5 year old cannot write at all

[Toarrie]

My 5 yo can’t write at all, can’t draw. Won’t even really put a pencil to paper, he just says it is too hard and won’t even attempt it.
I’m getting quite worried about it now as we’ve seen no improvement in 2 years and now he’s been in school for almost a month and still we can’t get him interested or to try.
How can the teacher teach or how will he even be able to learn without drawing or writing.

Have a look on YouTube at playdoh gym. It's a fun way to strengthen his hands. Also try small construction like lego. He will be writing at school so do the fun things at home.

That’s really helpful. I will give it ago. I’ve tried getting him to trace over which he manages but then trying to attempt doing his own he just can’t/wants to give up.
probably just need to keep going with tracing. His sister could just copy, didn’t need to trace.

Yes I think we just need to do that now before he gets too far in school and is left behind

Mines a lefty too but Dh who is also a lefty said it didn’t make much difference to him. I would say do a few letters then get him to stretch his fingers out. When we started I think DD’s fingers got stiff so I had her stretch them out regularly. It may be that if he didn’t have a dominant hand for a long time he hasn’t built up control or strength on his left.

You can’t force him. Is he in reception? There will be lots of mark makrking opportunities. My son is the same. He’s autistic and can do other things but absolutely won’t do more than a scribble or straight line. They’re not worried.

He’s so young! Don’t make this a big negative thing. What do the teachers say?

I wouldn’t worry too much, theres going to be a vast spectrum of where kids are. I only started because Dd’s nursery insisted they need to be able to write their first names before they started reception.

Also on lined paper with a leftie I found it was best to write the letter I wanted her to copy on the far left of the paper as a reference because her hand covered what she had already written. It’s all just practice really.

We are doing numbers at the moment and it’s killing me (2’s and 5’s the wrong way around etc) but they get it in time. Start with his own first name as well, he’ll need that for school and kids like being able to write their own name.

I actually think it’s a good thing to practice, if he didn’t have a dominant hand it’ll help with building strength.

OP don’t expect him to write for very long, he may need a rest after every letter, you may only be able to get him to do a few minutes before it gets too uncomfortable, thats fine. Start with 2 minutes for example and emphasise that it’s fine if it’s not perfect, I always tell Dd that she’s learning so she’s not always going to get it right and with practice she’ll get it. Lots of praise at the end for effort. Progress not perfection.

What are you trying to achieve by laying into the OP like that? Is it some sort of game to be the first comment to berate them?

My DD was like this - later diagnosed with ASD, ADHD, no preference between left/right hand and later Ehlers Danlos syndrome in adulthood.

She wrote very little in primary school but during her ASD assessment the occupational therapist and physio flagged up that she seemed to find writing tiring and painful and held her pen in an odd way. They began a specialist hand training programme with her that really helped her.

I haven’t spoken to them yet. His nursery said they weren’t concerned. I don’t think he is delayed in understanding or anything. Recognises all numbers up to 20 and knows the letters in his name, eg can spell it out with foam letters

Sometimes it's good to build up the muscles in children's hands to help early writing, these activities are also a lot of fun.
Look up YouTube dough disco for exercises, also try squirty bottles, like the ones you clean with. Repeatedly squirting builds good muscles, so you could freeze a big block of ice and fill a clean bottle with boiling water and have him melt the ice to discover a toy in the middle/put water and food colouring in and have him squirt big sheets of paper.
Think big too, you could buy a roll of plain wallpaper and roll it onto the floor, tape down with masking tape, have him lie kn it and draw. Encourage mark making by putting his favourite toys on it, eg some cars and draw the start of a road or dinosaur with footprints.
Water pistols and targets, you draw a bullseye
Cover toys in dirt, give him a sponge to rub it off to clean them, make it more fun with grosser "dirt" eg green dried jelly, pushing down and scrubbing is also good for building up muscles.

Probably just practising hand strengthening games and lots of painting and things like that. Nice and subtle if he’s obstinate and doesn’t want to 🙈

My son only scribbled before starting school. He did two years of preschool but it didn't improve there. Within a few months of school, he was writing some letters and started drawing properly by the end of the school year. He's not a very artistic, crafty person so it was very hard for us to get him to do it but teachers are magicians! He'll get there.

Oh for goodness sake. How is this helpful.

I agree practise is good but depending on his personality he might not like all the focus and being told to write and that it’s an issue basically thinking of my kid here

Also you could try a cat litter tray and sand, he gets a pointy finger in it and traces a letter. Repeat. Can make more fun with coloured sand/glitter/mud. This will develop his muscles memory for making letters, start with the letters of his name.
Mud painting is also fun, with big grown up paintbrushes, a bucket of mud and the wall of your house, the next time he has to scrub it off with novelty brushes from b and q.

Teach him to draw a letter on your back, you have to guess which he has written, repeat on him, with it written near him for support. Start with the letters he is currently learning, most schools do 2 sounds a day from week 3 of reception once baselines are completed.

The five minute mum books have excellent and inexpensive literacy ideas, u can get them on amazon second hand.

I would play things like dot to dot puzzle books, spot the difference (marking the difference) and similar games to build confidence mark making rather than trying to force letter writing.

Get an eye test done at your local optician ( specsavers are great with small kids) just to rule out any un noticed visual problems

Yes I suspect that might be part of it. He likes learning. Will happily sit at my computer and do sums by hitting the number on the number pad. But he has always resisted drawing or anything like that so trying to encourage him has been a challenge.

Is he in Reception? (Or the Scottish equivalent, as I notice you say he's been at school for nearly a month now so guessing you may be based in Scotland?)

It's more common than you'd think for children to start school not being able to form a single recognisable letter or draw things such as faces to represent people. The teacher will have definitely come across this before, there'll be at least 3 or 4 children like this in their class each year.

'Scribbling' is the stage he's at, and that's ok. Does he give meaning to his marks? Eg "that's mummy", or "that's my name" - even if it does just look like a wiggly line? That's a start if he does.

Over the coming week he'll do lots of work at school to develop his fine motor skills:- Dough disco to develop his finger strength, lots of threading to improve hand eye coordination and activities which encourage him to pinch, such as picking up objects with tweezers. He'll learn to trace shapes and form letters with his finger in substances such as sand and foam. Writing will come in time, but there's so much that comes before that. He doesn't sound as behind as you fear he is. It's amazing how quickly they progress when it finally clicks. Please try not to worry.

Which country are you in op?

Have you had his eyes tested before?

Oh I missed that he's only been in school a month. In. That case give it some time.

Try chunky chalks and anything to help his fine motor like playdoh.

Get a sand box and try and get him to copy a letters. You might need to fo hand over hand at first. Build up to the letters of his name in sand box. You can even do silly words that make him giggle.
Fo play doh.
Making pastry, pizza ( rubbing in method)
Building bricks like duplo or lego.
Make hand puppets and get him exercise his fingers
Even gym classes to help with balance

Make it FUN
Many countries don't do formal education until 7

Might be worth getting his eyes tested.
Good luck