Worried about my year 1 DD - what to do

[writingandspelling]

DD’s end of year 1 report has come as a bit of a surprise, and seeing her books for the first time even more so. DD is reading well - very fluent, great comprehension and inference, and can read pretty much anything. It’s pretty hard to get her to stop reading, tbh!

She’s also ok at maths, certainly verbally or typing. But her writing is pretty dreadful, both in terms of neatness and spelling, and this also affects her written maths as her work is hard to read and disorganised even though the actual maths is right iyswim. She is very reluctant to write at home but when she has done so her writing has been a bit better than at school. Her fine motor skills could probably do with some work, though she plays violin well for her age (grade 1 standard), so they are not uniformly bad.

As far as spelling goes, she’s ok at spelling cvc words or regular short words. She’s got the hang of some of the less regular ones, like ‘are’ and ‘when’, but she struggles with many others. She can break long words into syllables verbally. She is not at all motivated to spell things correctly and school have never sent home spellings or asked us to help learn them so we haven’t pushed it.

She’s been marked as only just meeting expectations in both writing and maths. The report also says her ability to make connections between different topics, ask good questions and make inferences is very strong, as is her vocabulary and speech. And, as I said, there’s nothing wrong with her actual maths per se. I therefore think she may be performing under her ability due to problems getting things down on paper.

We’ve made an appointment to speak to her teacher about it and will ask what she would suggest. But I’m keen to get other views too. Money is not an issue. We are wondering about some occupational therapy to asses and help with her motor skills. Does it sound like we should also have her assessed for dyslexia? In the meantime we’re doing more fine motor activities and trying to find fun ways to get her to write more.

I would be really grateful for any suggestions.

In terms of what you could do if school isn't giving spellings-I have a playdough set with letter stampers which my pupils loved to make words with. We talk about why it's a tricky word, and why it's one we have to learn. Eg, any sounds like it should be an 'e' but it is actually an A. They also like shaving foam on a tray or a mix of glitter and sand on a tray to write with your finger. Failing that, it's summer, chalking common words on the pavement might be fun too.

That sounds great @artykitty666; I'll have a look for the playdough set and try trays of stuff. We also have some pavement chalks already, so that should be easy. Thank you.

Her writing is better than my son's and his teacher is happy with how he's progressing. I do wonder if he could be dyspraxia. We're worked a lot on his handwriting and he has come along load but it's still messier than your picture.

Thanks @brimfullofasha. I promise you most of her writing is much worse than the picture, too. Hope your DS continues to progress like he has been.

I'd second the suggestion to get an assessment by a developmental optometrist. I actually think the writing you have attached looks good for end of year 1, but some of the things you have mentioned - like not remembering the proportions of letters - do raise flags for visual processing difficulties (visual memory in that case) .

There are 8 different types of visual processing difficulties this gives a good description. Children can have difficulties in only some of the areas, and the earlier you help them the better - not least for their self-esteem and self-image.

One concrete thing to do in the meantime is Write from the start programme. My DD's vision therapist suggested it, and from what you describe it could really help your DD too.

Just to check: have you had her eyes checked at an optician? It's free - just book her in. The test done at school can be a bit cursory. A friend eventually discovered that her DD had vision problems, and on following up with the school discovered they had recorded her DD as "non-compliant" but hadn't thought to tell her at the time! It should really be obvious that a 6 year old child who can't see properly is more likely to play up, since being tested on something they can't do is unpleasant for them, and they don't necessarily have the strategies to communicate that.