How old would you assume the child who wrote this was?

[AloyNoraWarrior]

My DS is 9 in Y4. He’s very upset as he said some children in his class have been laughing at his writing. I know he is behind because his school report last term said working towards expectations for every subject. But I’m thinking it must be bad if other children are noticing.

He does have ASD and we are waiting for an ADHD assessment. Last year I asked his teacher if could be assessed for dyslexia because he writes his name incorrectly, but they said they don’t assess children for dyslexia anymore.

I was just wondering how his writing compares to other children his age as I’m not sure what level it should be at. The photo represents his best effort. The second line of the poem is ‘when I am a pest’

My son is 8.5 and also autistic. He writes in cursive at school, but this is his normal scrawl.

I think your son’s poem is wonderful and his writing is lovely. It’s not the neatest I’ve seen but not the messiest either, it’s clear. I’m so sorry kids have been mean to him about it, that’s awful.

I'd question why they don't test for dyslexia. I don't believe it's true. I work at a university and we arrange dyslexia tests for students who have slipped through the net during school (usually older ones who went when screening wasn't common). We get funding for British students to help purchase things like speech to text software and pens that read text out loud. We also make all sorts of adjustments to put them on a level playing field with their peers. Things like extra time in exams and receiving lecture slides in advance so they have time process them if they need to.

Our school doesn’t test for dyslexia as you have to pay. It doesn’t change how we deal with suspected dyslexia though.

That's really sad. Obviously I know you're doing what you can but why does the government wait until university to fund extra provision for dyslexic students?

Can students without a diagnosis still get extra time for GCSEs and A Level exams? At the university they need a diagnosis or we can't make adjustments. I think we do pay for the test (after an online screening test that confirms if there are many indicators) and then we get a grant for support.

Perhaps secondary have better budgets but at my primary, we are barely keeping in the black. If parents knew, they’d never vote for that shambles at Westminster. It’s dire.

Most often parents seek a private diagnosis but not everyone can.

Teacher here 🙋
Been teaching year 4 for the last 3 years.
I have seen a huge range of handwriting.
Some better than mine! To some you simply cannot read, backward letters, mixture of large and small letters etc.
Your son is sat around the middle of my HUGE range.

What a lovely poem! 😍

A lovely poem, you should be very proud of the love he clearly has for you. Treasure it, keep it in a memory box, and don't give it a second thought.

That's a lovely poem and actually has a very pleasing rhythm beyond its sentiment!

♥️

Beautiful words! My 9 y/o dd is ASD, ADHD and has just been assessed as being dyslexic, this is very like her writing and spelling. Like your boy she is loving and bright, but struggles with writing and reading. I'd push for more specific support.

It is a very sweet poem, he sounds a lovely boy.
The handwriting is not properly joined, and the sizing is not consistent. He could do with handwriting lessons/practice, maybe there's something you could do with him at home, in unpressurised surroundings, just focusing on the shape and size of the letters rather than the content.
You can get books/downloadables with patterns to copy which might help.
It looks like it could be a fine motor skills issue, but not necessarily - I have seen ( rarely) the odd child with handwriting like that but who has great pencil control when it comes to drawing. What are his drawing skills like?
I agree, if you can pay to get him assesses for dyslexia and ADHD it might be worth doing - it might help the school to know how to target and design support.
They should be coming up with ways to help him anyway, and certainly the nasty comments he is getting should be a matter of concern for the school.
You said that he is "working towards" in every subject - that to me suggests he should already be getting a lot of extra support. I think you should contact the SENDCO and ask for a meeting to discuss your concerns and his progress. I'm a little surprised that you are having to ask about this here rather than having school in regular contact with you explaining what they are doing to help.
At most of the schools I have worked at, this would have been flagged up by the staff working with your son, and actioned some time ago, and monitored for progress.

Teacher here. Firstly, what a lovely poem!

Re possible dyslexia, schools absolutely do still test for it, so I’m not sure why the teacher said that. Looking at his spelling (all correct!) however, I wouldn’t be concerned about dyslexia, unless of course he has copied all of these correct spellings from a ‘word bank’ or something.

To be honest, apart from the handwriting, I can’t see anything majorly alarming. Granted, he isn’t using as much detail in his writing as his ‘Expected’ or ‘Greater Depth’ peers will be, but then you already said he has been graded as working towards.

I would be speaking to his teacher about other children picking on him though as that is not on.

Just to add, if he is working towards then he should already be having loads of support, so maybe ask the teacher what support he is getting and push for more if you’re not satisfied with her answer. I’m not saying him being this level isn’t alarming… just that the piece of work you have shown is typical of a working towards child in my opinion, so shouldn’t shock you if you have already been told this.

It's clearer than any Dr's notes I've ever written.

What a lovely poem OP.

Kids are horrible to each other and will pick any random thing they can to take the piss. Maybe he is dyslexic, maybe he is just a bit lazy, just be there to support him either way. I am not dyslexic but I do sometimes put letters the wrong way round when writing in a hurry or if I'm really tired. It could go either way try not to worry and maybe ask the school for an assessment.

It's an incredibly sweet poem! I'm a Y1 teacher and this seems like something an average 5/6 year old could produce in terms of spelling, most (but not all) of them have neater handwriting. My school does dyslexia assessments for KS2 so certainly some schools still do them.

I think it's lovely. Don't worry about his handwriting, or him being a bit behind. Not everyone can be brilliant at everything. He sounds like a great boy.

Apart from not being cursive very similar to my y4 ds. His teacher says his writing is on target, if a bit messy 😂

I’d be pushing for a dyslexia referral. The handwriting is a red herring, loads of kids don’t develop solid fine motor control until later on, but constantly mixing up the letters in his name would indicate a deeper issue to me.

The words are very sweet, the handwriting isn't fantastic but it is still legible. You mention he has ASD, does he have any additional support at school?

My son who is 27 has handwriting exactly like this too! I was worried about it when he was at school especially when he came to do GCSES, in case the examiner couldn't read his answers.

He did fine though, got the grades he needed to go to college to do a computing course. Then went on to study computer networks at uni, graduated with a first and now earns 65k a year. His handwriting didn't hold him back at all either, everything is typed now anyway!

First- that is a wonderful poem. One to treasure and keep safe forever.
Second - my DS is 20 and his handwriting looks like that. He has dyspraxia and ADD. it was identified early and he was a designated laptop user at school from 11 onwards. He got super GCSEs & A levels and is at a great Uni. So please don't worry - get assessments as needed and provide the support he needs. Nurture him.

His writing isn't too different my (just) 11 year old.

My son has no diagnosed learning difficulties, but it has been brought up by teachers a fair amount.

But -- everyone has different writing. Some people have beautiful handwriting, others not so much. It's not something I worry about, and it's not something I'm encouraging him to improve. He is good at spelling, and I can understand (for the most part!) what he is writing.

Your sons writing is perfectly legible. And his poem is so, so sweet.

I hope he isn't hurt by the other children laughing. That is so unkind, and if I ever caught one of my children laughing at someone's writing, I would not be impressed. If it something he wants to improve at, if it is important to him, encourage him to write more, to try different types of pens. I always find my writing is much nicer when I use certain types. A fine nib biro, or fountain pen make writing flow easily for me. But a gel pen, or a thick nibbed biro makes my writing look and feel horrible.

Sorry, went off on one, but I really love pens and I also am a bit weird about how my writing looks. So, I can understand if it is something that bothers him!

Hi op, I’ve taught various years at primary schools. I would say yr 1/2 & try & get a private referral.
A lovely poem.

Year 1&2 rarely use punctuation and spelling like that.