Engagement with writing tasks

[marmitesandwiches]

Hi everyone,

DS (in Yr 5) has a recent ADHD/possible HF ASD diagnosis and we are struggling to get him to engage with English writing tasks. Posting to see if anyone has experienced similar issues and has any suggestions as to how we might help him.

He is a bright, imaginative boy with lots of ideas. He will sometimes write (quirky) poetry unprompted and, if given an entirely free rein over writing, will usually manage to produce a paragraph. However if he is given a 'task' - requiring him to write a paragraph on a particular subject, or to include certain elements, he refuses point blank to engage with it. I have tried to gently explore this with him, to work which aspects of the task he is struggling with (planning, structuring etc) but he is very reluctant to even discuss. It seems that he is struggling with organising ideas, putting them into sentences and, perhaps most of all, with the fact that he did not choose the subject; he does not like to do things that have been chosen for him and is also a perfectionist (perhaps a 'double-whammy'?!). I should say that he has no issues with handwriting nor with understanding what he is being asked to do and is reluctant to complete the task even if I offer to scribe and we plan together (all of which I have tried). DS's lovely teacher recognises this as an issue and says he plans to try to allow some free choice in DS's writing - but I am worried that DS will actually need to learn to write on assigned topics - particularly when he moves on to secondary school; I can see that allowing him flexibility might mean he manages some writing but want to try to uncover the underlying issue and resolve.

Does anyone else recognise this? We are in the very early days of trialling ADHD meds (currently on a very low dose), but not sure whether they will help with this issue or whether likely to be more ASD-related. Would really value views from anyone more experienced. Have been wondering whether to try to get him some online tutoring with an English tutor experienced in SEN (though query whether DS would agree to engage).

TIA for any input!

ds2 has had similar problems for years. These are some ideas but I would caution that we have never found a magic solution:

First. Are you absolutely sure it is a case of will not or can not. For too long we assumed ds2 could do the task set because he was bright without realizing the wording of the tasks made it much more difficult for him. E.g. He could have written masses about world war two but could not write anything if asked something like to write from the perspective of a soldier in the trenches because he could not put himself in this situation.

Make sure the questions are not open ended but rather give clear expectations on the amount and scope to be written.

Avoid putting the pressure on with expectations on like "neat" writing, or "no" mistakes or "best" work which dooms him to failure.

Get him to write his answer as bullet points rather than a paragraph. or even just the key words. You could then do an exercise with him on how then to best arrange them to give a logical answer.

Get him to write his answer on the computer rather than by hand (more scope for being able to change things).

Pick a time to do the work when he is relaxed. For ds2 a lot of the refusal to do work is anxiety driven. There is no point even attempting to do anything when he is very stressed. His tutors used to start the session with a board game or similar (that he could win) to help put him at his ease so you could try something similar to get him in the right frame of mind to work.

Some free choice helps but there is a danger that before you know it you child has opted out of anything they find difficult or problematic & can be a big problem if they encounter a more inflexible teacher later on. You do probably need to work on the writing though with a topic that he does not find stressful e.g. for ds2 we would have a much better chance of getting him to write in science which engages him rather than in RE or PHSE which he finds stressful.

Could you ask him to do a five min writing task that you choose and you have to do one that he chooses?

Or ask him to answer questions about what he thinks about various topics (the more random the better). I have some questions that are written by children if you want me to PM them over. They wrote a set of questions for the next child, who had to answer them and then write a set for someone else. A lot of the children in question had SEN, including ASD, ADHD, dyslexia, APD and SPD.

Thanks so much for your responses. I thought other people would have encountered the same issue and agree there probably isn’t a simple solution - perhaps just a case of plugging away at the problem and hoping things gradually improve.

@OneInEight - good point about checking DS really can answer the question. His class have recently been tasked to do a piece of descriptive writing write about their emotions, which I think is asking rather a lot of Year 5 boys! I like the idea of asking for bullet points and also of a board game. Extrapolating from that, we do have story cubes so could perhaps use those also.

@cathcath2 I love the idea of DS and I setting each other tasks (though will be interesting to see what I’m allocated!). Think he could also be willing to share views on carefully-selected topics.

Thank you both, again for your ideas/help It isn’t easy being a lockdown teacher, is it - and for us it has brought some of DS’s challenges into sharp relief!