Should I wait to do composition writing?

[JRmommy]

My young 2nd grader turns 8 years old this summer - a week before starting 3rd grade. This year he has done FLL2 and we are about to start FLL 3 in 2 weeks. He is a voracious reader and reads a few grade levels ahead. He is an excellent story teller. We tried AAS but he is a natural speller and it was just too slow for us (even though I am considering just using the teacher's manual to teach him the rules and fill any gaps). His manuscript handwriting is excellent. He is very meticulous about his handwriting, but he writes painfully slow and complains if he has to write more than a sentence or two. He complains that his hand hurts which could be the case because his grip is tight and he presses down pretty hard on the paper.

 

We school year round and he gets promoted the week after his birthday. Given his background, do you think he is ready to pursue composition? Or will his lack of stamina for handwriting itself be detrimental. I also started him on typing this month. I've been looking at Bravewriter and CAP.

 

Should I wait until the 2nd semester of his 3rd grade year or even 4th grade to pursue composition?

 

If we don't do composition now, what else could I add to Language Arts for him? I've looked at WWE over and over again, but it just doesn't seem like our cup of tea.

 

I'd love some advice from the hive!

[Guest]

I have one with a death grip, too. An OT suggested mechanical pencils in .7 lead first then to .5 lead. You will go through a lot of the refills but it will help him to lighten up. Another suggestion was having him write on a mouse pad. He cannot press as hard. Lastly, having him write at an angle, like that of a 11/2 or 2 in binder slant height. Another thing was to have him paint or write/draw vertically like on an esal or wall mounted dry erase/chalkboard to biuild muscles. Of course, lots of coloring or PalyDoh, etc. is good for that, too.

 

As far as composition, even if WWE isn't your cup of tea {it isn't ours, either} having him do copywork IS a great way to build stamina and learn good writing. We like to just pull from poetry or our reading books. Have him start to copy a sentence or two of his narrations in other subjects, too. That is composition.

 

HTH!

[kiwik]

And if it really does seem unreasonably painful get it checked out further.

[PeterPan]

I'm with the others.  I'd get his eyes checked with a developmental optometrist and consider an OT eval.  The eyes can sometimes be the cause, and yes it can happen with excellent readers.  You find the developmental optometrist through COVD.  Take your time and find a good one.  You can start with the regular appt (same price as any other doctor) but tell the what's going on and ask them to screen for the developmental vision stuff.  Then they can tell you if he needs the full dev. eval.  

 

We did both the eye doc and the OT.  The hand pain, I can tell you, doesn't go away.  If it were going to go away, it would have gone away by now.  Our OT was able to improve her hand pain DRAMATICALLY in less than 3 months AND identify the reasons WHY she was having the pain, meaning we could keep it away.  

 

An OT usually takes 1-3 months to get into, where the dev. optom. can get you in within a couple weeks.  An eye check is good for everybody, and a regular optometrist won't do, not for this.