To ask if anyone has a child who reads really well but finds writing incredibly difficult?

[AjasLipstick]

DD is 10 and has always struggled with writing. She's incredibly articulate and reads very well. She also draws well...better than average though not as well as she reads.

She spells well....but when she's meant to do any writing for homework she just will do ANYTHING to avoid it.

She tells me incredibly detailed and imaginative stories. I am not being ott about how good these stories are. They're brilliant....I have an older DD so do have something to compare her to. She can make up rhymes which go on and on and the rhythm and everything work beautifully.

But ask her to write the story down and NOPE!

She also hates maths as it's boring. She says writing is hard because it takes too long and she finds it hard to concentrate. She wears glasses...but that wouldn't make her find writing so hard would it? Her prescription is recent and her glasses are comfortable etc.

She's bright, very funny and sociable...good at sports and anything physical...also extremely popular...her teacher says she doesn't "seem" dyslexic" but maybe I should ask about her seeing a behavioural optometrist...we're in Oz. This would probably need to be private.

I'm just trying to work it out....when I ask her "do the letters move on the page?" she says no...it's just boring.

My son has dyspraxia and struggles with both gross and fine motor skills. He is 17 now and his writing is legible, but Production is slow. Teachers provide notes for him which helps and he gets extra time for exams. I know some people use speech to text software like Dragon for hw which can really speed things up.

Yup. Bright kid but hypermobile means holding a pencil is uncomfortable so he avoids writing. Also has dreadful posture during to lax core ligaments so slumps a little making writing harder. Pencil grips seem to be working well whilst waiting for ot referral plus exercises like gym, dance and trampolining for strengthening core.

My 10 year old daughter sounds very similar. Gifted reader, incredibly articulate with the most amazing imagination until she has to get it down on paper and then it falls apart. She has an official diagnosis of dysgraphia by an ed psych which enabled us to get accommodations in place such as typing most work and a scribe for tests/ longer pieces. The difference since they have been put in is phenomal. She may well achieve greater depth in writing and reading (for example in reading she gets 48/50 with a scribe compared to 36/50 when she had to write herself, her maths scores go from 12 out of 25 to 20+ when she isn’t having to concentrate on the writing process). If you ask her to spell something she’s a lot more accurate when verbally spelling and can always pick the correct spelling from a list which makes a spell checker perfect for her. Dispelling a common myth, she actually has very neat writing, it’s just so slow and difficult for her to physically write. We ended up going for a private report as she wasn’t behind as such so wasn’t a priority for the school but they have accepted the findings and implemented them.

You were thinking of dyscalculia when you talked about numbers etc.

Ds was reading at 3yo, but still at 10yo hates writing. No reason except he doesn't see the point.

Sorry for the essay. Worth noting that very few teachers have heard of it so you do have to go in very prepared and having done your research. I am a qualified primary teacher and know that I have had children in my class in the past that are dysgraphic without me knowing much about it. It also meant that I was able to argue that I had enough knowledge to compare her to to know that there was something not right when the school were being less than helpful.

Agree with Jumping lots of teachers have never heard of dysgraphia. As with dyslexia you do have to be careful to separate genuine lack of effort with inability. My ds writes like a 4 year old, in fact there are probably 4 year olds who are neater. He doesn't care.

I'll say it again, it is your job to make sure she remains confident, clever and enthusiastic - the schools won't.

Yes, agree with above- you need an Occupational Therapy assessment- particularly looking at her fine motor skills and speed.

Dysgraphia- there's no formal definition of it, but appears to occur in two forms. One is a language based issue- child has difficulty translating their oral output into written form. The other is where child has a fine motor problem which reduces their dexterity/speed/endurance in handwriting.

Behavioural Optometrist will identify if it's hand-eye co-ordination problem but won't be able to assess gross and fine motor skills. Ditto Psychologist...will identify any learning issue but can't measure fine motor skills.

It's a bit of a minefield, but best option would be an OT screen first- make sure you get someone with lots of Paediatric experience who knows all of the issues involved i.e. how to discriminate between visual versus fine motor versus a cortical (learning) issue.

My son is like this - he’s 5 and started Reception but is reading way ahead of expectations. However, his writing is terrible. He’s not interested in it and it’s very hard to get him to even try. Has always hated mark making of any kind.

We’re currentky having him assessed for ASD - seems likely he’ll get a diagnosis of some kind but as he’s achieving academically I’m not sure where we’ll go next.

Have you had your child assessed at all?

Low muscle tone? An ot could diagnose and assist.