test but often gets wrong when used in her written work.
She has been 'screened' as low risk for dyslexia.
We took her to a specialist opticians on advice from the SENCO who suggested an overlay which seems to help with reading but I've since read there is no research that this is anything other than placebo. We will keep going with it regardless and I'm happy with placebo effects, not sure how this will help spelling and writing though.

Nothing we do seems to help her to progress and willing to give anything a try if anyone has any tips or advice. Or even a 'my Y2 had atrocious spelling and writing and is now the best in the year' type of reassurance.

I've attached some of her writing (just done for fun)

My youngest definitely couldn’t form legible handwriting until at least 7 !
He is now 23,got a first in economics at Uni and now earning silly money…please don’t worry 💐

Sounds like we might be worrying about nothing. We have had meetings with the teacher saying they are concerned and offering various interventions. We have been told she won't meet Y2 expected standard. So that's what we've based our worries on. Hard not to be concerned after that.

I taught in year 3 and this isn't too bad really. The spellings are very plausible. Reading helps most with spellings and learning rules rather than just practising spellings. Most schools are doing away with spelling tests now as research shows they don't help.

In terms of handwriting, it should never have been taught joint. Go back to basics and work on printing letters if possible. If you look at an X-ray of hands from a 5 and 7 year old, there are literally different bones that have formed from cartilage in that time. The expectations change as they mature because their bone structure changes

I agree with this. I’m a tutor specialising in dyslexia ( I have tutees ranging from Y1 to Y12) and would recommend she gets support in revisiting phonics for spelling and learning high frequency words which do not follow the usual rules. If the school does not have the resources to help (unlikely these days) then try to find an experienced tutor to work with her for the rest of Y2, as if she does have dyslexia she risks getting further and further behind from Y3.

Writing and handwriting are two entirely different things; letter formation (extreme difficulty being dysgraphia) is independent of difficulty with using phonics and syllables for spelling and thinking of a sentence, writing the sentence and checking the sentence for sense (dyslexia). Legible handwriting, using ‘phonetically legal’ spelling will allow her to communicate her ideas clearly and enable the reader or examiner to understand her writing. She does appear to be below age-related expectations for Y2 writing but some focussed help will improve her work.

She can improve her handwriting by going back to practising non-cursive to ensure that her letter formation is correct before attempting to join again. There are several good programmes for this. The teaching of cursive can be complicated by different classes within the same school having different rules on which letters should and should not be joined, rather than joining them all as was previously taught. Some children give up cursive all together by Y6 and have beautiful neat writing.

@BogRollBOGOF , it must be so frustrating that that the school isn’t doing much. Apologies if I’m stating the obvious, but has your son seen an optician regarding the words wriggling on the page? One of our local opticians has a special interest in helping children with dyslexia and was telling me about the coloured filters she uses.