Problem with 8 year old and teacher

suekjw

I would agree with Dyspraxia, there are different levels but there are things that sound familiar. My boy is 5 and has it, yet he was early to walk, can ride his bike without stabilisers and has his 50m swimming badge. His writing takes forever though. He legs and arms are all over the place in PE apparently.

You could also try the Parent Pupil Partnership (your LEA shuld have one). They will attend any meeting with the school with you, make notes etc. It;s nice to know you have someone 'official' on your side.

Good Luck.

Becles

Nenen wrote: »

One final thought... how expressive is your son able to be if he types his own work on the computer?

He can write longer sentences and his writing flows better on a PC. He still makes the spelling mistakes, but he is an expert in using the spell checker

Nenen

Becles wrote: »

He can write longer sentences and his writing flows better on a PC. He still makes the spelling mistakes, but he is an expert in using the spell checker

That is precisely what I would expect from a bright child who has 'issues' with handwriting and spelling... handwrites as little as possible in order to prevent himself getting things 'wrong'. IMHO this shows that it is not so much writing he has a problem with but fear of getting things wrong. At a wild guess his teacher's negative attitude to his writing is not really helping! :rolleyes:

One of the phenomena I've witnessed time and time again is that less able children usually don't worry so much about getting things wrong as they are often oblivious to doing so whereas brighter children are often quite the reverse. Obviously it's very difficult to give advice over the net for a child I've never met but I'd be tempted, if he were mine, to stop trying to make him handwrite his own sentences (do separate handwriting exercises if you really feel it's necessary) and let him do his creative writing at home on a computer. I would hope you'd find he'd soon show far more of what he could really do and you can take that to show school. Whilst it is important that your son does learn to 'have a go' and make progress with handwritten work I think it is essential that he can develop his written vocabulary and creativity in a way that suits him. If that means using a word processor some of the time then that's great!