DD brilliant reader but struggling with getting written work done.

[MrsCereal2014]

Background info: DD is in year 2 and currently 6 years old. She was born 7 weeks prematurely and has been in and out of hospital due to a heart condition which is now completely under control.

We have just had a parents evening at school and have been told that DD is not producing the expected amount of work in class, the class teacher as yet has not noticed any particular reason why. She is extremely bright, reading well above her expected age and can talk about a whole range of other subjects with ease. She has such a wealth of knowledge in her little brain and can articulate herself so well.
Does anyone have any similar experiences or advice? I just want to help her.

It sounds like a physical issue, either motor with her writing speed (could be grip, weak hand muscles, struggling to form characters quickly and neatly...), or a processing issue from brain to hand.

How far off expected is she? Is it 3 lines or 3 paragraphs?

To crudely test whether it's a motor issue, you could ask her to copy something and see if there was a delay at any point.

The fact she can articulate herself well, points more towards a problem getting it down, and not lack of ideas.

Have you asked her?

Is it all writing or just some subjects?

Yes DD, I got a phone call about her work from her teacher at a similar age who could not work out for the life of her why DD otherwise an extremely high achieving and diligent child was only writing 3/4 lines in creative writing but lots more in her other subjects. Turns out she's autistic, technically very good at skills so can write well, can reproduce art pieces if she has a source to a high standard but struggles massively with anything requiring imagination so creative writing, producing original art work, making up her own song or dance are all no-gos for her. Her WISC V assessment showed very high scores in academic skills like verbal reasoning and pattern recognition but much lower for working memory and processing which may also be at play there.

Yep. My son is 6, also in year 2 and his written work is absolutely shocking compared to his reading ability. I actually had a meeting with his teacher about it because the disparity was so huge and she said it's absolutely normal for 6 year olds. They often don't make the connection between what they read and what they're writing. He doesn't know the year one spellings list - which I'm also told is normal. Simple words like we, by, you etc. he can read on sight but asking him to spell them is like asking him to run a marathon, he just can't do it. And then you get the 'he's a boy, they take so much longer to write' spiel which I don't buy for a second.

I've taken to doing stuff at home with him. He has been fighting me since day one. It took 2 days to write one page (of double sized letters) when we started back in September. He wrote a daily diary over half term and wrote a letter this evening in 20 minutes. He's making huge progress but it's taken a lot of effort on my part.

The biggest thing is nothing at parents evening should be a surprise. Why have the school not raised this with you already? That would be what worried me the most. What are they putting in place to help her?

TeddyBeans,

Thank you for your response. It came completely out of the blue as there never seemed to be an issue in year 1. She is reading books for 9 and 10 year old and understands them all. She was reading before she started school. But in year 1 her writing was still at the expected standard which I was completely happy with and understood.
She knows how to spell words it seems to be an issue getting her ideas from her head to the paper at the moment.

I think I'm going to have to arrange another meeting with her teacher to find out what they are putting in place for her.

Singleandproud,

It is worse in some subjects. She really struggles with generating ideas for writing but is so much better when given a structure.
She has an obsession with animals and science so in this lesson she writes more...its also very factual. Your story sounds very similar to her to be honest.
Her big brother has ADHD with suspected Autism as well....maybe it might be worth investigating that route.

Can you share any ideas of what helped your little one?

Hercisback1

I have asked her but she gets very upset about it. She says that writing is very hard, she gets in a muddle with letter formation and doesn't like being faced with a blank page. In her own way she told me that essentially when given a blank page she would rather write nothing than fight to figure out how to start.

She is only managing maybe 3 sentences a session so quite a way off what she should be at the moment.

Have you had her hearing tested? Long story short but my son was very similar, reading way ahead, articulate etc. But ask him to finish a worksheet or write more than a line and he didn't have a clue.

We found year 2 very difficult, miserable and not like him at all. Turns out he has glue ear and was immensely struggling to understand the instructions. He's had grommets put in over summer and he's transformed, following instructions, writing a lot more, taking part etc. Just a thought.

