Writing

[mistymom]

My youngest dd is 8 yrs old.She is currently being assessed as she shows most traits of Asperger's Syndrome. The school don't seem to be helping her much with her writing. She will put a capital T,B anywhere in her writing. Also she doesn't leave finger spaces,spells words how you pronounce them,b and d the wrong way round. When writing a j the tail goes the wrong way.Her numbers 9 is a p sometimes p is a 9.What can i do to help her at home. She says she hates writing and its to hard. Thanks in advance.

Bump

I am hoping that someone can come back with some helpful advice here as my son (who is 6 and a few months) is about to start the assessment process and he is also struggling greatly with writing.

All I've been doing with my son is encouraging him to copy words after I write them and trying to do this daily. But I empathise a lot :( And hope someone else comes back...

I'd recommend that you get the "Write from the start" programme www.amazon.co.uk/Write-start-Programme-Perceptual-Handwriting/dp/1855032457. You get quite a lot for your money. 2 books of photocopiable work pages and a teachers book. Just photocopy the pages and do 10 minutes each day with your dc. The programme practises the pre-writing skills that need to be mastered before you can produce fluent handwriting. It means that they get to practise individual bits of the writing process separately rather than just repeating the whole writing experience that they are already finding difficult. The instructions for doing it are easy to follow.
Also check things like how they are sitting and holding their pencil.

Whilst doing this as an immediate pro-active activity, I would be also pushing the school hard to get an assessment to see if she is dyslexic or dyspraxic. You can also get your GP to refer your dd to a paediatric Occupational Therapist for dsypraxia assessment. Don't let them fob you off with "well lets wait till we've done the ASD assessment" as it just delays them getting the best support if they are dyslexic/dyspraxic.

BTW, I am a tutor who has taught children with ASD, dyslexia and dyspraxia and this is the advice I would give a parent of any of my students who was in the situation and had the characteristics you describe!

With respect to the 6 yr old ds, it may be a different situation as children regularly reverse letters etc at this age and it is not dyslexia. If they haven't grown out of it by age 7-8 then start to wonder about dyslexia. If it is the more mechanical aspects of writing that are a problem and he is significantly worse than his peers then I'd recommend the "Write from the start" programme and asking your GP for a referral to a paediatric OT with a view to assessing for dyspraxia.