DS 12 struggling with writing

[BiscuitCheeks]

Wondering if anyone has any experience of a DS who struggles with writing but not reading.
My son was diagnosed with developmental language delay when he was 5. Long story short originally I was told by a paediatrician he was autistic, due to behavioural problems and would be non-verbal forever. This wasn't the case, after paying for a private speech therapist for 3 years and both him and I getting support with his learning we were told it's DLD he just learns differently and would probably struggle with some issues around language his whole life.
He did really well to catch up, he had a private tutor all through primary that I paid for and once a week small group interventions through school but never formally added to SEN register.
I raised my concerns when he started secondary school and was told there's nothing formal on his record but they could do some testing to see where he is. Turns out they just did reading age and he is where he is expected to be, he also just scraped passes in his SATS in year 6. Which was helped a lot by 1-1 tuition 1.5 hours a week.
He is really struggling in English. Reading is fine but writing is awful, he constantly misses letters or whole words out, uses capital letters in the wrong places, will switch between present and past tense. I don't believe it's a concentration issue because he will show me a bit of work and be really pleased and then when I talk through some errors in it he will cry and say he didn't see it and doesn't understand why he's so stupid.
Does this sound like anything that a SENCO could help with? Or is it really just something he needs to out extra effort into getting out of the habit of doing.

What is he like dictating?
Separating the composing from the actual writing may help?

Now you've said that I do think part of the problem is he writes quite slowly. I think he struggles with his writing not keeping up with what he is thinking...

What about typing? Does that speed things up? You could try typing out something that he dictates to you and see if his thought process is more ordered.
what about non fiction writing? How is he with writing up an experiment, for example?
if he is a slow writer, how are his fine motor skills? My DS has hypermobility and struggled a bit with writing - he is a very fast typer though.

This may be dysgraphia or other sensory-motor dysfunction, it is impossible to tell what causes it without a specialist assessment as there are various types of dysgraphias. Your DS won't "outgrow" it as he has confirmed DLD. He'll need specialist help, not just a tutor in English.

You could try to find a neuropsychologist specialising in early developmental/cognitive disorders or educational psychologist with a clinical experience (the latter are more rare). You'll need to ask specifically if they can test for dysgraphia.

They are few and far between and may be expensive but it's the only way to find out the root cause and start working on it.

If he was able to use a laptop for writing and it was his normal way of working, it would stand him in good stead for access arrangements at exam time.

Oh and you'll most definitely need SEND, these are complex issues that will affect his learning and exam performance, he will need special arrangements for exams at the very least.

The other thing could be mindmapping / other planning of answers, so the core thoughts are captured first.

Sounds like dysgraphia. could you afford for him to see someone privately for a diagnosis? If he struggles with actual writing then dyspraxia may also be a possibility. Both are possible in combination with ASD which it wouldn't surprise me at all if he also had (even if the private speech therapist didn't think so). They are all ND conditions, ds has ASD and dyspraxia.

Thanks all, I am definitely going to try and contact the school SENCO tomorrow. I have spoken to his English teacher previously and got the impression he felt DS was just not trying hard enough. I will see if anyone locally has any experience with dysgraphia. Thankyou all for your advice, after English homework tonight I knew something wasn't right but after battling against professionals who wrote him off as a hopeless case for so long when he was little I thought (or rather had hoped) I was done with all that!

Just to clarify, private speech therapist didn't rule out ASD. It was just that when he was seen at age 3 after blood tests and brain scans and at that point him having no words, the paediatrician said he was clearly autistic and would be non-verbal for the rest of his life. When I started crying, she laughed and said I'd need to toughen up if I expected to be able to parent a child like my son. It was an awful experience, and it turned out she was wrong, he just needed patience and time the NHS speech therapists couldn't offer.

School teachers are not qualified to recognise ND, your DS has a history of learning difficulties, your paediatrician suspected ASD. This is a strong case to believe there's ND, not unwillingness to work harder.