Ds been assessed for similar. Just been assessed by OT recently. Flagged several things below average related to handwriting and coordination issues. Query dyspraxia or DCD as it's more commonly known.

Don't let this drag on OP, my DC is 9yo. Make sure you get your DD assessed quickly so she can get supports put in place. We knew DS struggled but we had no idea how badly.

Does she have any issues with her fine motor skills? Does she hold the pencil correctly? I was similar as a child. I could read very well and understand most things but couldn’t produce written work neatly or quickly enough. It wasn’t known then but I have dyspraxia. It was the physical act of writing that I struggled with. I still don’t hold a pen the normal way and I write very slowly compared to others. I received extra time in my A level exams because of it.

DD is very logical so just worked out her own 'algorithm' for the structure to what to include when she writes.
A bit like in secondary school when the have to write PEA paragraphs (Point, Evidence, Analyse). She just did that for every subject so creative writing has to have a location, a character, weather description, an event 2 similes, 3 metaphors etc and she works from there. Or an article has to have X,Y,Z.

She's predicted all 9s at GCSE so whatever she's doing is working.

From your update it sounds like she is overwhelmed and doesn’t no where to start. What are school doing to support? Do you have an individual education plan or similar? And do you think one would be beneficial? Do they do any assessment such as snaps?

my now 13 year old was diagnosed with dyslexia around 8. It impacts her processing speed and working memory. She really struggled to get her ideas etc onto paper. I noted during lockdown she would verbally give amazing answers but written was poor.

she found using a white board to jot her ideas down helped as she could do it as she goes along. I think scaffolding (sorry not sure what it actually is) helped.

School told me nothing was wrong, (she’s a very good reader and was deemed ahead of her peers) but 10 days of homeschool and it was clear to me…

I’d like to add she is doing really well at secondary.

Mini whiteboards are great because DC don't feel like it matters if they make a mistake and can rub it out.

You could also try her with some dictation software, most devices have it now and it could give her the confidence to get her answers on to paper once she sees her ideas on the typed page

To add to the possibilities.... this sounds like my dd at this age. She's now 15. She was diagnosed dyslexic aged 12. Yes she is and remains a brilliant reader but asked her to describe words she's floored... words like car, apple etc.

So many great ideas here. Thank you.

I think my first step needs to be to get another meeting organised with the school to find out exactly what school are noticing, the bits I've mentioned are a combination of what I've noticed and snippets from teacher and her. I will absolutely fight to get her the help she seemingly needs and I am more than happy to continue to support and work with her at home.

Thank you all so much for some great advice.

My son was like this. You could talk to him about a piece of home and he would give a full answer, but when you left him to put the answer down on paper he would write 2 or 3 sentences in half an hour. It finally came to a head when he was asked to write his name and address and school details. I watched him take ages to do it and there was no obvious reason why it should have caused a problem. Eventually we paid for private testing because all they would test for was dyslexia and we knew he wasn't dyslexic.

It turned out he had a problem with short term memory and processing. Having to remember what he wanted to write, the spellings and how to form the letters was a huge issue, because by the time he had written a couple of words he forgot what he was going to write. He was in the top 1 to 2% for spelling and reading comprehension l, but the bottom 2% for short term memory recall and processing. He also had dyspraxic tendencies - struggled with tying shoelaces and he had a really odd way of running.

Dsygraphia maybe? Also can be difficulties related to motor planning, sequencing etc.

Have a read up on dysgraphia, my son is being assessed for it and in the mean time he has a scribe at school and uses an iPad in some classes. Hes always had issues with his handwriting and he tries so so hard. Hes nearly 8 and was referred in July just as school was about to break up for the holidays
Since he started school again this September is how long hes had the scribe and iPad for

DS is in Y2 and is very similar. He’s very bright, articulate and reads well but struggles with writing. For him i think it’s partly the writing and partly focusing on tasks.