Help with fine motor skills-Writing

[Eaney]

Help please -My son is in reception and was 5 in Nov. At our last parent teacher meeting I was told I needed to encourage him to develop his fine motor skills mainly his writing. I asked for advise on how to do this but none was really forthcoming.

I asked what typically happens in class and I was told that he would be asked to write a sentence on what he did at the weekend. I said he used to do this at his nursery and that the nursery worker would write the sentence first and that he would then copy it underneath. I was then told that in class he was expected to formulate the sentence and write it without the aid of having something to copy. Commonly used word would be on display around the classroom to help him.

I kept thinking I must have misunderstood until my son told me a little while later that he had writen the line 'I played with my electric train'in class. I asked him did he have any help - he said no. I asked him how he knew what letters were in the word 'electric' and he said that he thought really really hard and thought about the sounds in the word and wrote down what he thought were the letters. I asked if the teacher looked at his sentence and he said - no. I have no idea what he actually wrote and how closely it resembled what he wanted to write.

This seems to me to be a lot to ask of a 5 yr old. He was able to read before he went to school due largely to a nursery who insisted that all children should start learning to read at 3. I don't know if this is influencing the teacher when they ask him to write something.

Can anyone tell me:

1. if it is reasonable to expect a child of 5 to write a sentence without having something to copy,
2. what I can do at home to encourage his writing. He seems to hate to write now and I am wary of pushing it. One day he accused me of being like his teacher and he wasn't complimenting me,
3. how should I approach the teacher.

I have tried to encourage playing with plastersine, writing a letter to Santa and general drawing but he seems less than enamoured with it. When he does write it seems fine to me but he does seem to hate the process.

Grateful for any advise or links to good websites.

I think that's quite a lot to ask of a 5 year old!

Dot-to-dot puzzles are a good way of developing fine motor skills and are not so obviously about writing.

My dd's teacher suggested cutting out and sticking things as helping with fine motor skills - and fortunately it's card season again, so she's desperate to help without realising its all part of a cunning plan.

I don't think it is that unusual for boys not to be very enthusiastic at his age and perhaps resisting pressing him to actually write at home but encouraging his imagination and awareness of written media for a while would generate some interest. However to answer your questions :-

1. Last year at aged 5/6 ds was writing a journal of sorts using the sounds he recognised in his head although his teacher would assist with spelling and sounding out. However I'm not sure that it would necessarily be expected in first term of Reception but possibly later in the year.

1. There are lots of activities which you can do to encourage him with fine motor skills in general - threading beads, winding up yoyos, drawing, playdough, lego, puzzles, cutting and sticking - and writing specifically - drawing with chalk on blackboard and pavement, dot to dots, mazes, tracing around things, tracing over lines and patterns, drawing stencils, writing and drawing with a stick in playdoh or wet sand. You could also use a Megasketcher, where he can use very light pressure to form letters or line drawings.

1. Could you ask the teacher more about the specifics of the "problems" as she sees them. Ask to see examples of his work as you discuss it. Is it that he struggles with the actual mechanics of writing (motor skills) or lacks the initiative and motivation to put his ideas down on paper in a logical order.

If the former, ask if his pencil grip is ok, does he use his wrist or whole arm (more tiring), can he form the letters correctly, is it more of a problem than for other kids in the class, would she recommend any specific exercises to help or suggest any follow up help at this stage (ds sees an Occupational Therapist for this).

If the second then is it that he cannot sound out the letters and relate them to the correct characters, does he lack the confidence to try spelling words himself (nursery may have done him a disservice there), is he a perfectionist and just want to get it right too much, is he able to put together a piece of work in his head but just not get it onto paper (which may relate back to the motor skills). tbh a lot of this comes as they get older.

Once you have a little more information it may steer you towards ways of helping him. However you may still find it develops in time which is where you need the teacher's experience to tell you if it is a real problem or not.

good luck and hth

Thats to much for a five year old. Does he like Lego and Jigsaws as they are good for helping fine motor development

I went on a course a while ago that said some boys do find the physical process of writing hard and that it can actaully make their hand hurt.