I am a qualified neuroscientist and the symptoms look like dysgraphia but any diagnosis can only be done in real life. These dysfunctions can be alleviated as you can already see with his reading, you just need to work on this systematically and with a guidance of a specialist, after a proper diagnosis.

I wouldn't exclude ASD either.

Ask about any assistive technology available in school and explore what you could use at home e.g.Clicker, Crick software and Dragon which types as you speak.

I've emailed the SENCO with my concerns and they've emailed me back to say they think it would be good to meet in person. Can anyone suggest what I should take with me. I have all his reports from private and NHS speech therapists from when he was younger, he was discharged from them age 6 and that's when I decided to focus on private tuition instead. I also have the report from pediatrician aged 3. I doubt primary school would have much information re SEN, it was never mentioned in reports and he wasn't on the SEN register. I don't have the SAT results, must have misplaced them but I assume secondary school got details of those marks? His English book is where most of the issues can be seen so I'm assuming they won't mind me requesting it be available for the meeting? Anything else I can do to prepare and advocate for him?
Re ASD he probably does have some traits, but not really anything that school would pick up on. Things like, he doesn't ask friends to do things cause he's worried they'll say no, he's definitely not a leader, he wouldn't put his ideas out there to be critiqued, doesn't like the idea of new clubs if he doesn't know anyone there but he recently started RAF cadets we worked through it and he loves it now. He's the sort of boy that's friends with everyone and anyone but doesn't have a best friend. He will talk for hours to people on the phone but less so in person. The only big issue he has with school other than writing is languages, he misbehaves a lot in those lessons, most likely because he can't understand any of it but I was expecting that due to the DLD.

Do you know if a private diagnosis would be taken seriously? A quick Google brings up a few places in London we could afford but I worry the school will just think I've paid for a diagnosis? If that makes sense?

Hi OP, ex teacher here. First of all, well done for all you’ve done so far. It like the amazing support you’ve given your DS has
given him a brilliant start. Personally I can’t believe he wasn’t on the SEND register at primary school when he had a DLD diagnosis…but you are where you are and it seems like you’ve done all the hard work yourself.

It’s good that the school want a face to face meeting. I would obviously take the diagnosis paperwork and any other paperwork from
professionals that you have ie sp and lang therapy reports etc. I would also take some information about DLD with you to have up your sleeve. I don’t want to preempt negativity but in my experience sp and lang disorders are not well understood even in SEND departments. Particularly language disorders. I have a friend whose daughter has DLD and she has spent the last ten years explaining what it is, even in educational
settings. That’s not to say that this SENDco won’t know what it is and how it affects learning but you could have some info at the ready to leave with her just in case.

Most info about DLD will refer to common co-occurrence with dyslexia so it doesn’t seem that strange that it could well co-occur with dysgraphia too which possibly sounds like one of the struggles your son is having. I would talk to her honestly about getting a private diagnosis and ask how it would be viewed. Explain that you’re not interested in labelling for its own sake but just want to do whatever will support DS best long term. A diagnosis may well be needed if you want to get some reasonable adjustments for exams in the future.

From what you said in your OP, it sounds like he maybe needs some help to compose his work before writing it. Lots of different ways to do this ie record it first verbally into a dictaphone and then write it, or use one of the many computer platforms designed for this purpose. Or maybe if he learns to touch type that would help if school will allow him to type rather than write as a reasonable adjustment. Also having someone else read his work back to him word for word would help him to spot the errors in tense changes etc. Does he use correct and consistent tenses when he speaks? If he does then he fundamentally understands how to use them, it’s just (!) a matter of transferring that into writing. If he muddles his tenses when speaking then he may need some extra language therapy to help that understanding.

Also just to add that my friend’s daughter now has an ASD diagnosis, which came about nine years after the DLD diagnosis. She feels that the ASD was missed because things were put down to the DLD for a long time. That’s not to say your DS has ASD but don’t rule it out.

Good luck OP. Update us with how it goes. 😊