My six year old hates writing, drawing and colouring in

[Cherryblossom200]

Hi everyone,

Well the title pretty much explains it 😂 I have a six year old who has never expressed any interest in colouring in, writing or drawing. She was an early walker and talker, her vocabulary has always been advanced for her age. But as she hasn't practiced writing as much as other children, she is behind in that side.

Her teachers are trying to get her to do cursive writing which she hates. She can print fairly well, but the teachers insist the children do joined up writing.

Her reading seems fine, she is on blue level which I think is ok and she her maths seems ok too.

I think the teachers have written my child off as not particularly academic compared to other children in the class. This annoys the hell out of me, my child is bright. Her ability to retain knowledge is amazing, however she isn't interested in the boring stuff 😂

Should I be concerned? I don't know if she is a slow learner. Do children change as they get older?

I've tried getting her to practice writing with me, but it's like pulling teeth. I'm at a loss as to how to get her to be interested in writing and drawing.

Thanks to anyone who replies!

If it’s any consolation, they’ve found that doctors have terrible handwriting because the kind of person who has the aptitude and skill to become a doctor...tends to have terrible handwriting!

It could be nothing or it could be something. She is so young. Keep an eye but don’t worry too much. My DD hated writing from the get go. She is now year 5 and only just writing without a huge lot of fuss and even then it’s quite basic, she finds it really hard.
Turned out she had eyesight issues - eyes weren’t working together which was sorted by a behavioural optometrist. Also she had processing and working memory challenges alongside very high intelligence. And possibly dyspraxia and or ASD. We found this out in year 4 and year 3/4 is the time when it becomes more apparent if a child is struggling. Keep an eye and keep building her confidence with the phonics and make the writing fun but i would explore more if the issue is still there in a couple of years.

@Norestformrz

[[https://www.clearvuehealth.com/writingtyping/]] Recent research found that "Students who write notes on paper actually learn more than students who take notes on computers."

I got through loads of my exams by writing out stuff again and again to help me memorise stuff but does it have to be cursive? Isn't writing legibly more useful?

Also am I the only person who never worked out how to do a cursive s?

No it doesn't have to be fully cursive however cursive is generally much faster than the stop start of disconnected letters and enables students to take more comprehensive notes and answer exam questions more fully. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233140483Theslowhandwritingofundergraduatestudentsconstrainsoverallperformanceinexamessays
There's also plenty of research linking poor handwriting to lower marks.

Surely handwritten exam papers will die out eventually though

There has been research and surprisingly when given the choice students prefer handwriting.

We Was advised

I also teach a levels

Jesus. Really?

I'm surprised at that. I used to absolutely hate long written exam questions. I've never liked my handwriting and sacked off cursive as soon as I could. I've worked with a lot of doctors and literally only met one with decent handwriting. I think some of us just don't get on well with it.

Apparently it's a myth that doctors have worse handwriting when compared to the general population, with a similar level of good/average/poor yet we all say doctors have terrible handwriting. One theory is they write more than most people and often have to write extremely fast resulting in what we all deem to be poor.

I think a lot of people must avoid writing because their handwriting is so terrible.

I don't think it bothers most people because you can always fall back on the doctors handwriting myth. I'd suspect more are embarrassed by poor spelling.

Thanks everyone 👍

Oiliy yes my dd is in year 1 and only just turned 6. She sounds exactly like your grandson, she's been put into the lower phonics group based primarily on her handwriting despite the fact her reading is perfectly good.

The good news is, she got into bed today and starting doing patterns all on her own. They were good as well, so she can draw. Just when she wants to do it 😂

Her handwriting shouldn't have any effect on phonics groupings. Phonic groups should be based purely on phonic knowledge and skills.

Norestformrz - my grandson was reading cvc by the February of his nursery year. I thought reception would be a breeze despite him being a late summer born boy. How wrong I was. At the end of his first week at school, his teacher caught me at the end of the day and said that she wouldn't be able to put him in the read write inc group for his reading ability because he couldn't write. Honestly? His first week in reception? Why should he need to be able to write, after all that is what school is for. She would not change her mind and he found himself still doing set 1 sounds in the January even though he had been able to read cvc for a whole year at this stage. I complained. She still wouldn't move him up but the group he was in suddenly started set 2 sounds a month before she said they would. He made practically no progress with his reading at all during reception. I still cannot look at his reception teacher without boiling over with anger at the injustices he suffered last year all because he couldn't write because he was a very young in the year boy. Actually he was a bit wiggly on the carpet too and she didn't want him in her top group probably for that reason too. Y1 has been much much better though still only in the middle group for reading and having spent time working with the lower attainers in the Autumn term on the basis of his still immature writing. I never realised how much young in the boys are discriminated against - he finished nursery (at a different school) exceeding in maths and speech and language - until it happened to my grandson.

It's incredibly poor practice to base phonics progression on handwriting. I wonder if it's a school policy or just the teacher.
In the case of the OPs child she can print so it is definitely a school choice as RWI doesn't teach cursive from the start.

The new DFE validation advice might interest some posters

My 18 year old has shocking handwriting, always has. He never read a book until he was 17. He hasn’t moved past stick men and I don’t think he ever brought home a drawing or painting.

He has 9 GCSE’s all 9-8 A level predictions of AAA and is hopefully off to one of the top universities in September.

Hopefully it’s nothing, she will get there in her own time

I hate the focus on handwriting in primary - and I have to teach it!

My DS is also very reluctant to write/draw etc. If there is a purpose though he gets better. (Shopping list/meal planner/birthday card). His school have done a lot of writing for a purpose even if that purpose is just for display which his teacher said was helping. He will often tell you a fantastic sentence but write a much simpler version as it's easier.

As for being in the lower phonics for her handwriting- I'd be questioning that. It could potentially bore her if she knows the sounds but I also understand handwriting can be a focus of these sessions as well.

These children are growing up in a world where most of the time they will use computers and will not need to handwrite much. However our government still things it should be joined, regular sized and incredibly neat and will make us mark children down if that's not the case.

My son hated writing, colouring etc. I taught him to read early so he was top of his year for reading, but putting pen to paper has always been a nightmare.

At 13 years old now he is in second sets, but would probably be in top sets if he produced more written work.

The school did some test on him in year 4 as he was so slow at writing. They basically decided he wasn’t dysanyrhing then forgot about him.

At this stage I got him a writing tutor that has been working with him once a week for the last 4 years. He writes very well, his handwringing is acceptable, his speed is horrible.

He takes ages with his homeworks and during the last lockdown/online learning he was struggling to cope. No time to join clubs, meets friends, play sport because he wants to complete his homeworks.

I have brought this up with the school again and they have retested him with a test that includes writing speed. For writing speed he tested in the bottom 1 percentile.

The school will discuss his results with me after he returns to school.

Despite being a hands on parent I am currently kicking myself for not getting more done about this sooner. Please do a better job than I did and keep on top of this otherwise the consequences could be dire.