bright year one boy refusing to write - should i ask for help?

[morechocolate]

My son is aged 6 and at the end of year one. He is reading everything enthusiastically to himself but I think achieving very little work at school.

He is refusing to write at school according to his teacher although presumably he does write sometimes although he doesnt at home. He is unable to form his letters or numerals correctly ie all numerals other than 1 and 8 are reversed except 4 which is written as a t which I believe may result in his maths answers being wrong. Letters are reversed and or incorrectly formed and from what I have seen his spelling tests were being marked as incorrect for this.

At parents evenings we have always been advised that he is progressing well and we had never queried that and it is only very recently we have been told that he refuses to write. The teacher has also advised me this week that he does not respond to praise or consequences which makes me rather concerned as to how she has managed him all year. It is very late in the school year to mention this for the first time, although I do agree with her.

He seeks knowledge constantly at home and is always absorbed in highly technical books on space/natural world etc and he challenges and questions everything but says he doesnt want to go to school because he is made to work and write which is boring. He will go to school although sometimes reluctantly but seems to have been happy when he comes out.

His IQ has recently been tested by an NHS consultant Psychologist and found to be exceptionally high to quote them. Verbal IQ 99th centile. I am unaware if anything special has been put in place at school to help him achieve slightly closer to his potential. We have not been advised of any specific help. As far as I know he is not on the bottom table which consists of just 4 children but think he is on the one just above this in a class of 30.

He is at a state school deemed by ofsted to be great ie above average SATS, virtually no SEN or free school dinners or English as a 2nd language. He is my eldest and I naively thought it would be ideal for him.

Should I be requesting help or what should I do?

My son (age 7) is also a very reluctant writer. I wish I had thought of Sarahfreck's idea a year or two ago as I think it would have helped. I would suggest, however, to handwrite the text for him to copy/trace rather than write it on a computer. With my son, I now realise one of the problems is he rarely saw (sees) my husband or me writing with a pen or pencil. All the writing we do is on a keyboard. Thus, from an eary age, he associated writing with keyboards and not pen/pencil. (By contrast, he has always seen us read a lot and, possibly as a result, is an avid reader; just as he has seen us hike, cycle, cook, etc and has followed those habits, as well). Since I had this great revelation, I am trying (not always successfully) to write more in his presence. I think it would have helped him in reception and year 1 if I had encouraged him to dictate his ideas to me to hand-write and then try to copy or trace at least part of what I wrote, rather than to struggle to write, when writing was so much slower than the flow of his ideas.

I agree with Merle, I think it is the fault of the education system for pushing writing so early on. We are currently in France and they don't even expect the children to pick up a pencil until they are nearly 7 years old!

When my DS was in Y1 he loved the topic of space. He read all about it and watched DVDs and knew everything about it. Yet when they had a writing competition on the topic at school he hardly could write a thing and got very discouraged. He is starting to write much better now (issues with concentration and spelling - he would just stop if he couldn't spell a word) but it has taken a lot of time (he will start Y4 in September and I'm still terrified he won't be able to keep up). I do think children get easily discouraged in the English system, which is terrible for their self-esteem.

I think reading enthusiastically is far more important than writing. My son had similar problems with back to front writing at that age but also never enjoyed craft/painting/writing. Fine motor skills have always been poor. Teachers have always commented on how little he writes but i have never put any pressure on him. I only make sure there are tons of interesting library books in the book pile by his bed. He was/is a total book worm though and now having just turned 8 has a reading age of 12. Only recently has the writing blossomed and the teachers keep telling me what an amazing writing style he has. They can see all his reading in his writing. His vocab and spelling are also tops.

Gosh thanks Ceeb, I realise I am pathetically in need of approval!

I should say that two members of my husband's family were primary teachers and then learning support, fifteen or so years ago and they are very critical of the way that writing, in particular is now taught.

Also I swear that when I was at school we wrote stories/poems are were told that they were good etc, with a few minor critisims. Now, having helped in school at Yr 1 and 2, I can't believe the amount of critisim children have to take. No piece of writing is ever good enough, it is always 'how could we improve?'. Also they are expected to master so many different writing styles and skills, I can quite understand why some give up, particulary when what's going on in their heads far exceeds what they can ever put down on paper.

I'm taking the same approach as skybluepearl - the 3r's are reading, reading reading! I'm also confident that'll make the difference in the long term. It is just so hard when it is not you there encouraging them, instead they have to go to school and get criticized or feel badly for falling behind.... Drives me nuts!