Discrepancy between reading and writing ability

[IndraOnTheMountain]

My son is 6 (nearly 7) and in year 2. His teacher spoke to me this morning and recommended he is assessed by the school senco for underlying literacy difficulties as he finds writing so much harder than reading. She says he is a very able reader but his writing is far behind.

His reading is excellent and he enjoys it and reads for pleasure. His maths is very good and he isn't uncoordinated at all, he enjoys sport and can catch well etc - has good hand eye co ordination.

His writing really isn't great and he hates it. He developed a preferred hand very late, well into reception year and then struggled to develop a good tri pod grip. I did a lot of practice with him at home with that and we bought lots of different pencils etc until we found one that works and that has improved a lot.
He doesn't have much stamina for writing, reverses his letters (and numbers), finds it difficult to know what to say (though I'm not sure if this is because he hates writing it down - if he was to dictate it I think it would be a lot better), his writing is hard to read and the spelling is poor. He can learn his spellings though and with a couple of practices a week can get a good mark on words including because, friend, whole etc.

What might the cause of this be? How can I help him?
I feel so worried for him, I don't want him to always find it a huge challenge and it to damage his self esteem

It might be just reluctance but could be any number of issues and late or non hand dominance might indicate such as dyspraxia ( Dyspraxia Foundation has a website listing age appropriate skills) or a physical difficulty like hyper mobility/flexibilty which can affect wrist, hand, posture etc . Are his gross motor skills up to speed? Did he meet milestones when younger? However probably best not to second guess but try to find strategies to help, such as

• make sure he is sat well supported, feet flat on floor
• use a slope to write on , try the side of an A4 folder filled with paper
• practice letter formation with finger or stick in wet sand, flour, paint brush
• fine motor skill activities such as puzzles, lego, mazes, beads and so on

Thanks for replying.

Yes he met all milestones when he was younger and I’d say gross motor skills are fine / good. Balance and coordination is fine. Even fine motor is pretty okay for the most part - he likes Hama beads, Lego etc. Definitely nothing that would make you think theres an issue.

Physical issues is interesting as we do have a bit of hyper mobility in the family - I’ve never noticed any issues with him but also haven’t looked so could be something to consider. His actual sentence structure isn’t great though when writing (fine when speaking). He tells me he will consciously choose the shortest word so it’s less to write! With maths the answers are right but the numbers are often reversed / messy, but his process is clear and correct.

The sitting well supported is interesting because he’s wiggly. Likes to contort himself into odd positions to do anything! Not sure how this is in school- they haven’t mentioned it but I’ll ask.

My DS is also 7 and has somewhat similar struggles and we have just been referred to an OT for possible dysgraphia.

One possible issue flagged up by the OT is motor planning difficulty where he can recognise the pattern of something but has difficulties executing it in an organised way. I don't know much about this as we are still learning but your SENco should help you access the right professionals and put into place a plan to help your DS.

Sounds just like my DS, who is nearly 6. He finds writing difficult & so will avoid/won’t put much effort in. Loves reading & his verbal communication is great but it doesn’t get translated to his writing.

DS is hypermobile but it isn’t very obvious (unlike his mum!) DS struggles to sit properly at the table, finds holding a pencil hard, can’t coordinate himself properly. His fine motor skills aren’t the problem (thanks Lego!), it’s his core strength and proprioception. A few things we’ve found that help are having a step beneath his feet if he can’t reach the floor (helps stability), writing slope with pencil grip, dough disco to strengthen his hands and exercises to help build his core strength. Still a work in progress but he’s improving slowly.

My DS (also Year 2) is a capable reader but struggles with writing. He is in fact dyslexic. Good phonics coaching, and his own strong verbal and cognitive skills generally (he guesses a lot more than he appears to be) have supported the reading. He passed school dyslexia screeners and the Year 1 phonics screen no problem. Full assessment found the significsmt underlying phonological awareness problems and working memory deficits (the dyslexia) that he's been hiding when reading. (I gather the reading often hits a wall a few years down the line, when the demands at school increase and the compensation strategies can't keep up.) His writing is immature, effortful, poorly formed and although he has loads of great ideas, sequencing them and getting them down on paper falls foul of the working memory issues and cognitive overload. He is, however, very weak in spelling too. He's a Lego master and has no other fine motor issues.

It's really good your DS's teacher is on the ball and wants to get to the bottom of what's going on. Doesn't always happen (DS's teacher has just said everything is fine and the writing will sort itself, he's a bright boy and his good vocab will help him etc etc, so we had a private assessment.)

