My almost 7 year old still can't write

[BatleyTownswomensGuild]

My DS is 7 soon. He has ASD so he's fighting a lot of battles already - issues with speech and language, balance, sensory issues etc. His reading is good but he can barely write. He can do his name but a lot of other letters are barely legible.

I think there's various issues - sensory under-sensitivity which means he can barely feel the pen. Poor motor skills in general, he has a very weak hand grip and struggles with lots of things. And also, we're now at the point where he's just getting frustrated and doesn't want to practice. He can see that he is way behind the other kids and a real fear of failure is kicking in.

We've been seeing an OT recently and there has been minor improvement. But further appts have been postponed until lockdown lifts. I want to use this time to really try and help him and give him confidence - but he's incredibly resistant to anything that falls outside of his sphere of interest (the ASD thing means he's very single-minded and stubborn.)

Anyone got any ideas for how to help him? Home-schooling has just reinforced to me how poor his pen skills/motor skills really are.

Hi there

I just wanted to let you know, that whilst I was purchasing my DD a sensory hug vest, I saw that the same site was advertising modified pens, for children who struggle with motor control due to sensory issues.

I wouldn't normally mention as I know some sites scam, but my DD's vest arrived today and seems great quality, I am very happy with it.

If you message I will happily pass on the site. X

Will he play with playdough (roll and make letters, use a stick to draw in it) , squeeze bubblewrap, use a writing slope(A4 folder on its side) , make sure he is seated with feet flat on floor and back to chair. Hand and wrist control also stems from a strong core, so working on posture with highkneeling and balance might also help.

@pandyandy1

Thank you. I have seen the pens you're talking about but haven't tried them yet. Worth a shot though.

@LIZS his core is rock solid because he spends half his life on the trampoline. But he struggles to sit on the chairs at home because he needs to have a foot on the floor for gravitational security. (He has issues with vestibular senses so struggles to 'ground himself') But this has got me thinking maybe a foot rest might help him get a good sitting position at home...

There are all sorts of pen and pencil grips online, have a google and hit images to get an idea of the selection available.

As a footrest for my DD at home we used a toolbox, it was the right height and she could keep all her pens and drawing kit in it.

Ideally the hips, knees and ankles should be at 90 degrees. A writing slope helps a lot too.

Can he type? That might be a way of keeping up with producing work, forming good sentences, spelling etc even while handwriting is difficult.

What are his interests? Any chance a Minecraft pencil or a letter to David Attenborough or whatever linked to his interests would motivate him to persevere a bit longer?

Have you thought of dysgraphia? My DS struggled with writing for years. Long story but eventually he was diagnosed with dysgraphia (among other things). The solution was a keyboard and it was such a game changer - not least because it gave him confidence.

Does he have any differentiated work or is he just trying to keep up with the class work?

My ds has just turned 7. He has a 1:1 and differentiated work so a bit different to your ds. His writing is very behind his peers but improving all the time. At school they have introduced a programme called Clicker for him but he’s home at the moment so not currently using it. Last year during lockdown I worked lots on pre-writing shapes and then letter formation sheets, which we are again doing daily while homeschooling (CGP daily handwriting practice). We use a pencil grip too. Plus fine motor skills work every day.

My DS is the same, he has just turned 7 and in year 2.

He doesn't have any obvious motor difficulties that would explain the delay. He does struggle with cutlery and dressing too, but I think for think its a motor planning difficulty rather than a coordination/sensory problem.

He also can't draw very well - his pictures look like a 3 year olds (a person would be a face with eyes and mouth - and legs and arms coming out of the face).

He also has very little interest in either drawing and writing, and can't tolerate mistakes - so if it goes wrong he will have a meltdown, destroy his attempt and refuse to try again.

We have had the best success with a magnetic drawing board, it seems to be easier for him and it means he can easily wipe out his mistakes.

A book of mazes might be motivating, or connect the dots.

Thank you for all your suggestions. The school mentioned a writing slope. So I'll run that by the OT and see what she says.

I've been thinking for a while that maybe we need to let him type sometimes. The school seem to want him to persevere with writing but I do worry that all the other skills kids pick up, spelling, punctuation, expression of ideas etc are not going to develop whilst he's still struggling to form single letters.

I think I might package some of these idea up and run them by the OT and the school.

@Willowkins

I've looked into dysgraphia before. It is possible but I'm not 100% convinced that's the root of the issue. I think it's under-sensitivity to touch that is the issue. He has poor fine motor skills in general - struggles to use cutlery, brush teeth, put shoes on, play with 'assembly' toys like lego/marble runs etc. He has very weak hand grip. His OT says he's proprioception is poor - basically he can't sense what he's holding and has virtually no muscle memory.

He also has only started to develop a dominant hand in the past month or so and he's 7 soon - so very late!

@EatsFartsAndLeaves

His special interest is trains. We have tried every train related activity under the sun. Making train signs, copying train names, drawing train maps, train dot-to-dots, you name it. He will either kick off massively to try and avoid writing or will rush it as quickly as possible so it's over. An activity that might take a classmate 20 mins - say drawing a picture of a house - he will do in under a 30 secs and refuse to cooperate further than that. So trying to get him to put in the time to practice is impossible...

Have you discussed this with the SENco or his teacher? What do they say?

@openupmyeagereyes We have regular meetings - they are both keen for him to persist with writing. I'm not convinced personally...

My ds (10) has very poor handwriting. He has seen OT and goes out for fine motor skills support at school. He has used a pencil grip under advice of the OT. I would advise you to buy your own pencil grips - I went into school on an open afternoon and was shocked to see ds using a stub of a pencil approx 3cms long and a chewed pencil grip that was useless on that size of pencil.. . I provided a pencil and grip from then on.

He's in yr 6 now and uses Clicker on the laptop