Ideas to help an older child learn to write

iammumtoone

Mojisola wrote: »

What are the school doing to help him?

Nothing!!! they did notice there was an issue and had it investigated he was diagnosed with meryles irlen. Since then nothing, not even suggestions of how to help him apart from the coloured paper which makes no difference, like I said it seems to me they have got a reason why his writing is bad so that's the end of it, they move onto another child who is having undiagnosed issues. Its not the teachers fault I am sure they would like to help every child more but they just don't have the time and resources

I am not impressed with the school, if I could I would move him but I think that would be even worse for his developement. I don't know if a different school would be better and I would be taking him away for all his friends, he finds it difficult enough to make friends as it is.

CRANKY40

I started from a different angle when my son was that age and having trouble with his writing - I let him do his homework on the computer. Once it wasn't such a struggle to get his ideas down on paper he started to feel more confident and was happier to have a go at writing things because he knew there was an easier alternative available. His writing in school improved gradually - he said he was happy that people didn't think he was stupid because his typed work was so good.

iammumtoone

He is very good at drawing and enjoys that, he does a lot of drawing but that doesn't seem to help with the writing. He does have a udraw for the xbox its a good idea to try to get him to write with that, but it is hard to use, even I struggle with it!

cranky40 - I can see what you are saying but he needs to learn to write, its not just that his writing is scruffy, I could live with that, He can't write, the letters are formed all wrong, interesting he can form the same letter rightly and wrongly in the same sentence! When he writes his name of course he gets that right but when he using the same letters in another sentence he gets them back to front!

apusskidu

Could you make games of ordinary tasks. Eg give him a tick box form for his packed lunches, then gradually move from ticking boxes to writing in his choice of drink/ sarnie filling. Get family members to write to him with tick box/ fill the blanks answers. Rude words can help. Eg fill the blank " My dad's socks smell like.....". :-)

Savvy_Sue

I may be coming from completely the wrong direction here, but if he is writing letters back to front, has he got his handedness sorted out?

Our local library runs a reading challenge every summer, can he join that and write a single sentence about each book he reads?

iammumtoone

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I may be coming from completely the wrong direction here, but if he is writing letters back to front, has he got his handedness sorted out?

I don't know! Its something I have never even considered, I have never told him to write/draw with any particular hand just let him do what is natural (or maybe he just copied me, he writes with the same hand as me, as he thought that was what he was supposed to do) Should I be encouraging him to write with the other hand? I would be interested on other opinions regarding this.

theoretica

Do you have an idea at what level the mistakes are - is it that he doesn't know even if he really, really thinks about how the letters should look, or is it that it goes wrong because he usually doesn't bother quite hard enough? Some of the ideas here would work for one, and some for the other.

gayleygoo

I read an article about how well developed arm muscles are needed for good handwriting, and physical activities like climbing, swinging from monkey bars, throwing and catching a ball etc can improve the muscles and aid in writing.

Not sure if it's been mentioned, but could he make "dinner menus" for the table? With felt tips or whatever he'd prefer to write with, and after he's written what's for dinner, dessert and to drink, he can decorate it. He could do little name place cards for each member of the family

Savvy_Sue

iammumtoone wrote: »

I don't know! Its something I have never even considered, I have never told him to write/draw with any particular hand just let him do what is natural (or maybe he just copied me, he writes with the same hand as me, as he thought that was what he was supposed to do) Should I be encouraging him to write with the other hand? I would be interested on other opinions regarding this.

I think you would find that he would do what is natural rather than copy you, but out of interest, are you left or right handed? If he is left-handed that might lead to other suggestions: DS2 used to look very awkward when writing, but he never took to any of the suggestions for having the paper at a different angle or using a thicker / moulded pen.

I am perhaps defeatist, but I know none of mine would ever have responded to suggestions like writing out a menu or place cards for the family. They would not have been able to see the point. However, if I'd asked for their help eg in writing a shopping list while I did the washing up, I MIGHT have got somewhere (although they would each have suggested that one of their brothers could do it better / faster / anyway it's not my turn).

However, I probably could have got them to add things they wanted to the list. So, if he wants crisps, a comic, sardines etc, then he'd better make a list because otherwise you might forget.

Maybe filling in a large calendar with activities would be attractive? Or draw a grid on the whiteboard with the days of the week, morning and afternoon, and what he would like to do?

iammumtoone

sue - we are both tight handed.

I am really struggling with this. I have come to realise that it is not getting him to write that is going to be difficult it is getting him to write correctly. Lots of great suggestions on here which I know he will do as they are fun. I brought him a scrapbook and explained he could put in a mixture of pictures/writing/photos to record the holidays. He loved it and was really enthusiastic. Last night he drew a picture and wrote a sentence, unfortunately the words were all wrong. there was a letter the wrong way round in every word (including letters which are in his name). I suggested he checked the words against a letter chart he has but he was not interested and got frustrated. My problem is I could have made him re-do the sentence until it was correct however this would have involved a long discussion/disagreement before we got to that stage and would take the enjoyment out of this scrapbook for both of us which would be a shame as it appears to be something he is going to like doing.

He was the same with his reading. He doesn't like to be told anything he has done is wrong. He loves reading always has but when I used to correct the words he got wrong he would hate it and it was putting him off reading. With the advise of the teacher I stopped correcting him and just let him read. The issue resolved itself as he got older, he learnt more and was able to then work out what the words said for himself (he always read at a higher level for his age). He is still a fantastic reader who now hardly ever need correcting.