Advice re school please

[beautifulgirls]

DD2 has attention deficit disorder (inattentive type). She isn't severe in comparison to some children and her behaviour is generally pretty good, she is a live wire at home but mostly holds it together at school. Some activities at school she throws herself into, usually the practical subjects and is making good progress. Her literacy on the other hand is not going so well. Her teacher reports a great used of spoken vocabulary and plenty of great ideas, right answers and good understanding which reflects what we see at home too. Her written work in the same subject is not good though. She struggles to put this down in writing, will write the bare minimum of answers rather than showing her ability to use good vocabulary etc. I know she simply hates doing the writing and therefore it is so much harder for her to apply herself and get on with it. As a result her literacy level is not where it could be. School are fobbing us off with "lots of children are like this in her year group" as if we need not worry, but I am not happy with this. What is reasonable to expect the school to do here? Anyone else dealt with this? She is in year 3.

My DS2 (also Y3) is like this. Verbally, very articulate, good ideas, 2 years ahead at reading but very poor writing skills. In his case is is because he has poor fine motor skills and so actually finds writing physically difficult, but consequently he hates writing and will also only write the bare minimum. He is behind in literacy as a result, though the school sometimes scribe for him in assessed exercises and in these cases you can see a marked difference in what he can produce if he hasn't got to write it down. Has your DD been assessed for dyslexia / dyspraxia as these can be linked to ADD? In a recent assessment DS was found to have very low scores in phonological memory and sequencing which affect his abilities to copy from the board and follow instructions.

The OTs have recommended that the school teach DS to touch type and provided him with a laptop to take away his anxieties around writing. He does seem to do better using a keyboard, though is still incredibly slow. However, getting the school to actually implement the recommendations is another story entirely. It is so frustrating when you know their literacy levels are lower than their abilities in this area because of the problems with writing. Wish I knew what else to do to help.

*provide, not provided (though it would be great if they did!)

Thanks Zen - yes it is frustrating. DD1 does have dyspraxia and we had a similar situation with this school over her using/not using a laptop for work. We moved her to a specialist school following a tribunal (she has many issues). DD2 on the other hand is one of those kids that is doing enough for the school not to fret about at all so they are pretty much ignoring our concerns. I am pretty certain knowing DD1 as I do, that DD2 doesn't have dyspraxia. She is quite talented at art actually and spends plenty of time engaged in those fine motor skills type activities out of choice. I think she simply finds writing such a chore. I remember that feeling myself at her age mind you, I sympathise with her. I do hope that as she gets older she will understand why she needs to put the effort in, but meanwhile I still think she needs some sort of support in school to ensure she puts more effort into her written work.