@Ceara that sounds like my DS - his writing is also immature and poorly formed even though its requiring serious amounts of effort! He is also not good at sequencing his ideas. But in fairness, he avoids writing anything like the plague so its difficult for me to comment on how good his ideas are

I agree its good she is on the ball. I just feel a bit shell shocked. I will buy him a slanted surface for writing. Thanks for all the advice, its really appreciated.

Mine avoids writing like the plague too! OMG the lengths he'd go to and the strops he'd throw in lockdown, to get out of anything involving writing :-) It might be interesting to see what your DS does when you take handwriting out of the equation and scribe for him? You could maybe do something like help him make a pictorial storyboard and you label it, or use post it notes to plan, and then let him dictate his piece of writing to you using the plan to help him, and finally read it back and dictate his tweaks and improvements. We did this a few times during lockdown with DS and as well as being an eye opener for us, it did wonders for DS's self esteem and motivation to show what he could do.

You said that he writes some numbers/letters backwards? Is he left handed ?

@romdowa no he is right handed, though he only developed this quite late. Even in year one he would sometimes swap to his left hand if his right hand got tired...

Ah he could still be writing the left hand way so. My brother was left handed and had to be shown a slightly different way to draw some letters. So maybe your son needs to be shown again how to make the letters with his right hand

My ten year old is the same - he has a dyslexia diagnosis which is helpful because we're abroad in a different school system and without it he would be seriously penalised, to the extent of only being able to access schooling which runs to the lowest available level of school leaving certificate, for his spelling and writing speed, but IMO the diagnosis isn't actually correct!

He's been working with an occupational therapist for the last year and were sure the root of his problem is actually sensory processing.

My ten year old actually has exceptionally good gross motor skills - actually jaw droppingly unusually good - so dyspraxia always seemed unlikely, but his sensory seeking has meant he's unintentionally honed his gross motor skills since babyhood!

My son's problems with writing stemmed from pressing too hard, seeking feedback through his arm. He actually says he likes it that it hurts, but eventually it gets too much and then he can't write any more. The occupational therapist has managed to effectively train him out of this and he now, after a year, can write fast and "fluently" with the expected size of letters and fairly tidily.

There is more too it as his spelling remains very poor, but this is slowly, slowly improving - muscle memory has a huge role to play in spelling and while the sensory seeking was dominating I don't think he could develop extensive muscle memory for spelling. However I was also dreadful at spelling until my early teens despite being assessed in early secondary school as having an undergraduate reading level - eventually the reading improves the spelling but that can take years and years to sink in apparently!

Argh sorry wong thread! Such an essay too will report myself!

Sounds like me.

I got my dyslexia diagnosis in my 30s.

My handwriting is still crap and I avoid handwriting as much as possible. I can't write 'fluently' if I'm copying from a board it's only half a word at a time so takes ages.

@IndraOnTheMountain I could have written your post word for word about my ds. It became so obvious to me through the homeschooling during lockdown and I paid for a private SPLD (specific learning disability assessment) as I knew there was a problem but I just couldn't work out what it was.

I have just received the assessment report and he has "written expression disorder" which in short comes under the umbrella of dysgraphia. His verbal ability is in the very high range but his written work is below average. The difference in the two is so marked.

I haven't spoken to the school yet and I'm just starting to research it myself but your son sounds the same to me.

My ds reads well, grasps concepts and subjects well and can discuss and has good understanding but his written work does not relent this. Not only is it hard to read (poor spelling, grammar, punctuation and messy) but he really struggles to sequence his ideas. What you see written is far from what he knows.

I have just received the diagnosis and have not had time to process yet. I'm pleased that I got the assessment but am unsure where we go from here. But I will be pushing for help. I just want to ensure he gets the right help.

Please could I ask where you go for a specific learning disability or dysgraphia/dyslexia assessment?

A friend recommended the assessor to me as she had recently had her dd assessed. There must be a body of assessors they will need an SPLD certificate to practice I believe.

Thanks Zippyswife that does sound a lot like him. He’s happily reading Charlie and the chocolate factory at the moment but his writing is like a reception child!

If you wouldn’t mind, would you pm me the details of the assessor you used?
I have parents evening for him tonight and kind of dreading it! He’s being assessed by senco next week so they’ll know more then I guess.

Private educational psychologists will be qualified to advised you. If you are prepared to pay for them.

@IndraOnTheMountain how do I PM? Mumsnet has changed since I last used that function

My DD is very similar with writing - she's 12 now but we taught her to touch type in Y6 and switched her to using a laptop for everything.

Punctuation and spelling are still a 'work in progress', but it has been literally life-changing. She actually enjoys writing now.

Tried every slope, putty, pencil grip on the market and none of them made a difference to anything except my bank balance.

DD has had a dyslexia diagnosis since Y3, and also has hyper-mobile finger joints. Primary organised and paid for full assessments with an Ed Psych.