Writing problems & tutoring

[Sarenne]

My son is in year 3 and is generally doing well apart from problems with writing. He has lots of ideas but his written work is generally the minimum he can get away with and is very messy and almost illegible. His teacher keeps raising this as an issue but neither her efforts or mine seem to be making much difference (and just cause lots of arguments). I am considering getting him a tutor for some very targeted lessons to try and give him a love of writing and a motivaton to do it well. Has anyone else had this problem and tried tutoring? Did it help? And how do I go about finding the right tutor? Thanks.

I've never hired a tutor myself but a good friend is a PT primary school teacher and also tutors privately with great success. She uses this website www.uktutors.com/tutors/

My DD just had a session with a private tutor specifically for improving writing. It was an one-off lesson, for guiding DD (and me) to the right direction. She provided great advices and I was impressed with what a "real" teacher could do. She (ex grammar teacher) even asked my DD to write two short essays and send it to her before the lesson, so she could prepare. I was lucky to find her (recommended through 11 plus forum site).

I wish you a good luck. Teaching writing is much harder and tricky than teaching maths!

If he has the ideas, see if he can dictate into a tape recorder, or suitable mobile phone. Once the ideas are there, he can write it slowly, listening to the recording, maybe improving content as he goes along.

I am a touch typist and used to type on the computer to dictation from very reluctant Yr2 boys; once relieved of the writing, their ideas just flowed.

Obviously, in your case he has to write it down (or type it?) at some stage, but at least if the ideas are on tape he has something to work from.

Have you had a full assessment to rule out underlying problems, such as dyspraxia or hyper mobility? We were in the same situation with my ds1 (8 and in y4). He would write as little as he could - even shortening words. What he did write was almost illegible. We took him to an occupational therapist, who discovered he had severe hyper mobility in his hands, and also some dyspraxia type coordination issues to do with midline crossing.

After six months of regular daily exercises (nothing to do with handwriting) he can write an A4 side of legible prose in 40 minutes, with relatively little fuss, and no support. I wouldn't have thought it was possible.

By the way, the school put his difficulties down to being a 'scruffy boy'.

We went privately, which cost about £350 for an assessment, and we also paid for regular sessions. I believe you can get OT on the nhs though, if you push for it. Pm me if you want to.

Thank you all - there are some good suggestions that I will follow up.