ds (5) hates writing. HATES it.

[eastendywendy]

He's just finished p1. His reading was slow to get going but he's making progress. His numbers he's keen on.

He hates writing. He doesn't like drawing, never has. I try to do playdough / hama beads etc to encourage motor skills.

He writes a lot of letters (even some in his name) back to front.

How can I help him?

"Oh and no, he doesnt have an IEP. The school isnt concerned."

There is is unlikely to be a major issue with fine motor skills. I think you and your son can relax and enjoy the summer.

I would enjoy your holiday, encourage gently but basically relax. It's tough because the message from UK schools is "children age 5 should be writing". THis is not the message in a lot (most?) schools worldwide. So, why should we force children into doing something they are not developmentally ready for? CRAZY...yet this is what we do.

The school are not worried. He is 5. If you are at the same stage this time next year then I would start doing stuff, but really it's early days. Building what you want yourself with lego is much more fun and creative than doing what your supposed to so I'd encourage that!

Thanks so much for all the replies.

My ds (5 in August) is also the same re. writing and couldn't be forced to practice even if I wanted to. Somebody upper body strength. Does anyone know any good exercises for improving this?

Tgger, I think a lot depends on what you mean "children age 5 should be writing"

If a child cannot draw a circle or make a cross by the age of five then I think that is a cause for concern. There is a difference between having no pen control and a child who just can't write.

Writing is a complex skill and you need to have the basic skills in place first. You need visual perception skills. For example the first exercise in "Write from the Start" involves colouring dots on a picture of a girl's dress. Getting a child to copy a pattern on a peg board encourages coordination. Threading is another way of improving hand eye coordination.

"Somebody upper body strength. Does anyone know any good exercises for improving this?"

Gymnastic class. Or get your son to go on the monkey bars at the park.

I mean writing as in words on the page, sentences etc. And that's the message that our schools send out. I am all for developing the pre-writing skills, big time .

eastendywendy, I think your DS is unfortunate that a scheme called Foundations of Writing is no longer used in Scottish primary schools, as it was when my DS started school. It was basically as scheme where children had to go through a series of pre-writing, drawing and observational activities before they were taught handwritng. It meant that children were not encouraged to even attempt to write before they were ready.

FWIW, the children in DS's school were divided into ability groups really early on and the top group consisted of 9 girls plus the eldest boy - in a class of 29 - while the bottom group consisted of 5 boys plus the youngest girl (based entirely of drawing and observational ability).

Thanks cecily

My DS was like this and has finally, in yr4, got the hang of it.
He didn't want to draw, paint etc either so we really struggled.

For him the issue was that he just couldn't get his hand to draw what his brain could imagine so he gave up.
At that age he did, however, enjoy stencils because he could produce what he wanted. I assume it also helped with fine-motor skills.

I also think you should enjoy the summer.....
I feel I can finally relax because last night, for the first time ever, he was really excited about drawing pictures of knights in great detail. They will be framed!

Good luck!

Your son sounds just like mine, mine turned out to be mildly dyslexic with handwriting and spelling as his areas of weakness, his reading is not too bad.

He had some OT for hand strength issues (I was surprised about this as he was fab with lego and otherwise his fine motor skills appeared ok) which did help but now at age 12 his hand writing is still pretty much illegible, including to him and his High School have given up on trying to improve it. Thank goodness for laptops!

Any way, I wouldn't worry about it but bear it in mind if he's still struggling in the future.

Just wanted to add that as a February-born boy, you can probably guess what group DS was in. That did not stop him doing better at 15 than some of the top group girls.

Thanks everyone

Stencils are a great idea

Yes, stencils! And tracing paper. Teach him how to trace something and then transfer it on to proper paper (just paste in on with Pritt stick).

I know it's "cheating" but my ds was just like toomany's, in that he couldn't get what he saw in his head onto paper, and it irritated him hugely.

I remember now that by tracing pictures and using this for titles that he was finally able to present work in the way he wanted. Now it's all bloody PowerPoint. It helped his confidence though, and he came on in leaps and bounds and was able to concentrate on the important stuff (ie learning ).

DS was probably in Y4 and 5 when we tried this, so older than your ds is now - I'd completely forgotten, and we're only talking a couple of years ago. We got his SATs back the other day and they're not phenomenal (by MN standards ) but Writing he got a 4 - which is exaclty what they're meant to get at the end of Y6. That's meant to reassure you btw - it's all so worrying but there are solutions and where there aren't, there are perfectly adequate workarounds. :)

or just paste it, I meant to say.

My son (5.5) hates writing too and his teacher has suggested a scrapbook.

We are going to stick things in and just write "captions" as a fun way of encouraging writing.

Wish me luck!

Thanks all. Tracing paper - I'd forgotten that even existed! Brilliant plan!

Scrapbook is good too and I've got that ready to go.

there is hope... DS was like this at the end of last year. he is now 6, Is a free reader ( lime band Plus, one of the more able maths group and has finally started to write a bit. Its still not much compared to some of his peers but he will write 3 short sentences if pushed.

we found that variety of topic helps.
a holiday diary ( but not EVERY day with tears and threats)
book review
rules for games
postcards to granny/ friends - DS loves getting post and granny is VERY good at replying to cards.
drawing with caption

Teaching him how to draw stick people helped DS last summer, as he could then draw people doing what ever and write a caption. we had a lot of holiday diary last year reading " I went to the rec. I had fun" or "DS and X like football."

I'm doing that post cards thing, MIL is also very good at replying to things.

I could have written this about my DS last year. He's now finished year 1 and his progress has astounded everyone. He's a late summer baby and I think he just wasn't ready before about the middle of year 1.

I found writing / drawing on a whiteboard really helpful. One of his problems was he hated making a mistake- this way he could rub it out straight away. My DC play with the board a lot. It's a great way of knowing what goes on in school as they do a lot of roll play