writing appalling....

[louise66]

DS1 has just turned 6 and is in yr 1 at quite a high achieving state school. His writing has always been poor and this was mentioned in reception last yr. Much of the classwork that we received at the end of summer term showed only slight improvement and many of the writing exercises were impossible to decipher not just because of the writing but also his apparent poor spelling/grasp of phonics. At parents evening last week the same problem still seems to be cropping up...writing letters in words that are blatantly not there so much of his hard work is pretty incomprehensible. They are now suggesting that he is moved into the slower group that has more teacher support. We obviously have no problem about this but feel something should have been done earlier to remedy the issue. They have given us no real idea about how we can help him so wondered if anyone else could give us some advise. BTW his reading and numeracy are fine... thanks louise.

What are his other fine motor skills like eg doing up shoe laces, squeezing toothpase onto the brush?

Has he been assessed for dyspraxia? The school thought my ds1 was struggling, when in fact he could read well above his age group, he just couldn't write at all. He does have problems spelling too, and this is connected with his dyspraxia.

Are they testing for dyspraxia/dyslexia? Not sure at what age you can get an accurate diagnosis. I think year 1 is a pretty reasonable time to be picking this up tbh. I get quite a few getting to year 7 who struggle and don't seem to have had much support at all at primary. Would the slower group be just for some lessons or for all the time?

How are the mechanics of his writing ? cna he hold a pen properly and solidly , does he move his whole arm to write and fidget which makes it more tiring? Assume they;ve alrady suggested a pencil grip , inclined surface to wirte on . There is a scheme Write from the Start which may help with the actual writing but if hsi problem is with relating phonics to letter to words that is a different issue which is more about reading and expression than writing. He's still pretty young so it may yet just click.

My DS has only just now in Yr3 begun to develop his writing, its still pretty below standard compared with others but at least it is legible and joined up. He has to write with penans actually that has helped as he has to get it right first time.
Back in Year 1 though they didn't focus on his writing and as he is fundamentally lazy he got away with doing nothing and it was only in september I realised he wasn't holding his pencil properly.
Year 1 is where they do start to focus on writing so I shouldn't worry too much, the point is that they are focussing on it .
Holding the pen properly and practising is the most important thing at this stage, boys do take longer to get the hang of it. My DS was excellent in all other aspects of literacy apart from his writing and still now dislikes writing stories in spite of having a wonderful imagination. Lots of prasie and bribery for practice and improvement can help.

I have a child in my class who has the same difficulty, trouble forming the letters is a big thing for him, so what I have tried to do is to ask him to tell me what he wants to write-we were trying to have him track before but he was not able to do this, so now, I write the sentence for him in a yellow felt tip marker and then he has to trace over top of it, it helps to get the movement to get the feel of how to form the letters, so this is something you could try at home. The writestart program that another poster mentioned is another great scheme...the school should have more info about it and be able to give you ideas of things to try at home. Another activity would be to try to use his higher acheivement in reading to cross over to his writing. Could you sit down together and write a few sentences about some of his favourite stories. He sees it as a fun activity (hopefully!) and does not realise it is to practise his writing!
With dyslexia testing, it can be done earlier, but most educational psychologists are weary of doing so at such an early age because of the learning curve they are on at the moment, it is better to wait until year three or higher to get a more accurate test result, as if they are still struggling when they are 8 or 9 it is more evident than it would be at 5 or 6 years of age. Dyspraxia may show a more accurate result at a younger age, they may be more willing to test for this. Unfortunately most boroughs due t limited Ed Psychs and limited funds will not test until there is a significant evidence that it is neccessary. Do they have the THREP program at your childs school? This program focuses on both reading and writing, and although you said his reading is fine, it might help his writing if they do have it as it is done in 15 minute sessions twice daily enforcing the same concepts in a small group atmosphere. ELS as well has some focus on writing, so would be another program to inquire about if it is available. Hope some of my ideas will help!

Thanks everyone for your advice, really helpful ! louise

Hi Louise,

My DS had a similar difficulty - he knew what he wanted to write, but had trouble transferring it to paper and was trying to focus too much on the joined handwriting aspect to think about his spelling and grammar.

I did some separate spelling exercises at home with him and encouraged him to write at his own pace. I also looked at his handwriting and encouraged him to write without joins just to see if it was the combination of the joined handwriting and spelling that was the problem.

Eventually it became clear that he could write and spell, he was just actually struggling witht the joined handwriting element. We did some handwriting exercises together at home and now his handwriting is slowly improving and is a whole lot more legible.

Would it help to break things down for him?