Slow writer - need advice

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Hello All

Just to put it briefly. My son nearly six now, is a very slow writer. He will write 1 letter than have to be prompted to carry on. Please can anyone advise me on how I can get him to improve his speed and flow of writing?

Also if anyone has seen improvement with practice?

Thanks for any comments.

I am a HFA I am also a Slow Writer I did have a hard time school until I was able to get a hold of a Laptop and was able to use that in School because I can Type faster then I write but I also used a class in school I used a typing tutor. Also for sometime I was able to Email my English teachers my Homework

It is a pretty common problem with AS kids and there can be any of multiple reasons behind it. Pay attention to get a feel which issues might apply:

1. Perfectionism (disconnect between physical ability and what he thinks it should look like)
2. Difficulty with multi-tasking (writing IS a multi-task process, as my son's teachers explained to us)
3. Physical issues that make writing uncomfortable and possibly painful (hypotonia and hypermobility)
4. Processing issues (disgraphia, etc)
5. ADD (difficulty staying on task)

Or ... its just a minor developmental question, and nothing of concern at all.

My son had 2, 3 and 4 but not the first. From your description I would guess the second plays in there with your son, but hopefully not 3 or 4. Still, you will want to keep an eye open.

The main prescription in most of the situations will be to allow your son to practice components separately, without having to keep putting them together all at once. That is a rather simplified sentence to describe what was, for our son, a seven year process (he had sever physical issues as well, remember, so hopefully your road is a lot shorter), but that is pretty much the core of it.

Without writing a book on it, at least until you are more comfortable with which possible causes apply, the main thing is to not push too hard, and not make step B reliant on step A. Let him practice writing the letter A over and over if that is what he prefers. Write out longer words in light pencil for him first, and then let him trace over in pen or highlighter. And so on.

This isn't something to rush.

Make his teacher aware that writing seems unusually difficult for your son, and ask if he/she has suggestions. Do NOT allow anyone at the school to label him as "lazy" or to tell him he isn't trying hard enough: neither of those are usually the case. Hopefully, you've got a school aware enough of AS issues to know how to break down the components, and that will eventually offer scribing as an accommodation if issues persist long enough.

If it turns out your son does have physical or processing issues as well, it will get more complicated, and the road gets a lot longer, but in a world with keyboards everywhere, there is no reason your child can't get comfortable putting his thoughts onto paper despite the issues. My son is a freshman in high school and carries a netbook to school. He has great typing skills and started writing for pleasure again about a year ago (when he was 4 he would use "kid writing" to create whole books and even read them back to us; once he realized it wasn't "real" writing, and discovered how hard real writing was, he stopped that, which was sad to see).

The big thing here is to not lose the war over the battle. You want your son happy communicating his thoughts onto paper, not so frustrated with the process that he stops being willing to. If that means he traces longer than most kids, fine. If that means learning to compose and spell while someone else takes on the physical task of putting it onto paper, so be it. One component, one step, at a time.

Lol I still wrote over a long post over what might be a simple minor developmental issue. But many people who read these boards see these issues, so may as well have the broader information out there. Writing became such a huge issue in my son's life, it is hard for me to hold back on the topic.

Writing is one of our challenges too. There could be several things contributing to it as DW suggested.

My tactic was to encourage fun activities that encourage/support writing. My daughter is older and I missed out on some of the newer gadgets for kids your son's age. I have heard other parents rave about the Leapfrog Scribble and Write.

A pad of tracing paper can encourage him to trace his favorite characters or pictures to help build hand strength and coordination.

Even letters can use additional visual stimulus to be integrated. Word World is just in your son's range - maybe a little young but my daughter is about three years behind maturity wise - at six she would have loved this show. All the words are drawn in the shape of what they are - you'll see on the link! If he's excited about it you could encourage him to do the same - draw out the words instead of focusing on static letters.

Make sure it isn't dyslexia at work here. See if drawing with wide, fat, colored markers on light colored construction paper helps any. If he is having trouble with black on white text, he'll naturally want to avoid the task.

Dragon voice recognition software translates spoken words into text. We are looking into this for my daughter for use at home and school. We still encourage her to write but for the sake of accomplishing work at the rate of her peers, this may be the way to go.

We are dealing with physical and processing issues. She is smart as a whip. She can articulate herself very well. Her problems are in thinking and writing at the same time and with hand fatigue. After three years in therapy it is becoming clear that, for her, it may always be an issue. