Is this something to worry about, writing-wise?

[forty-two]

I have a thread on the K-8 board, and a poster suggested I post it here; I'm not sure if there's an issue or not. We have not done a lot of work on handwriting, and I knew that dd7.5 was a bit behind because of it. But now I am wondering if there are more issues than just not enough practice.

 

Today in Sunday school they were supposed to write down the Ten Commandments from memory. Dd7.5 was the only one who didn't finish - she had done two and a half (and the second one was incorrect - she left out all the little words and had a few words out of order); I'm fairly certain it was the writing and not the memory - she reported it that way, too, that everyone else could write faster and neater than she could. And that was more writing in one place (and neater, too) than I generally see her do - she starts out with boundless enthusiasm for her own projects and generally runs out of steam after the first line.

 

She taught herself how to write the alphabet when she was 4, and her writing is not much better now than then. At Christmas I decided to focus on writing, and did a refresher on the alphabet (which did improve her neatness some, but maybe only in comparison to herself). Then I went to move into short sentences for copy work, but she balked at writing sentences - wanted to do just words. I started spelling to hit both handwriting and spelling, but in the process discovered that her phonemic awareness issues are bad enough that, even though she reads at a 4th or 5th grade level, she failed the Barton pre-screening test, so I bought LiPS and am reading through it to learn how to teach it.

 

So in the meantime, I dropped spelling but wanted to continue with handwriting. So I restarted copy work. She's not a fan, and spends more time doing anything but copying, and her stamina is about five words. It's hard to judge how long it takes, what with all the playing, but I think it's at least one minute per word when actually writing (maybe faster for a three letter word). Again, she usually stops between letters, so it's hard to tell. (It was the same when we were doing spelling, even with me right there redirecting her back as soon as she got distracted.)

 

She's my oldest, and I have no experience with how handwriting ought to be. It's not surprising she's slower than her peers, because we don't do nearly the volume of writing the ps does, but should she be *this* slow? And is there any sort of practice that will be more helpful than others in getting her up to speed?

 

Eta: I've wondered a bit about stealth dyslexia, as she has some signs of it.

[PeterPan]

Well I can tell you what I was told by a ps teacher when my dd was that age.  Apparently the kids, I thought 1st grade but maybe they were 2nd?, were expected to fill a page written.  Wow, my memory is bad, as I can't remember which grade it was!  Either way, you'd do well to get started on some evals and get your answers.  When you have a dc reading that well but failing even the Barton pre-test, struggling with writing, you could have a number of things going on.  Definitely a psych eval, maybe also an OT eval.  You might get a vision eval while you're at it.  COVD is where you find a developmental optometrist.  

[OneStepAtATime]

I agree with OhE, you might want to seek evaluations.  She is at a good age for the results to be valid and helpful and to start her with whatever remediation may be needed.  As she gets older, it may be harder, both emotionally (kids get more resistant at times to remediation in later years) and because she may be developing ineffective coping skills that may need to be unlearned.  The longer she uses those coping or avoidance skills the harder it will be to unlearn them (BTDT).

 

1.  Get an evaluation through a neuropsychologist.  They need to give a full, in depth eval, a full in-depth explanation of the results and support AFTER the results have been turned over to you so if you have questions you can get them answered.  If a neuropsychologist is not available or too expensive, you might try to find a CALT specialist that is trained to do full evaluations (not cursory screenings).  They can sometimes be cheaper and may net you a lot of great info, even if they may not do everything an NP would.  We used a CALT and it was awesome (well, the second CALT was awesome...).

2. Possibly an evaluation through an OT (occupational therapist).  

3. And a screening through a developmental optometrist would probably be a really good idea.  Don't use a normal eye doctor.  They usually are not trained to look for developmental issues.  My son has 20/15+ vision.  In other words, great eye sight.  He has passed every single eye exam since he was a toddler.  But after the lovely people on this board kept mentioning Developmental Optometrists, because DS10 still was struggling with copy work, reading across paragraphs (out loud) and staying on track, etc. I went ahead and took him in just a few weeks ago for a developmental screening.  He has heterophoria.  His left eye tracks upward slightly, just out of alignment, and it has been part of the cause of his issues.  And not one eye doctor caught it before this year.  We are now doing Vision Therapy.

 

Evaluations, when done right, are immensely helpful.  They can help you find not only any issues that need to be addressed but also hidden strengths.   Strengths that can be tapped now to help overcome hurdles and give your child some positive areas to focus on but also in the future for potential career paths.

 

Best wishes.

[geodob]

From what you wrote, I wonder if she hasn't developed 'automaticity' with writing?

Where forming each letter becomes an automatic movement.  A fluid movement.

So she might be drawing each letter, rather than writing them?

 

This automatic movement involves.

First identifying the starting point to form each letter.

Then the direction of movement from that starting point.

 

So that one automatically goes to starting point for each letter, and then the automatic movement to write it.

Perhaps you could observe how she goes about forming each letter, and if she has to think of where to start each letter?  Then the direction of the movement from that point?

 

Also you wrote that she 'taught herself how to write the alphabet when she was 4,'.

But at 4 and teaching herself?  She was no doubt 'drawing' the letters ?

Though in teaching herself, she might have not have developed a different way to automatically form each letter?

 

Maybe you could do a comparison? 

Where you go through the alphabet, and print each letter yourself, and observe how you print it?  (without her observing you do it)

Then ask her to print the letter, and compare her way of printing it, to yours?

Particularly noting the starting point, and then the direction of movement?