DD9 broken arm :(

[Yipee189]

Sorry , I am posting here for traffic.

DD9 has broken her arm and is in a cast. I am concerned about school work. It’s her right arm so how will he do the work at school ? She has told me that when another child broke their arm they were told to ‘try writing with your left hand ‘ 😳

any advice please on what I can ask of the school in terms of support?

DD is quite smart so I don’t want her to fall behind.

thank you

I wouldn't worry too much, children's learning in primary school, is a lot more than just what they write down. Plus it won't be long before the cast is off.

I imagine she may be asked to try to write with her left arm, if say it's carpet time and they are just writing one word answers on a whiteboard.

However for things like worksheets I imagine the teacher will either help or ask a friend to help and for longer things, like story writing I would imagine she will be allowed to use a school tablet/laptop.

Don’t panic! She’ll be fine, I know 6 weeks of not writing seems like a long time but it won’t make a lasting impact. She’ll still be in class listening and learning. Maybe she could be allowed to use a laptop or iPad with keyboard to do work on?

She won't fall behind. I agree that learning is about more than writing stuff down.

Depends on what resources (staff and equipment) the school have. At 9 the learning is going to be classroom based and subjects will require your DD to write things as part of a lesson.
Perhaps school could forward you a copy of what they're doing in class and at home you could go through with DD, writing out her answers/stories.

Could she use a laptop or tablet temporarily?

My DD (also 9) broke her right wrist at the weekend and is in a cast until the middle of October. She has been fine at school this week (Scotland, so been back a while). She is doing as much as she can with her left hand, and has also been given an ipad by the school to do complete written work on. It's really very manageable, so I wouldn't worry about her falling behind.

Do you have a laptop or iPad you can send in with her? (Check with school about their policy on this first of course.)

when a child in my class couldn’t hold a pen, she came in with her laptop and typed written answers, for maths worksheets and similar I sent her the worksheet over teams and she was able to ‘mark it up’ using software on the laptop. She then sent back via teams for marking. This worked well.

make sure you communicate to the teacher about this. I’d say a couple of times a a month a child comes in with an injury SO SEVERE they can’t POSSIBLY be expected to write. Oddly, the parent has not communicated this to me and by the next day it’s fine. In these cases I do usually suggest a little bit of left hand writing 😉

Sorry, meant to add that if you don’t have a device you can send in, ask the school if they have one they can provide.

I broke many bones in my time at school, including my right knuckle (I'm right-handed). I just had to learn to write with my left hand. Yes, the handwriting was shoddy but I managed (and was top of my class, as you're concerned about your DD falling behind).

However, these days the schools are likely to have a supply of mini-laptops that she can borrow during the day.

Ok, I had a cast for 8 weeks in total.

at 9 I’m guessing she is reasonably computer savvy- does she or could she get access to a lap top r good tablet

if she can there are 2 options…she can type with one hand, or as I did turn on dictate functionality. You do have to spend a bit of time teaching it , but I then found Microsoft packages were pretty good..not 100% there but good enough to take simple notes. Or compose a short email.

also get her access to a device, laptop or tab or phone or so,ethngvelse, that can record her teacher. . If she can’t make notes for instance on homework or key parts of lesson that could also help

Obviously you’ll need to involve school in asking if she can do this , they might have other suggestions too.

My daughters school use ipads. Every child has one and all of their work is done on there. Maybe ask if your child can use a tablet

My daughter fractured both her arm and wrist at that age (same incident) had surgery and a full arm caste she managed to still hold a pen her fingers were free, she rested her arm on the desk and put it back in the sling when not writing, not ideal but she just adapted.