Writing 5 year old boy, reception. Worried!

[Bazyboots]

Hello all

My son´s teacher put the below pciture on his orbit account with the caption:

After reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar Alex explained how the animal changes throughout the story and its life cycle. He write an explanation independently with finger spaces and full stops.

Having seen this pciture, I feel a tad worried. Given that, I know nothing about standards and milestones of writing in 5 years and couldn´t find much useful online.

Be honest (but not too honest) is this normal or behind as I am thinking.

Thank you in advance!

Looks totally normal to me. Compared to lots in my dc class that looks excellent tbh

It looks fine to me. Is he in Reception or Year 1? He knows what he wants to writes and has had a phonologically plausible go at most of the words.

Looks like he's worked hard, formed the letters well and he has spelt it all using his phonetic knowledge and remembered what it is he is actually writing long enough to write a sentence on the topic. There is a huge variation in writing from what I see in my DD class, an for some reason the boys seem to fall behind but catch up later in their school life.

Wow, honestly, wasn´t expecting that. Was bracing myself. He is in reception. Thank you all for your responses. :) *relieved.

Looks good to me. It's readable without any help, which is a start. Spelling phonetically plausible and where it isn't he's at least hearing and spelling the dominant phonemes in order. Letter reversals are quite common at this age. They'll probably sort themselves out sooner or later.

Not behind at all for this point in reception.

Looks fine to me too (mother of a dd in reception.)
We have had lots of ideas from the reception teacher about how to encourage our dc to write. Basically they said to praise any effort and not to criticise. It is working with my dd and now I can't get her to stop writing lists, cards, notes, more cards, books and her writing is improving in leaps and bounds.

Thanks RafaIsTheKingOfClay (can I call you Rafa? ;) and redautumnleaves - Red?)

I read somewhere that mirroring letters is normal at this age but could be a sign of dyslexia (I am a bit dyslexic) so will keep an eye on it.

Great suggestions, thank you Red. Don't do much writing with him at home, except writing cards, so will try a few of the above. Like the shopping list one especially.

Thanks for your replies!

Bazy :)

Does he have free access to paper and pens? My DD has always spent ages drawing and writing and I put that down to her having her own desk with bits of paper all different sizes, A4, old envelopes from work that have lost their stick, tiny note books, shopping list pads etc and her pens etc are there so she can write/draw when ever she wants.
If you don't have room for a workstation out all the time then magnetic whiteboard put on the wall at his height with some board pens will do the trick and doesn't take up much room

I think that's really good (v similar in how it looks to DD's writing at a similar age and she is considered a v confident and neat writer now in Y3). Mirroring letters is very very normal. DD did it well into Y1 and her teacher who was highly experienced and basically completely wonderful told me to stop worrying and let her get on with it (maybe just remind about which way round in a gentle way). What sorted that out for her in the end was, I think, joined up writing.

Hi, singleandproud yes he does have loads of different types of pens/ crayons/ felt tips etc but not a great variety of types of paper.... I can imagine he would love post-it notes in particular so will get some of those in. Good suggestion, thanks :)

Thanks for your post Opopanax, makes me fell better. When I first read Alex's butterfly-journal-thingy my immediate reaction was ' crickey, this is really quite bad!' Asked my mum and she was none the wiser either.Not had the chance to discuss with his teacher today (he's been off with the dreaded sickness bug) and didn't want to ask any fellow mums from the same school. Parents evening next week so will see....

Still, I do feel 'egged' criiiinge on to do more writing with him at home.

Thanks everyone!! :)))

I have 1 DC in reception and 1 in Y1. This looks like upper-end of Reception to lower-end Y1 to me, based on my DC and what I've seen of their classmate's work on their class blogs and classroom walls. Lovely neat writing for Reception better than my Reception-age child's scrawl

My youngest DC mirrors letters a lot and I was reassured by her teacher that it's absolutely nothing to worry about at this age.

It looks at the upper end of what's expected for Reception tbh and I really wouldn't be worried.

And mirror writing is very common in Reception and year 1 children. It really is not a sign of possible dyslexia at this age - their brains are still learning which way round our writing goes and they don't always remember the right way round. If it continues on past 6-7 then it can be a sign of underlying learning difficulties.

Fab, thank you.
Btw, you're such all such a knowledgable lot! A great help, thanks again :)

EYFS lead here. That's an expected ELG literacy piece which is fine for this stage of the year. The school should be addressing the gaps of applying phase 3 consonant digraphs and the letter formation which is part of his Physical Development ELG.

Regarding writing at home if he's interested then have a box with bits he's interested in but don't stress if he's not. Boys are generally more reluctant writers . At my school we have writing stimulus boxes e.g. with Ben 10 words, pictures, laminated writing frames, letter formation charts, phase 2-4 irregular words, sound mats etc. Children can then access them if they want to do some independent writing. You get a better engaged child when they're writing for a purpose than when just faced with blank pieces of paper.

Poundland is ace for writing things!

I also think it's totally normal, my boy who is now in Y1 but still 5 for another month has just recently all of a sudden started writing a bit more legible...it will just happen

Poundland here we come!! :D

What's a sound mat Brummagen?.....come to think of it what's a phase 2-4 irregular word and a letter formation chart? ......

And why on Earth can I make these stupid emoticons work!!!

Oh oh oh.....they worked!!!!! You have to post first. Get it now

A sound mat is a bit like an alphabet chart except it shows the sounds (phonemes) and the different ways they can be spelt in English.

One phonics programme (?etters and Sounds) has six phases - phases 2-4 are taught in reception.

"Irregular words" is a bit of a misleading term in this case the poster means words containing sounds/spellings for sounds that haven't yet been taught.

Depending on the phonics programme used by the school there will be some variation in what is taught in reception so it's worth checking.

Agree that his writing is fairly typical for this point in reception (sorry wouldn't describe it as upper edge of what's expected).

I would expect the teacher to be planning activities to address any issues he has. Lots if motor activities (both large and fine) direct teaching of correct letter and number formation and plenty of opportunities to apply skills in engaging ways.

I have a 5 year old son in Reception too. The writing looks great to me.

I have found all the comments helpful & reassuring. My son is not a keen writer and frankly, if he writes a sentence I'm happy. If it's legible, I'm delighted.