Writing-please give me some advice.

[Catherine]

My 10 yo son just wrote two thank you cards and after I saw them, I had a big episode of second-guessing. My confidence took a hit. He wrote one line, no capital letter, the words run together, no greeting, no closing, barely legible print (we've been doing HWT cursive for two years now!).

 

Some background: he just turned 10 and will start fifth grade this fall. He's the youngest of three and my only chlld who's never been in school. He's been tested and the result were that he is ("profoundly") dysgraphic. The neuropsychologist also said he has ADD. I've used WWE with him, and we are trying to finish up WWE 2 this summer so that we can move on to WWE3 in the fall. He doesn't do much writing outside of WWE, AAS dictations, and very short history or science compositions.

 

Maybe I'm catastrophizing. I've often considered having him repeat a grade. He's very bright, IQ wise, but his performance in all subjects is barely grade-level, or below. I've wondered if I need to push him harder to do more writing. He in no way comes close to what TWTM has kids his age writing. If I tried to get him to write a two paragraph composition in one sitting, we'd have tears, no question.

 

Any thoughts? Any stories of encouragement? Help!!

[specialmama]

How does he write otherwise? Perhaps it was just something that mom made him write; perhaps he didn't want to write those cards so rushed through just to finish them. :confused: If you told him to write 5 sentences on something of his choosing, how does he do then?

[Catherine]

He never, ever, ever, writes anything that isn't assigned. I take that back. He wrote a sentence to his friend about Minecraft recently that I saw and it was worse than the thank you note sentence. So unless I handheld him, prompted ahead of time, reminded as he was writing, it would be like the thank yous, I suspect.

[nansk]

:grouphug:

I have no experience, but if he is dysgraphic, I would not stress too much over his handwriting. Does he give the right oral answers in other subjects? Does he show good comprehension of books that you read? I would consider teaching him to type (even thank-you notes) and just writing his own name as well as he can. Please don't lose hope.

[Catherine]

His comprehension is OK, though I've never tested him. How can I obtain testing materials, does anyone know? I've wanted to test him before but I'm not sure how to go about doing it.

[laughing lioness]

have you considered R & S? It is very simple, the lessons are clear and concise, it is set up with minimal distraction. I'd start him with grade 3, which reiterates capitalization, end marks, etc. I love WWE and we are using that, too, but I think R & S does a great job of clearly defining the rules and going over them over and over again in a very concrete way.

[Farrar]

Back when I was teaching, when there were students who were dysgraphic, it was always recommended that they type. I may not be understanding the ins and outs of it all, but I would think at age 10, especially if there are other issues in play, handwriting would just not be a top priority.

[Catherine]

Oh, handwriting is not THE issue. It's the mechanics of writing. For a kid this age to not be capable of independently writing a sentence that is capitalized, has spaces between the words, or a note that has a greeting or closing-it's very discouraging.

[Kuovonne]

Does he do copywork? That lets a kid focus on the mechanics of capitalization, punctuation, spacing, etc. without worrying about content.

[Catherine]

We've done copywork since first grade, several times per week.

[almondbutterandjelly]

Teach him to type. There's a free typing program on the internet called Dance Mat Typing. And always check his (typed) work and make him make corrections. If he doesn't know what the correction should be, show him.

 

As far as capitalization and spacing... my dd had problems with this too. I had to point it out and make her correct it. We used WWE workbooks for Levels 1 and 2. For spacing, I had her use her finger as a measure of enough space between words. You really have to teach things to some kids that seem obvious to you (like when you say Copy, you mean Caps and spacing and punctuation and everything exactly the same). It's not obvious to them.

 

I'm firmly in the CM camp that requires no original writing from kids this age. Even for thank you notes, I wrote them out and dd copied them. (We may have discussed what to say, but I then wrote it out for dd to copy.)

[justamouse]

I would sit right next to him. Write out a simple sentence with no caps, no punct and ask him to correct it for you (about something he loves). Ask him leading questions. What does the beginning of a sentence start with? What kind of sentence is this, how will it end?

 

As he starts, immediately correct him if he starts writing the first letter in the lower case.

 

How do we space our words? Can you put your pinky between those words? OK, write the next one.

 

Now how do we end this sentence?

 

Don't let it last more than 15 minutes and only do one a day, but do them every day.

 

:grouphug::grouphug:

[Catherine]

In my original post, I was asking about whether a child of ten, about to start logic stage, should still need SO much guidance to write a sentence correctly, especially since I've taught diligently him using TWTM methods since K. The answer I seem to be getting is, yes, I should not have the expectation that he write a sentence correctly, unprompted and unassisted.

 

Frankly, that really frustrates me. Progress with this child seems glacially slow at times.

[wapiti]

I think you are right to expect more writing out of him than just the WWE 2, for his age. I'd probably double up on narrations, both to add more writing and get further faster. Have you looked at the WWS sample, and thought about when he might be capable of starting that? Maybe for 6th? I also might look at something like Remedia workbooks (dd10 liked the outlining one).

 

And I definitely agree about the typing!

[peacefully]

.

[Catherine]

I'm sorry to burden you with this, but can you point me to some threads on the SNs board that discuss curricula for these children? I read it occasionally but I don't recall anything. Thank you!!

[peacefully]

.

[Catherine]

I read it : ) Thanks.