Under achiever or not yet mature?

[Sherbert37]

My eight year old son is lively and inquisitive, good at maths but has very poor handwriting. He is not confident when writing stories and can barely put three sentences together. He is always in a rush to finish first! Will things improve with maturity or should we be thinking about extra tuition? His school has been helpful but he will soon be in a class of 31 which worries me. I do a fair bit at home, when time permits. It would be useful to hear from anyone who has gone through this or to have ideas from teachers.

I'm sure I heard a mother of sons once say that it's common for boys to be ahead with maths/problem solving and a bit behind with writing.....or am I talking rubbish?

I'm sure my hv told us the same as mum2girls - iirc it's to do with girls using different parts of their brains at the same time whereas boys can't - I'm happy to be corrected tho

From my own teaching experience, albeit at secondary level, i woud say this is very common. Boys do tend to rush and produce untidy work. He just sounds like an average boy and I wouldn't have thought there was a need for extra tuition.

When setting homework for boys I used to find it very helpful to be quite structured. ie you need to write at least so many words and you need to spend at least this amount of time.

Maddison is right - boys tend to use the left(or right, can't remember which one) hemisphere of the brain and girls use the right hemisphere of the brain. This means boys are good at spatial/maths things and girls at verbal/writing/literacy things.

Maddison is right - boys tend to use the left(or right, can't remember which one) hemisphere of the brain and girls use the right hemisphere of the brain. This means boys are good at spatial/maths things and girls at verbal/writing/literacy things.

Thanks for the reassurance. I agree about the structure being important for boys.

He doesn't sound like he's underachieving at all. fine motor skills come later to boys than to girls. Is he happier writing things other than stories- instructions, football reports, descriptions etc. Story writing can be really daunting for some children and many boys prefer to read non fiction, comics etc so also lean that way in their writing. Praise any of his efforts so that he doen't develop a block about the writing. Gel pens are good for handwriting as they flow nicely and make it a little bit more interesting