Four year old in reception unable to write any letters at all

[Bringallthebiscuits]

Hi,

My son is in reception and turns five next month. Obviously this school year has been completely messed up, but he did go to school last term and has been back at school a week now since having to do home schooling.

When I say he can’t write letters, I mean he struggles to hold a pencil, gets really upset, and if I really try to encourage him he does a scribble that doesn’t resemble a letter. We’ve bought him thick triangular pencils, special grips for pencils to help children with dyspraxia - but they don’t seem to help. He gets so upset and frustrated. I’ve tried getting him to write in foam/flour to build up his hand strength but not sure if this is really helping.

Similarly, he has never drawn anything recognisable, no faces or stick men. We’re waiting for an assessment for autism but in our area there is a two year waiting list.

Have any of you been in this situation and found anything that helped? Is it likely that he’ll need to repeat a year at school? His reading is also behind other children in his class. Thanks.

My DD was like this. She's 13 now. We got a diagnoses of dysgraphia (that's difficulty writing) last year...plus dyscalculia (numbers...like dyslexia but with maths) and ADD.

She took till she was about 7 to write legibly and even then it was very poor.

What helped her was working on her fine motor skills with activities like bead threading, clay modelling, easy stitching (those pre-made kits with holes ready made) and anything like that.

Thanks @FortunesFave, that’s encouraging that she started to write at seven. I haven’t tried any kits like that yet so that’s a good idea, clay modelling sounds fun for me even if he’s not interested!

She wasn't a good writer by a long shot...still isn't...but school are going to teach her to touch type and that will help enormously.

What are his interests or passions? For example...if he likes bugs, think about making some bugs out of large beads and pipe cleaners/glitter glue googly eyes etc.

If he likes robots, save boxes and try to make a huge one...anything that gets him using his fingers...even managing sticky tape and drawing or sticking on buttons will be good for him.

If he's really not into crafting, activities like popping bubble wrap, playing tiddly winks, cooking and gardening can all help.

Is he on Lego (not Duplo) yet? That's good for hand strength.

Have you got a garden and sprinkler? That's good for overall arm strength. When my kids were at nursery they had activities like asking the kids to paint a wooden fence with water which was designed to increase muscle strength too.

Thanks for all these ideas - I’m sure he’d like popping bubble wrap! We do lots of Lego together and he’s got better at it. Wouldn’t have thought of things like fence painting. Used to love tiddly winks so will be good to have an excuse to play that again!

My LO's teacher recommended using clothes pegs to encourage strength and pen holding.
So we do little games where we put pegs on anything (clothes/cardboard/paper plates). They never last long but it's good practice. We also bought chalk pens and let them scribble on windows.

There are fun bath crayons too that he could write with. It must be so frustrating for him! Lots of fun activities suggested here that may take the pressure off. You could always talk to the teacher and / or Senco at his school to get their ideas and see if they've any ideas how to support him further.

Just saw Amazon and Sainsbury's online have the bath crayons

My son is just five and in Reception too. He has struggled with writing. At his (Montessori) nursery they did lots of the “pre-writing” stuff to strengthen his hand and improve motor skills but he wouldn’t put pencil to paper even though others in his peer group were happily writing their names by the time they left. After the first term of Reception his teacher said he was behind in writing (they obviously have some fancy term for it but she meant behind!) and gave us various suggestions for how to improve his fine and gross motor skills, most of which have been mentioned already but another one was threading bits of spaghetti through the holes in a colander(!). Also climbing/monkey bars in the park- anything to get their hands over their heads apparently.

While he’s been at home this term I’ve really worked with him on his writing and he’s gone from barely forming letters to being able to write my Mothers Day card by himself (made me cry a bit 😳). Tracing letters in flour helped, and also just doing a little bit of practice each day. Try getting him to do “rainbow writing” - so writing out short, basic words like “the”, “in”, “at” and his name in all the colours of the rainbow - my son loved this and it kept his interest.

He will get there, OP. My son’s writing is still pretty messy by the standards of some of the girls on the class (and he is already five, so one of the older ones) but the improvement he’s shown in just a few weeks is huge.

Thanks so much everyone for all the suggestions! Will have a go.

We do a bit of pegging, he loves that. And the letters in flour I have tried (though he just does squiggles). I think he expects to fail at the pencil and paper now so just hates it. Would be amazing if he could write a Mother’s Day card one day :)