So, the 8yr old lad absolutely detests writing. He can do it, but is just very slow at it. This is impacting on his other school work and as a result he is falling behind in some areas. He also at times, mostly at school, has the attention span of a goldfish.
Any ideas on what to try?
Teacher doesn't seem to think that he shows signs of dyslexia.
Don't hassle him or stand looking over his shoulder. I was always a slow writer. Still am. Hated it as a result. And the feeling of constantly being scrutinised drove me mental and made it worse.
Don't give him any pudding till he sorts it out?
(Sorry...But seriously... Maybe just introduce lots of games that involve writing? Scrabble, crosswords etc? How's his reading?)
reduce the amount of TV and "device" time significantly
replace with games (with rewards) that involve writing notes, create codes, etc etc
1st because they ruin kids attention spans, second part because you need to make writing fun not a chore
I've always been a terrible writer. Try lots of different pens and pencils - depending on how slick or slow, fat, thin, scratchy, sticky they are makes a big difference as to how happy I am to write. Once I found a pen I liked I bought a box of 200 of them in case I couldn't find any like it again.
Can you find something he likes and encourage him through that? Would keeping a diary appeal or do you have relatives who could be persuaded to request a written letter once a month?
Or, as this is the modern age, learn to touch type? May not be as useful at school but should ensure that the ability to get words down is formed and will develop a non-verbal communication style.
I was terrible at writing as a child and the little that I did write was illegible. I was an avid reader though which must have helped compensate. By the time I got to GCSEs I was fine and now spend most of my days writing/typing for a job.
My 8 yr old daughter is the same. Excels at maths / science and is very logical but not so creative. She can produce good written work if she puts her mind to it but often slow to get going with it due to lack of focus.
I was, and still am, the same too. Give me a technical problem to solve and I'm on it. Give me a report to write and........ oh look there's a bird on the lawn outside the window.
Southpaw?
He's a right hander.
What is he interested in? I've an 8yr old boy, and although I don't think he struggles with it, he certainly grumbles a lot when he has to do it. But if I asked him to write a list of Skylanders and about each ones powers, he'd be on it like a tramp on chips.
Some interesting ideas which I'll try. Keep them coming though. :Thanks.
Is it the confidence/reluctance in the actual making his marks on paper? Writing games? Pick a letter:
[url= http://www.wikihow.com/Play-Boy-%26-Girl ]http://www.wikihow.com/Play-Boy-%26-Girl[/url]
And others like Consequences
[url= http://www.wikihow.com/Play-Consequences ]http://www.wikihow.com/Play-Consequences[/url]
The excitement of wanting to do well in the game overrides the reluctance to put pen to paper, and isn't a piece of formal work like at school. Great for the family to sit round the table together too.
Around 8 years old my lad was the same. If the teacher asked a question he'd have no problem answering it eloquently verally. Give him a writing instrument though and initially he couldn't get started at all.
Later he progressed to just being a slow writer. Now a couple of years later he's much better.
My advice to him was get on and write any old shive down, if you've got time you can always go back and correct it.
Do some activities that may help with grip/strength eg sorting clothes pegs and pegging them onto something, use tongs to pick up a selection of small objects, make play dough from scratch (2 cups of flour 1 glug oil 3/4 cup water use poster paint to colour it) when mixing it encourage to need with fingers. Try painting anti clockwise concentric circles to help with letter formation. Use a pencil for writing so he gets used knowing what pressure to use. Look at his grip, you want to encourage a tripod grip. A triangular sleave over the pencil can help. Try a board at a 30 degree angle to aid support. Change the colour of paper to a pale yellow. All things to try, make it fun and don't tell him its all writing related. Cheers 1 shed
Does he have trouble getting started with the writing? Is it the 'planning stage' that he doesn't like?
Lots of children (especially boys!), see doing any form of plannning for their writing as a waste of time. Proving to them that it saves them time with their homework / classwork is half the battle.
The important part is not to force it. For homework (set by the teacher or a little extra from you), try being their secretary (they dictate) two lines and then they write one.
My favourite game for 8 year old boys who don't want to write is 'good news bad news'. You each write some good news on paper and swap. Then you write the bad news.
eg.
Good news - you are hungry and find a nice sandwich for you.
Bad news - there's horse' poo in it
These sorts of games stop it being such a chore. Remember, short bursts. Don't turn it into a chore.
Have you bought him a 'nice' pen / pencil / pencil case / notepad? That can make him happier to write. If he uses pens at school, perhaps think about a cartridge pen. Taking him to WH Smiths and treating him to a wee writing kit can be worth every penny.
Mike (teacher)
if you'd like some activities / worksheets etc email me
myusername^^^ @gmail.com
See what you said about them having trouble getting started - that is exactly the problem my boy has. Your poo sandwich game sounds promising!
My almost 8 year old daughter is exactly the same, can sit for half an hour and only write a few words but will write loads when the subject engages her. Think she will be getting a poo sandwich for pudding now 😆
8yrs old? Not a worry at all.
My son barely picked up a book until he was 12yrs old ...
But then something clicked. He is now a 4th year med student and consistently in top of his year with his grades.
As others have said, don't make it an issue. Make it fun.
Teacher doesn't seem to think that he shows signs of dyslexia.
It could be any one of a number of things other than dyslexia - and remember they all vary hugely in degree of severity. Don't be afraid of seeking help and getting assessments for other things so that support issues can be put in place sooner rather than later should there be an underlying issue.
Some kids don't get assessed and/or parents don't want them labelled and as a result they miss out on support measures that could help them.
I had similar at school when I was learning to write.
Was so focused on forming the letters how I was told and being neat I fell massively behind.
Took me about a year to realise that speed was actually FAR more important than accuracy and therefore threw all neatness out the window, fell into my 'natural' spidery style and suddenly caught right back up. 🙂
Sandwich jr had similar problems which was eventually tracked down to dyspraxia. He enjoys the creative part of writing but the actual getting the words on paper is a trial. He produces good work as his degree grades show just the getting set to write can cause delay.
While all this is going on het him tech savvy, as in able to use keyboards and search engines get "writing games" in iPad etc. this is absolutely not a substitute for actual writing but more schools are heading towards iPad for kids(no matter what the teachers think) we are getting them to one year group in a year, and tynecastle have given them to S3 upwards.
Thinking ahead the national exams have a fair amount of research in them so need this skill.
What is he interested in? I've an 8yr old boy, and although I don't think he struggles with it, he certainly grumbles a lot when he has to do it. But if I asked him to write a list of Skylanders and about each ones powers, he'd be on it like a tramp on chips.
Motivation and confidence to try.
As an over generalisation, many boys struggle with writing until they find what engages or stimulates them. The. You get great results.
I sat with some teachers yesterday who were amazed at the amount and quality of writing they got from boys who struggle with this - purely as they had taken thrm outside and given them new creative stimulus to write. challenge for teacher is to find regular things that engage brain, body and creativity. Doesn't have to be outside, but same four walls, desk and jotter can sometimes become repetitive and part of the barrier.
The OP cpould almost have been written by me when my own son was eight.
Don't worry about the handwriting; my son is partly left-handed and his writing is almost illegible so the school allow him to do most of his work on his laptop.
As for the attention problem, I'm afraid that's fairly standard for boys. Don't allow some idiot "professional" to stick a label on him as that will destroy his self-esteem; we are all somewhere on the spectrum of normal to something. Concentration exercises will help. I bet he concentrates on computer games and texting!
My Son is similar, now aged 13.
Writing seems to cause him actual pain. We had him diagnosed years ago with dyspraxia. Any fine motor skills are difficult - shoelace tying etc.
one of the giveaway signs is that they write down the centre of the page, leaving huge 2" margins. It might be worth investigating, he'll then get extra time to complete exams etc.
Teacher doesn't seem to think that he shows signs of dyslexia.
Well it's one of the signs I recall having.
Drac - me too.
So, the 8yr old lad absolutely detests writing. He can do it, but is just very slow at it. This is impacting on his other school work and as a result he is falling behind in some areas. He also at times, mostly at school, has the attention span of a goldfish.
You could be describing me at age 8, I don't have dyslexia and can write quickly now.
The change for me was when teachers no longer forced me to write neatly, I changed to a fast scribbly joined up style. I then proceeded to get comments on my awful handwriting on every school report ever till I left school...but it was fast.
Still is awful, I often can't read my own writing and just have to remember what I wrote...
I was a slow writer. I was told to speed up. I became an illegible writer.
As is the STW-way, I now work in IT where typing means I rarely have to handwrite in a manner that others can interpret.
When I do need my writing to be understood, I tend to write in capitals (picked-up from a previous design-based career path).
Just thought that I'd post a wee update. I tried some of the suggestions above, mainly the games and writing about something that he is really interested in and asking him to just get something down on the paper rather than worry about it being neat. He wrote page after page. It's still early days, but I can see his confidence improving already.
Thanks.
I hated writing at school I found it very difficult to spell, to form letters, to hold words in my head to write a sentence. It held me back at school, because I wasn't offered to support I should have been given. It put me off school and my lessons. Turned out I was severely dyslexic and after the age of about 15 I was able to do all my work and exams on a computer which helped me significantly.
Just thought that I'd post a wee update. I tried some of the suggestions above, mainly the games and writing about something that he is really interested in and asking him to just get something down on the paper rather than worry about it being neat. He wrote page after page. It's still early days, but I can see his confidence improving already.Thanks.
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nice that you've had progress Count.
I used to hate writing at school. The act of writing that is. I figured it was pretty pointless: 'But I won't need to write in the future'. And most of the time I don't. If only I'd learned to touch type properly when young though. Still, if I'd written more I might now have admirably neat handwriting instead of the random scrawlings I see.
Have 2 kids that are slow writers. Well sort of.
The oldest now 17 us dyslexic. But being dyslexic doesn't make you a slow writer. But has some fine motor skills type thing going on. The problem was mainly how fast he could write neatly. As he got older he cared less about the messy writing and the fast writting got a bit better. He is now doing fine.
My advice based on my is let go of the nice writing thing and have a push on speed. Then pick up up the neat thing later. Now he is 17 he doesn't write many words, just equations and numbers
Lots of good advice on content here. Also reward effort and progress not the absolute standard
Daughter is more complicated and caught us out. She was the classic bright girl with good hand writing. Very not dyslexic like her mother. But it turned out she was hyper mobile diagnosed via exploding ankles. Any way they tested her writing speed. Tuned out that she was on 98th percentile (thats where she would be academically). So we assumed that only 2% of students can write faster than her. We read it again, only 2% write slower than her. The rest of the story is complicated by her having chronic fatigue. But her hands are a real issue. Odd shape pens help
Lesson if he really is slow get him tested because there might have a real physical cause
