Child who won't write

[crocodilesarevicious]

No known SEN.

Child will not pick up his pen. Takes numerous prompts and reminders and 'encouragements' and threats, and pleas ...

to write the date

Work is highly differentiated - I try to have non-written activities as much as possible but since I teach English that's difficult! It's also within a class of 'characters' who demand a lot of attention.

Any useful thoughts .. they are year 8s.

Thanks.

Is he a perfectionist? I taught a similar (younger) child once and eventually worked out that he wouldn't write anything because he didn't like spelling things wrong. Could he have access to a laptop or something that he could type on to see if this makes a difference?

Will he do the work if he is kept in at lunchtime etc, or is he actually not able to do it?

Writing the date is boring. Try getting him interested in writing something for fun.

He will not write anything - anything at all.

The date and title and objective have to be written as per school policy. What I was trying to explain is he won't even write the date so a story or comprehension activity or similar - all out of the question.

Will look into laptop - thanks

I would write in the LO, date and name for the child to see if that helps and if not then I would maybe offer doing work on the computer

Have you ever seen him write? Has anybody else?

What's happened in the past? Is this new or has he always refused to write?

I teach English in an EBD school with a lot of reluctant writers. I print out 3 dates, 3 LOs etc and get the most reluctant writers to pick the right one and stick it in. That sometimes gets the ball rolling.

Another successful thing was offering a range of things to write on. Some prefer sheet paper as a book feels too "permanent", some a notebook, some a flip pad, etc

How did they handle him last year, and at his primary school?

Clicker is a computer program for students who can't write.

You can do various things with it, including drag and drop words to form a sentence.

If your school has a copy, it might be worth a go.

My ds has dysgraphia. Writing was a laborious process for him. I started him typing when he was 4 or 5 and it was soooo much easier for him. I read many years later that in fact one uses the opposite side of the brain for typing than for handwriting (I can't tell my right from my left, so don't remember which is which). Ds is now 14 and has had to only use handwriting the last year and he has gotten much better at it, but I think it's definitely related to his being much older have having better connections between his brain and his limbs. (He never had any fine motor skill issues, by the way. He could copy something perfectly. He just couldn't translate the words in his brain into handwriting).
So agree with the other posters....can you provide him with a laptop.