Reading/writing encouragement

[Bringiton2019]

I have boy/girl twins aged 7. My LG will read and write if I ask her too.
My LB will not, not matter how much I try and encourage (inc bribery), he will not and gets quite upset.

I'm worried he'll be behind at school when they go back.
Am I worrying unnecessarily? Will he want to eventually? Or any tips to encourage would be appreciated!

Hi

There may be underlying reasons.

I used to work with literacy refusers of that age and it can help to do some preliminary work. I've PM'd you some techniques.

Thank you, I'll log on to laptop and see if your message is there.
He is very good at reading but it reluctant to write.

My daughter is probably mildly dyslexic but can read quite well though it's a struggle to keep her interest and her teacher suggested getting her into graphic novels as a way of making reading more fun as she gets lost with too many words on a page.
She's 9 so graphic novels my be a little old for your son, but maybe try comics like the beano.
You could encourage him to then create his own comic strips and add speech bubbles or captions to get some level of writing into it.

Thank you.
@growlingbear I don't seem to have received anything? X

Hi, That's weird. I sent it yesterday and it's in my 'Sent' box as having gone through. Can't have typed your name incorrectly as I just clicked on 'message poster.'

I'll cut and paste it here. Two secs.

This was my PM to @Bringiton2019 :

Here's some of the techniques I used to get them capable and interested in reading and writing.

1. Get him a stress ball or squeezy toy and challenge him to see how many squeezes he can do in each hand. Count with him and them set him a target of about twenty more than that, for which he'll get a small reward. This strengthens the muscle group that holds the pencil. Once he reaches the target, build up to about 80 a day. If he finds this easy then it's not a muscular issue.

2.Avoid story books for a while. Boys that age aren't always interested in fiction. Get him First News newspaper, or read silly, appropriate stories to him from an easy newspaper like The Metro or The I. Point out funny signs you see as you walk along. Watch out for anything written down that might appeal to him. Our breakthrough was when my husband bought our son a Lego game cheat book that helped you access loads of extra bits in the game. Once he had something he really wanted to read, he got started. Buy football magazine, comics etc. Maybe also comic novels or graphic novels or illustrated factual books if he likes them. The 'ology' books used to go down well. (Spyology, Monsterology, Egyptology etc.)

Draw a big outline picture and get him to fill in stuff like waves in the water or roof tiles or scales on the dragon. This helps him form shapes that are similar to those needed for cursive writing - any repeated loops, spikes, claw shapes etc will help.

Write him a secret message in lemon juice or milk (maybe a clue to where a treat is hiding) Iron it to heat it up so the writing appears. Or give him a secret pen set with invisible ink.

Challenge him to write to the Prime Minister or the Queen. He will get a letter back from Buckingham Palace or No 10 which small children find quite impressive.

It's fine to encourage improved vocab and narrative development through watching TV. The Simpsons has a massive vocab (unbelievably!) as well as loads of hidden maths puzzles in it.

What books have you tried him with? Silly ones like Captain Underpants, Wimpy Kid or Anthony Horowitz's Diamond Brothers comic mystery series (highly recommended) might go down well. Read to him, then ask him to read one sentence to you. Build it up from one sentence to one paragraph. Teach him how to sound out syllables and guess chunks of words both for reading them aloud and also writing them himself.

If he's completely resistant to all these then it may be worth getting him checked out for dyslexia as literacy refusal can be a sign there's a problem.

But it's more the writing than the reading, you say. So do lots of writing and drawing in unusual ways:
Write messages with a stick on damp sand at the beach
Play 'restaurant' and get him to plan and write the menu options
Same with Summer Cafe. You'll buy the things on the menu if he writes what they are and a description of each one.
Write and draw with pavement chalks
Ditto soap crayons on bath tiles
Try a jokey session of writing like Shakespeare using a quill pen. See if he can come up with some silly rhyming couplets.
Get him to write a set of rules for parents to obey for half a day!

Play games that encourage understanding of narrative, like Braggard (there are loads of storytelling card games now.) Verbal ability to develop and structure ideas in a coherent format will massively help him structure narrative - and later, essays, as he gets older.

Play Consequences.

He could keep a summer journal. Just writing down the best or funniest thing that happened each day; or anything he's done that he'd never done before, or any skill he's mastered like swimming, cycling or walking a certain distance, diving, footie skills etc. Get him to keep a record.

@growlingbear thank you so much.

I'll start trying these ASAP xx