Can't bear Creative Writing - ADHD - Year 6 Looming...

[Tricky10]

Hi - can anyone help with some ideas ? My DD who is going into Year 6 and has ADD / Dyspraxia absolutely hates creative writing - she is a bright and articulate girl and a good reader (when she can focus) but has an absolute writers block or can't bear to write creatively. Is this part of her SEN / ADD ? I am trying to better understand where this objection to writing is coming from as we really need some strategies to try and get around this. Any tips / ideas to surmount this would be gratefully received...

We have the same with DS (8/Y4/ASD). It's been a nightmare getting him to do any writing. After 2 years I finally realise that the school don't know how to teach handwriting and seem to rely on kids picking it up.... DS can't copy others' movements so that wasn't going to happen! I took him to Magic Link lessons then used the DVDs. So just this year have sorted the handwriting.

Having said that we've had a trial of a NeoSmart keyboard for creative writing in class and hopefully typing stories will increase output. Handwriting will be used for other subjects.

However sorting this has simply revealed DS' difficulties with the thinking aspects of writing. He can't really attend to non-preferred topics or order a story to be of interest to others. Character ideas are completely alien....

His teacher last year started him write on his own topics when possible and he also gets to use the computer as a reward.

But I'm worrying that while that sorts one problem for the teacher it leaves me with 2 to resolve before secondary! I need to get him off the rewards and be able to handle others' topics (at least a little bit).

We are about to try out exercises from Amanda Hartington's I hate to Write Stories. We're using Rory's Story cubes. Basically just trying to talk about stories and tell tales before writing happens. I also read aloud to the kids and have been talking about how the story shapes work (YouTube Kurt Vonnegut) and fit to the books we read. Also descriptions in the books and how we might be able to use or adapt these. I also found an Emotions Thesaurus on amazon which lists out ways to "show not tell" how characters are feeling for many emotional states.

No idea how/if all this will work out but that's how we plan to tackle it this year. Mainly trying to get some fun back into it and show how to use ideas from his own experiences. It was Y1 when this was raised as an issue by school and going into Y4 I realise that if we don't sort it, it probably will get worse. Good luck

Will she write a known story such as a fairy tale? Using a computer to select pictures first then add text can work. Using a computer removes the need for handwriting which demands more focus than typing.
Try selecting 3 pictures at random and ask her to link them in some way. Encourage her to be silly in this activity.
Think of a short story yourself and write 10 beginning sentences which she must complete. Never mind whether she makes sense or not. Try cartoons to which she should add captions or speech bubbles or both.
Talk to her and try to establish what the key issues are:
is it thinking of what to write
believing fiction is a waste of time
not knowing how to structure creative writing
not understanding that creative fiction can take many different forms

I could email you some material if you want. pm me if interested.

I think for some creative writing is very daunting. The decisions are limitless...it's an open vast area and difficult to pin point one thing. My son loves creating (verbally) stories, but they very much are always based around his favourite characters at the time (minions, Disney cars, number blocks etc...). I agree with above that school/you need to try and narrow down why she finds it difficult and work from there.

My son struggles with handwriting too as he finds it hard work and tiring (low muscle tone) and school have just introduced him to Clicker 7 to start using next year. It looks good (they've given

Blast! Pressed send by mistake

....they've given us a password so he can use it at home too. It has word banks (you can add yourself) and you can also record your voice too, so could perhaps 'tell' the story instead of 'write'?