To ask what age child you think wrote this?

[Odearr]

Worried about DS writing, just wondering what age this level of writing ability would be typical for? This is his neatest writing and definitely helped by the little squares on the page

Dyspraxia.

There is a split vowel in drive which is taught in year 1 and the digraph ng which is taught in reception. The size of the writing is consistent. The letter s is often written backwards, there is no capital letter or full stop.
I would level the work as end of autumn reception but because of the word drive I would suggest that it has been written by a child in at least year 1.

I think they're referring to the date in the top right corner. Looks like it says 22.

This looks similar to DNs handwriting she is 8, left handed and school have recently they suspect either a processing difficulty or dyslexia.
It also looks similar to DS' who is five but his is a bit smaller. What does his teacher say? Is there a SENCO you can talk to?

@girljulian that's reeeeallly interesting, can you tell me a bit more? My ds is 7 and his writing is not great. Commented on at parents evening. He uses his right hand. This summer though he's been doing quite a few things left handed, archery, ukulele, and bowling. Back when he was younger he would sometimes draw and mark make with his left hand. Nursery raised concerns about him not having great motor skills.

Hi OP, I’m a Head and SENDCo specialising in ages 0-7. This is not typical handwriting or letter formation for his age. The other things that you describe, such as coordination issues and issues with buttons or clasps etc. are pointing in the direction of potential dyspraxia. Is this something that you have explored? Happy for you to DM me if you would like some more support x

Reception age

Reception

Too young to be playing Fortnite, which is a 12 rated game.

I think you need to speak to school OP, 'working towards' could be anywhere below expected. I think maybe his teachers aren't being clear enough about his level and what they are doing to help him. Is he in a disruptive class do you think?

More specifically, I think he sounds like he has dyspraxia. But I'm not an Ed psych or SENCO.

Could it be asd perhaps hypermobile.
How are his friendships?

They do a lot more reading and writing in y3 so it may improve a bit.

Can he swim or tie laces or run well etc
Is he also writing numbers backwards and is he meeting maths expectations

Was he born very prematurely? That might also underlie the issues you've identified. I know a boy who had been a very premature baby, who was given daily 'hand gym' exercises to strengthen his hands and build motor skills.

Is he dyspraxic possibly?

Op, one of my children’s writing was similar at that age & was also unhappy with school, as a primary teacher I suspected dyslexia, although my child could read albeit slightly behind their peers.
The school just thought they were behind due to covid, and weren’t going to put them forward for the dyslexia assessment any time soon, so I firstly went to the gp to see if they could refer my child but couldn’t for dyslexia (has to be through the school or private) but did refer for dyspraxia. After a long nhs wait my child was assessed with dyspraxia and then I decided to pay for a private assessment and they do also have dyslexia.
My advice would be to get the gp to refer to paediatric occupational therapy for dyspraxia and see if the school will refer for dyslexia, if not, go private. Good Luck

Dd1 had similar issues and has dyslexia and dyspraxia. The school sounds awful if they aren’t even helping your eldest. Would it be possible to change schools?

Whatever the outcome re dyspraxia etc, for GCSEs etc you can use a laptop if your writing is illegible. Even homework and notes can be done on a PC if SENCO thinks appropriate.

Ours didn't LOT of Lego, which helped coordination.

That's quite young writing for nearly 8 sorry @Odearr I would have guessed this was a 4 year old.

See the teachers/school about this in September.

Doesn't mean he is less intelligent than a child his age with better writing of course. Many people not too good at English/writing/spelling etc are every bright and talented, so don't fret.

My daughter's school picked up in reception/yr1 that her handwriting and fine motor skills were behind. It suddenly clicked with me that she was hypermobile. It took about a year to get an appointment with OT but now we are in the system they are extremely helpful.

The writing and other issues remind me of my son, who is now 20. He is a lefty and has dyspraxia. Several family members who have similar issues assured us that typing would help, so we didn't push the OT. Well, typing is great, but it really does NOT solve the problem, and I wish we had been consistent with OT. My kid is a STEM kid, and typing advanced math and science symbols is not intuitive. Special software helps, but there's a learning curve, and son never really took to it. Also, writing by hand seems to help him organize his thoughts even if his writing is hard to read and uncomfortable for him. Finally, exams often call for hand work, and arranging accommodations to allow typing is a huge pain. With AI cheating now an option, I expect many teachers will continue to ask for hand printed work.

Hi! Yes, of course. Mixed-handedness is when you're not truly ambidextrous but you favour different hands for different things. In my case I use my left hand for nearly everything -- throwing, catching, using a fork, picking up a glass. When I was a child I'm fairly sure I was encouraged to use my right hand to write because my cousin (close in age) was left-handed so my family thought I was just copying her. So maybe I am fully left-handed?? Who knows. At any rate, my writing is terrible but I'm clever enough (Oxford degree, subsequent PhD). It's made me very clumsy in my life though.

Hopefully you've read the OP's update. You can now safely bore off and maybe focus more on all the things that would make you less judgemental.

4/5/6

4 or 5