Please help. Year 2 boy.

[ilkleymoorbartat]

I've just had parents evening, they told me my son was very very bright. Had big ideas and is articulate and is advanced in his questioning of stuff. But when it comes to writing and putting things down on paper there's a mismatch.

He's basically on the cusp of meeting expectations and working towards in writing. He seems to have a total disconnect between his ideas and being able to put them down on paper. He won't remember finger spaces or basic phonics knowledge. But if I ask him to think about every word, finger space, sentence he will do an ok job. When it comes to ordering it himself he cant or won't do it. He rushes and says he finds it boring and then when you read it it's like gobble di gook.

It's hard to know if it's just that he rushes and is more interested in getting whatever information down, or if there's some kind of preceding things going on.

He's book band 8 which is apparently where he needs to be.

Obviously quite worried and don't know how to help him.

I am not sure why you are worried. He is where he is in reading, he's bright. He just doesn't enjoy writing. He is very young. I am not surprised he does not like sitting still to write. He may find it frustrating that he cannot write as quickly as he thinks.

He sounds like he is going brilliantly. Just give him more time to develop his writing skills. Many countries would not expect a child of his age to have advanced writing skills anyway.

There is far more to child development than early literacy and your bright child sounds like he is doing well in other areas.

Let him get on with things, pressure won't help...he's doing fine and he's not going to be 20 and unable to write so please relax..they all get to grips with things at their own pace x

What are you worried about? He sounds fine, albeit maybe not quite where school might like him to be.

Does he have any coordination problems? My son has dyspraxia and we had the same conversation at a year 2 parents evening but there were many other signs other than writing.

Try just doing one sentence at a time. Get small objects like pasta or little bits of lego. He says the sentence, puts down one bit at a time while saying the words, says it again while pointing at the bits, then writes it with a full stop. It will encourage him to slow down a bit maybe?

This could be my son. Almost everything is spelled phonetically and letters flipped round etc , yet reading and vocabulary well beyond. He writes loads. His hand can’t keep up with his head, it seems!

I can’t see any diagnosis that it would fit into (dysgraphia??) so put it down to lockdown and natural disposition. My handwriting is also abysmal.

We’ve bought some pencil grips and got some practice sheets from school.

Forgot to add: his speech was late but no other coordination issues. Very early crawler, great gymnast, runs and jumps like a loon and always lands okay

Something that can sometimes help when there's a mismatch between ideas and the ability to write them is to get the child to use a voice recorder. It helps them to remember the sentence they were going to write and gives them a chance to write it down.

The mixed up sentences are quite common when a child is still trying to write their first sentence but their brain has already moved on to the 3rd or 4th one.

This sounds just like my son. School said there was an issue with writing in Year 1 and asked us to go to the GP, with no advice on what the problem could be. We had to get a private assessment eventually as school/nhs was no help.
My son was eventually diagnosed with a form of dyslexia. His reading and spelling skills are good, but it's the disconnect between what's in his head and what he can write down on the page. The assessor said that if we were in the US he would be diagnosed with Graphomotor Disorder, as it is more understood there for some reason. I struggle to find a lot of information about it, but here's a link that might explain it better: graphomotorgorilla.blogspot.com/2009/12/what-is-graphomotor-dysfunction.html?m=1

Dyslexia surely

We're concerned becuase it was flagged up as something to keep an eye on by the teacher. They've obviously noticed something different. Here's an example of something he wanted to write at home, but with me literally sat next to him reminding him of finger spaces, how each sound might be made etc. The next picture is something he wrote at school.

It's like everything he has in his head goes out of the window.

@Newuser82 what other signs did you notice with your ds?

Sorry forgot to attach

@ilkleymoorbartat

Sorry forgot to attach

He had/has balance and coordination issues. So would fall over a lot, bump into things. Was always hurting himself. Couldn’t walk in a straight line, not very strong compared to friends, I.e still can’t do monkey bars, couldn’t use scissors. That kind of thing x

The words we were told was that “his writing doesn’t match his intellectual ability).

Thank you @Newuser82 my son is definitely clumsy, but he doesn't hurt himself and can ride a bike, so monkey bars, scissors etc.
I hope your son is getting good support and doing well now!

@ilkleymoorbartat

Thank you *@Newuser82* my son is definitely clumsy, but he doesn't hurt himself and can ride a bike, so monkey bars, scissors etc. I hope your son is getting good support and doing well now!

Thanks! He is doing great. Best of luck also.

My son now aged 10 (year 6) is exactly the same. It has got slightly better each year. I am not too worried, I would rather he has the vocab, ideas, intellect etc and poor handwriting than the other way round. Writing practice (few lines each day, try to keep it useful- eg please can you write these things down on the shopping list for me, write a quick note to Grandma etc rather than just pointless) really helped over lockdown to improve handwriting, we've let it slip since then.
Don't worry x

Thank you for replying. It's so hard to know whether to try and get a diagnosis, back off and let him do it in his own time, or push him a bit more at home.

I just can't work out if there's a problem or not. Especially now the school has flagged it.

Just for extra details, if I ask him to talk out spelling the words in what he wants to write he does much better.

Also bear in mind that as he is in Year 2, he will have missed a big chunk ot formative writing practice in school at a key point in their development.

DD is similar - reading is fine, but her writing is nowhere near the same level and I strongly suspect, whilst we did the work set by the school when we were at home, she just wasn't writing anywhere near as much as she would have been doing in school. School haven't flagged it as an issue (yet, we've not had Parents' Evening) but I can just see she's nowhere near the level her siblings were at the same age.

I agree @onemouseplace but then all other kids are in the same boat and the school obviously feel there's something a bit worse / different about his. I spoke to him this morning and he says he rushes it and finds it confusing. But. When guided through it step by step he's generally fine.

DS3 was like this, but now at age 10 his writing's mostly fine if messy. Writing isn't his priority.

@TheUndeadLovelinessOfDemons did the school ever flag it to you as an issue?

They have to tell you where your kids are at. That's the point of parents evening. Did they have any suggestions for things you could do at home to help?

To be honest, I'm a firm believer in reading. If he's reading well, the writing will follow.

What are school doing about it?

They said they were going to try and find ways to help him break the tasks down a bit more. They say he doesn't use the sounds mats even when prompted. Tbh I don't think he even knows really how to use the sound mat. I think it's another thing to confuse him.