Boys and Writing

[Mom0012]

For those of you who have boys who have struggled with the physical act of writing, have you found that it resolves itself when they reach a certain age? I'm wondering if boys who are having trouble with this should be doing more writing or waiting it out until something clicks developmentally for them.

 

My son is taking a writing class and the teacher encourages the parents to be their child's "scribe" if the physical act of writing is difficult for them. She stresses that she wants their words to flow and doesn't want the writing to get in the way of that. I've ignored this advice because I want my son to get lots of practice in this area since it is so difficult for him.

 

Last week, he did a second paper and we were running short on time, so I did scribe for him and it was amazing how quick and easy the process was. It made me wonder if I was putting us both through unnecessary difficulty.

 

Am I pushing in an area that he will most likely just develop later in or are we on the right path by putting the extra effort in now?

 

Lisa

[Cedarmom]

I think the teacher is right as far as the thought process goes. My son spent so much energy on the physical part of writing that he had trouble then with the writing (thoughts to paper ) part. When I was able to scribe or have him type he couldwork on the thought part of writing.

 

For writing practice, have your son do copywork and dictation. Then he still will get the practice of physcially writing, but he can separate the writing (thoughts to paper) from the physcial skill of learning to write.

[freetobeme]

:lurk5:

mine are 10.

[Mom0012]

I think the teacher is right as far as the thought process goes. My son spent so much energy on the physical part of writing that he had trouble then with the writing (thoughts to paper ) part. When I was able to scribe or have him type he couldwork on the thought part of writing.

 

For writing practice, have your son do copywork and dictation. Then he still will get the practice of physcially writing, but he can separate the writing (thoughts to paper) from the physcial skill of learning to write.

 

Cedarmom -

 

Thanks for your thoughts. I do agree that the teacher is right about it being easier for his thoughts to flow with me doing the writing, but my concern is that he will never get to the point of writing down his thoughts himself if I do it for him.

 

I think the copywork/dictation is a great suggestion and we do that, but could probably do more (especially if I start scribing for him on his writing assignments).

 

Lisa

[Snickerdoodle]

:bigear:

[lauranc]

My 15 yr old son has always had difficulty with the physical act of writing. When he was quite young, he learned to use the computer to write his stories. He is an avid writer... always has been.

 

I separated the 2: handwriting and writing. He did copy work for handwriting practice, and used the computer to write his stories.

 

He still struggles with handwriting though--- and his handwriting is ...pretty bad. We are still working on it!

[wapiti]

I separated the 2: handwriting and writing. He did copy work for handwriting practice, and used the computer to write his stories.

:iagree::iagree::iagree:

 

When we did neuropsych testing, the psychologist recommended limiting lengthy handwritten assignments and teaching/allowing keyboarding as soon as possible.

 

For handwriting work, his teacher is using Handwriting Without Tears.

 

See, e.g., http://www.visualspatial.org/Articles/poorhand.pdf

[Mom0012]

My 15 yr old son has always had difficulty with the physical act of writing. When he was quite young, he learned to use the computer to write his stories. He is an avid writer... always has been.

 

I separated the 2: handwriting and writing. He did copy work for handwriting practice, and used the computer to write his stories.

 

He still struggles with handwriting though--- and his handwriting is ...pretty bad. We are still working on it!

 

You know, my brother always struggled with writing and still does to this day now that I think about it. He is very bright and has no other disabilities, but it really held him back in school until he got to college and could type his papers.

 

I need to have my son learn to type. I was putting it off one more year to try to get him as fluent as possible with cursive, but your comments have made me start to rethink this. I do suspect that my son, unlike my brother, will have trouble with typing though. He has a lot of difficulty with moving his fingers individually.

 

I'm so glad I asked for opinions on this because I think I'm getting some good ones.

 

Lisa

[Garga]

I thought I read in the WTM that the child can dictate his story/essay to you (he can freely think w/o worrying about the physical side)...you write it down while he watches you form the letters (you model how to do it)...and then you DICTATE it back to him (he does the physical side himself now---not looking at what you wrote, rather, having it dictated back.)

 

And, personally, I'd be teaching them keyboarding skills pretty soon, too. They do need to handwrite because a few college classes still have essay questions w/o computers in the room (some classes have computers, some don't), so they need to be prepared...but really, the bulk of their work in their lives will be typed on a computer.

[LauraGB]

I wish I had the answer.

 

What I have found with ds is that it comes down to writing his thoughts as quickly as he has them or writing; there is no in between on his own. Why this is, I have not figured out yet. Lately what we have been doing is this: I sit next to him, he verbalizes his sentence, I re-dictate it back to him while he writes it. It is painful. For both of us. BUT I can read it and it makes sense. If he is left to his own devices, his thoughts seem to channel entirely too fast for his hand to keep up and there is very little chance of making out what he has scribbled down.

 

So, that's all I have to offer. We just started doing this again, and I'm not sure how much it will help in the long run, but I am hopeful because it's all I can come up with.

[Luckymama]

Frankly, having ds able to type his essays and papers on the computer made such a difference in his academic life! He was/is able to freely make notes on paper, just rough outlines or bullet points, without having to worry about actually sitting down, pen to paper, to write the whole blasted thing out. I think the stress of worrying about writing everything in longhand blocked his thought processes :rolleyes:

 

5th/6th grades were the worst. In 7th grade, they were able to do some writing on the computer. In 8th grade, he did about 50% of long writing (more than a page/three paragraphs) on the computer. In high school, all assignments are typed. They do many essays longhand for in-class writing and on tests, because they have to for standardized tests and for college writing, but nothing longer than a five paragraph essay.

 

I think that all kids should be taught keyboarding skills as soon as possible. Some kids have an easier time getting their thoughts out of their heads that way, instead of crying at the kitchen table while attempting to write on paper.

[Cedarmom]

Cedarmom -

 

Thanks for your thoughts. I do agree that the teacher is right about it being easier for his thoughts to flow with me doing the writing, but my concern is that he will never get to the point of writing down his thoughts himself if I do it for him.

 

I think the copywork/dictation is a great suggestion and we do that, but could probably do more (especially if I start scribing for him on his writing assignments).

 

Lisa

 

My son learned to type on the computer at about 11- that worked better than writing. But I did want him to be able to write on his own( I haven't followed him to college to be his scribe) After he was confident with the writing process (outline ,rough draft, edit) then he worked more on his own. Truthully, writing was a struggle for him Even in middle school/some high school when we increased the depth of the writing, I some times scribed for him. Basically, I just did it less and less. Andrew Pudewa says you can't help a child too much with writing. That as the become more confident, they will be more independant. That is how it worked with my son. As he became more adept at writing he became more confident and willing to do it himself. Separating the two enabled him to be profecient and confident in each.

[Mom0012]

My son learned to type on the computer at about 11- that worked better than writing. But I did want him to be able to write on his own( I haven't followed him to college to be his scribe) After he was confident with the writing process (outline ,rough draft, edit) then he worked more on his own. Truthully, writing was a struggle for him Even in middle school/some high school when we increased the depth of the writing, I some times scribed for him. Basically, I just did it less and less. Andrew Pudewa says you can't help a child too much with writing. That as the become more confident, they will be more independant. That is how it worked with my son. As he became more adept at writing he became more confident and willing to do it himself. Separating the two enabled him to be profecient and confident in each.

 

That is very encouraging to hear. Thank you!

 

Lisa