Medical Issue, Concentration and Handwriting

[Dobbysocks]

My DC has a fluctuating hearing loss. Long story short, school aren’t doing much as it’s not continuous loss. Issues have been going on for two years. Teachers continuously speaking about distractions but nothing to support this.

His writing seems to have regressed this year and I’m really concerned. Wide rule photo is last year in year 1. This year in year 2 are the other two photos. Also don’t feel it’s helping they’re having to copy their learning intentions every lesson at 6 years old.

Aside from daily writing practice, how else can I support him? And any positive stories from kids whose writing may have looked similar to this in year 2 improving by the end of primary welcomed.

I am not an expert but it looks to me as though they launched into writing for content without giving enough time to learning to write the letters well.

If I were you I’d try to get help now rather than trust they will cover that groundwork.

I was an SEN teaching assistant for ten years. I'm not suggesting your child has either of these, but I spent 4 years working every day with a child with dyspraxia and global development delay.

His handwriting was extremely poor. I know you say you don't want to do daily handwriting practise but that worked for him. The key was to do it little and often, one minute here, two minutes there, so it never became a chore. Tracing over words already written by someone else helped, as did placing my hand over his to guide the pencil. Eventually the muscles needed to write neatly strengthened, as did the muscle-memory to write neatly and spell correctly.

His writing was illegible in Year 3 and could be read by anyone by Year 6 (long before that, probably). So don't despair!

Does the year 1 example concern you? Teachers didn’t seem to be worried last year and they were a lot more experienced and efficient than his brand new teacher this year.

Thank you. Not that I don’t want to do the daily practice at all but more I don’t want it to feel so arduous to him that he switches off. We have a couple of books like what you’ve mentioned that I’ve bought this week and was wondering how often each daily they needed using to see improvement. Feels like more added on to the day as his school already gives a lot of homework!

I would not be concerned, but I would practise every day. But it really has to be a tiny amount whenever you get a spare moment. Don't make a big deal of it. I've done this with many children who have struggled - and one of my own children when she was struggling with spelling. This is what to do:

Get a lined exercise book.
Write the word 'the' - neatly and joined up - on the top line of a page.
Get your son to grip a pencil in the correct way.
Assuming you are both right-handed, stand behind your son so you can put your hand over his hand.
Guide his hand and copy the word 'the' on the line below the line you wrote it on.
Do it again on the line below that one.
Then again on the line below.
Then release his hand and tell him to have a go on his own on the next line.
Whatever it looks like, give him a big smile and tell him 'That was a really brilliant effort'.
This should take around one minute.
Don't spend any longer on it.
Go away, do something else and forget about it.
An hour later do it again.
And again.
Whenever you get a spare moment.

Think of it like training for a marathon. Human hands evolved to peel fruit and climb trees and it will take some people a bit longer than others to fine-tune the muscles in their hands and fingers to deal with the intricacies of writing. Don't worry. Just do the above as often as you can with lots of praise, the occasional reward, adding new words like 'I', 'can', 'that', 'is', 'your son's name', as you go along.

And maybe ask the school if they can go easy on your son's homework while he works on his handwriting.

In terms of handwriting, how are DS’s fine and gross motor skills in general? Working on these (e.g. threading beads/pasta, kneading dough, throwing/catching, wheelbarrow walking, painting the fence with water) can help with handwriting.

For DS’s hearing difficulties, is he under any healthcare professionals about that? The school should be providing support. If they don’t know how to support him, they should be requesting outside support. You will have to push for it but the school could seek involvement from a Teacher of the Deaf (ToD).

He’s under care and facing an operation. I kept on at them and they did get a teacher of the deaf in for observation but they haven’t implemented any of her suggestions such as having listening breaks or extra time for tasks. The only one they did implement was a seat move. They had him at the back. Despite my asking this to not be the case many times.

Fine and gross motor skills are generally fine but maybe we could practice some of those things a little more! Life seems to get so busy in school you sometimes forget to keep up those little activities you do lots of pre school starting for them.

Thank you. This is really helpful advice. I’ll definitely try the little and often approach.

Request a meeting with the SENCO. Remind them they must make their best endeavours to meet DS’s SEN and they must make reasonable adjustments. Follow up with an email. If you don’t get anywhere with the SENCO, speak to the HT.

I would also consider requesting an EHCNA. On their website, IPSEA has a model letter you can use.

Is there a plan for further input from the ToD?

My son has hypermobility and probably dyspraxia. He didn’t even start to write until year 2.
His school did whole of early year group intervention concentrating on gross motor and fine motor skills. The gross motor skills, strengthening of the core and shoulder stability are vital for handwriting. These sometimes get overlooked and the effort is placed on the improvement of fine motor skills.
He was identified as having difficulties so had a referral to the OT service and had targeted exercises. We were really lucky with his school that all the children did the same exercises (bear crawl, marching, using the ribbon things gymnasts use etc etc) and then the children who needed more help were identified.
I would recommend getting an OT assessment.

Obvious start but has he had an eye test?

For fine motor skills get some therapeutic putty its great for bending stretching and kneeding even a needoh squish in the morning to limber up the hands

Kids with poor handwriting often need to strengthen core, shoulders and arms rather than fingers. We were advised to start karate - which was beneficial for all sorts of reasons as well as possibly improving the handwriting. Tbf, all of the sons in our family have truly terrible handwriting. Most have a diagnosis of dyspraxia. There are lots of ways around handwriting later in life if needed.

Fluctuating hearing loss is a much, much bigger issue. Is it glue ear? Have a look at this guide from the Ewing Foundation:

https://ewing-foundation.org.uk/resources/listening-to-learn-guide/

Schools do not take hearing issues seriously. It drives me round the bend.

My eldest is dyspraxic and her handwriting was never great. It recomend the hand/wrist/shoulder strengthening. Fidget toys, play doh, kinetic sand ball throwing/ catching, sewing, lego, swimming... anything that get his hands/arms moving.

Remember too that there are alternatives to handwriting, and if he infringing it hard on his joints or whatever as opposed to.it just looking at bit messy he can use alternat9ve methods - typing for example- to ensure he gets the point of the class as he progresses eg. Learning sentence structure, writing longer pieces. This si something met with alot of resistance by teachers determined to.teach a kid to write neatly at the expense of other skills.

That’s a good point about alternative methods. Learning how to touch type would be an invaluable skill for GCSEs etc