Will it matter that my DS is not good at drawing when he starts reception?

[Hogterm]

My DS is a summer baby so will be just 4 when he starts reception in September. He has never been interested in sitting and colouring or practicing letters so only lasts a few minutes even when I make him sit quietly for a bit to practise. He holds a pen in a sort of fist grab and struggles with copying shapes. Up to now, I was happy with just letting him enjoy things he wanted to do but I was visiting a friend the other day and her four year old can write his name and her 2 year old could colour in the lines better than my DS. My DS actually noticed and said he wasn't very good and didn't want to play colouring.

Am now really worried about school as just want him to enjoy it. Should I carry on just letting him colour or draw when he wants or should I practise with him and how? I really didn't want to be competitive parent but I don't want him feeling everyone else can do stuff he can't. I just said that everyone is good at different things and you only get good by practising lots.

He is good at numbers and construction., is good at listening and loves books. Lots of things which mean I think he will love school but I don't want this one thing (albeit a quite important thing I guess) to impact him.

Will teachers expect more when he starts? Is it normal for some children to struggle more?

So practise lots or leave it until school?

There is a big range initially on starting reception.

A couple of years ago as part of a PTA thing I sat with Reception pupils while they drew Christmas cards in October. Some could barely hold a pencil firm enough to make any marks at all, some did scribbles, and a couple of autumn born girls did very good Christmas trees.

Has he had a settling in session yet? You could ask the teacher then.

My son started reception in September and is one of the oldest and really disliked drawing and colouring.
He has also taken a long time to like to write and even now only does the necessary.

He's amazing on Lego, knex and minecraft though and is also fine with a keyboard. (He has quite a few fine motor/gross motor/coordination issues though.

Also need to remember that in some countries he wouldn't be starting school for another two years or so! UK starts them far too early in my view.

It's very apparent for some in the early years but then seems to balance out. We are noticing it again now though. DS is nearly 16 and has just done GCSEs. Some of the others in his year are 17 in Sept/Oct. There is a big difference again. Especially compared to the girls. They are streets ahead of him. He's not yet interested in partying etc.

Don't want to be a misery, but some of the above pp who say 'don't worry...it doesn't matter' are well meaning, but sometimes the situation is not as simple as that.

My August born DS had noticeably poor fine motor skills for the first few years of school. Writing, drawing, sewing, doing up buttons and zips, manipulating anything small and fiddly all caused problems. Also dyslexic and was hopeless at sport. As a result he was assigned to the 'less able table' in reception and year one. I watched with dismay as the confidence was sapped from him. The whole thing caused enormous stress and was only resolved by changing to a school with much smaller classes (15 children instead of 32) for the beginning of year two. We were lucky to be able to do this, as but everyone has that option.

OP, in your case I would recommend you try to work out if your DS is just bad at drawing, or whether it's a deeper problem caused by dyspraxia-type poor coordination. If it's just drawing, then no, it doesn't matter. But if he's also poor at using cutlery, buttons, putting on socks, doing up shoes etc, then he might benefit from some focussed sessions on improving coordination and building muscle strength.

Don't want to be a misery, but some of the above pp who say 'don't worry...it doesn't matter' are well meaning, but sometimes the situation is not as simple as that

Oh absolutely - I'm definitely not saying do nothing, just don't be anxious about it - Occupational therapy has worked wonders for my son - when he started he couldn't do up buttons, his writing was unreadable, putting on socks etc. was hard, he's worse at using cutlery than his 3 year old brother etc. - and you just work around this stuff at home - you buy velcro shoes, and stretchy trousers, you get used to picking up all the food around his chair etc.

More, even if he has any of this stuff, it's still not the end of the world - things can be put in to help him, accommodations can be made, DS1's dad has many of the similar issues and has done perfectly well in his career (just don't ask him to manoeuvre a large car around a tight carpark!)

My son is midway through getting a diagnosis for his issues (14 months on from initial gp visit) and will probably get a diagnosis of dcd (and a few other things, but that's another story).
We are another family who adapt and ds' school has also adapted as they have a great special needs team and his teacher has also allowed him opportunities to type not write at times.

My aunt was a primary school teacher for years and all they asked was that they could dress themselves, take themselves to the toilet and feed themselves and leave the academic stuff to them.

My son still couldn't/wouldn't even write his name at the end of Reception. Went back after the summer into Y1, the first week he wrote a whole page of a story. They all do things at their own rate, just give lots of love and encouragement.
PS my son is now a medical student at Oxford, and has loved everything about his studies his whole life. No harm done by being a slow starter

I agree that don't just assume it's not an issue. It's just that it IS such a common issue especially with boys. Work on fine motor skills over the summer. There are lots of ways to make it fun so he just thinks you are playing with him.

If you work on the fine motor skills you will figure out if it's just his age or if there is a bigger issue.

Your child is not unusual in this, so no need to worry at this point or draw his attention to "difficulties".

If you wanted to do something practical, you could tailor play activities to encourage development of both gross motor skills/ weight-bearing through arms (wheelbarrow races, climbing frames) and fine motor skills (finger isolation e.g. Finger puppets, finger painting, pegging with clothes pegs, handling small items like coins).

My DS is just coming to the end of his reception year. He's just turned 5. He had zero interest in drawing/colouring/writing prior to starting school. But he gained lots of enthusiasm for writing once he'd started. That enthusiasm dropped off completely by Christmas! It's only in the last month he's really got into it again. And he's also discovered colouring. I haven't pushed any of it and he's come back round in his own time. Same with reading. Just let your DS find his own way in his own time, they're still so young in reception and there is so much more to school than learning to read and write.

Thanks all. I haven't particularly noticed big issues with fine motor skills or coordination. He loves Lego, can do shoes and socks etc. Can use cutlery okay although does still drop a fair bit. Can't do buttons. Might try fine motor games rather than pushing the colouring and keep an eye on him.

Don't really want to delay him as the school said they just join the same class so would just be further behind. He does preschool fine so is used to getting dressed, going to toilet on his own etc.

His settling in days are in a couple of weeks but we have a parents session before then.

I'm 22 and still shit at drawing so no

My ds was still holding a pen in a fist grip at Christmas after starting reception. He gradually sorted it out and now at the end of reception is starting to write sentances and is meeting expected targets ( he's no genius unlike some of MN children who appear to be penning novels and reading Tolstoy at this stage but is doing just fine). My dd is 7 and cannot draw a recognisable anything or colour in the lines but neither can I and I'm 42.

Lots of summer borns will start Reception in exactly the same situation, most will be writing recognisable sentences by the end of the year. My August born boy was assessed as being at 22-36 months in writing when he first started school, he's now 6 and is writing stories in joined up cursive and drawing intricate pictures of spiderman.