Writing for 8 year old

[moonlight]

I have an 8 year old who will be 9 in September. I am wondering what I can do for him in writing. He does some copywork and very simple journal prompts. He can write about 1-3 sentences in one sitting, but it's like pulling teeth. He will do some WWE 2 for the rest of the year just to get some more consistent writing in.

 

I strongly suspect that he has ADD.

 

First time posting in this sub-forum so not sure what other details I should add if any.

 

Thanks!

 

 

[displace]

I have an 8 year old who will be 9 in September. I am wondering what I can do for him in writing. He does some copywork and very simple journal prompts. He can write about 1-3 sentences in one sitting, but it's like pulling teeth. He will do some WWE 2 for the rest of the year just to get some more consistent writing in.

 

I strongly suspect that he has ADD.

 

First time posting in this sub-forum so not sure what other details I should add if any.

 

Thanks!

 

What is wrong with the writing: letter formation, slowness, sizing of letters, reversals of letters, difficulty remembering what he's writing, poor spelling, punctuation, context, main points, etc.  What is he doing that's like pulling teeth (complaining, slowness, mistakes, etc). 

 

What symptoms make you feel there may be ADD?

 

Any other troubles in other subjects like reading, math, memorization, etc? 

 

Writing difficulties I would think could most commonly be due to dysgraphia, dyslexia, ADD possibly, as well as lots of higher order planning, even vision difficulties.  Of course, I think writing difficulties are due to dysgraphia and dyslexia because those are what I know about. 

[moonlight]

I will try to answer the questions as best as I can.

 

Letter formation- is fine. He does not reverse his letters. His letter sizing is interesting. His lowercase 'a' will be the same size as an uppercase 'R' in a sentence sometimes depending on the paper. Other times it might be correct.

 

He is very slow. It can easily take him an hour to write 1-3 sentences because he says he is thinking about what to write. His journal can take him an hour to do even when he is writing 10 Pokemons. This is something he has asked to do and I don't want to take it away.

 

Definitely poor spelling but I am hopeful that All About Spelling will help with that which he has recently started. 

 

He forgets punctuation, but if I remind him he knows what to do.

 

We haven't really gotten to a point in writing where he is figuring out main points and context if I understand your question correctly here.

 

Not really having trouble with math or memorization. He does fairly well in math, sometimes makes careless mistakes but can usually catch them if I point out that an answer is incorrect. He used to write a couple of numbers backwards but I've noticed that he hardly ever does that now.

 

I do suspect ADD for a wide variety of reasons. I have a friend here who diagnoses a wide variety of learning disorders and she has been observing him for a while now. We haven't done a formal evaluation yet with her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



[OneStepAtATime]

You should almost certainly get an evaluation.  There could be many things causing the issues and until you have solid answers you will be shooting in the dark and not necessarily making a lot of progress.  An eval should also help you tap into any strengths (and he may have many of those, too).

 

FWIW, my DS has dysgraphia and while his letter formation can be nice at times, he struggles with sizing, spacing and sometimes legibility.  His writing is painfully slow so his thoughts way outstrip his ability to get them onto paper.  I scribe for him and work on handwriting separately.  He also is learning how to type.

 

A systematic writing program that breaks everything down even further might help but without the evaluation and knowing the underlying cause(s) it is hard to know which program might be a good fit.

 

:grouphug:  :grouphug:  :grouphug:   I know this is concerning.  While you consider what else to do, I would separate out handwriting from writing.  In other words, maybe work on handwriting a bit each day but scribe for him otherwise for output in content subjects.  

 

You might read The Mislabeled Child by Brock and Fernette Eide for a bit more info.  

 

Also, this Wikipedia article might help a bit. It is regarding dysgraphia...

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysgraphia

[PeterPan]

This would be a good time to consider evals, to make sure ADD is the only thing you're dealing with.  A trip to the developmental optometrist, just for a regular exam but asking them to *screen* for the developmental stuff, would be good.  Then to the psych to get the right words.  He's about at an age where Cogmed could be effective, so you might have some options there.  Just depends on what's going on.  Interactive Metronome has been known to bump processing speed in some kids where they were in the single digits.  If you start in the mid-30s, less likely.  

 

Are you doing any dictation?  I'd increase your dictation a LOT.  If his visual memory is good, it should help.  Not the sentences in AAS, yuck.  They're fine for what they're meant for, but use good stuff like his read alouds (Narnia, Winnie the Pooh, that kind of thing).  

 

Also you might want to start scribing for him and see what happens.  You want to see if it's how his brain is organizing (EF=Executive Function) or expressive language or what is going on.  Try making a visual keyword outline together before he begins to compose.  If he has EF issues, he's using up all his RAM (working memory) trying to organize the ideas.  If you get the structure on paper together, it's one less thing for him to remember.  Sometimes that act of pre-thinking can help them get over their initiation hump and be better able to get it out.  Cognitive therapies to work on working memory can help that.  I did metronome work with my dd and that is what finally got her over the hump.  So I would do that keyword outline on a whiteboard or big sheet of paper, then I would have him DICTATE to you.  Don't even let him write, kwim?  He can dictate into a tape recorder and then listen and type it.  Or make it super cool and use the ToonTastic app.  You'll LOVE this app!  There are others like it.  Skip the handwriting all together and just focus on the organization (the sequence of the narrative) and getting it out.  Work on writing with the dictation.  Separate them and see what happens.  If that takes care of it and he can get his thoughts out when he's not focused on the actual writing, then that shows you where the glitches are.  

[moonlight]

Thanks for giving me a lot to think about. I don't understand a lot of the words and things that are recommended so I have start doing some research...

 

I am not in the US, so getting some of the services would be difficult.

[alisoncooks]

OP - your 8yo sounds a lot like mine. Because of DD's reading struggles we've done almost no formal writing up to this point, and I've struggled to know where to start.

 

Next year, I plan on using Treasured Conversations -- the first section (grammar) looks so gentle and fun. I don't know if my DD will be ready to move on to the paragraph section after that, though, so I also have Writing Skills Book A waiting in the wings. I'm hoping these will help get her started writing...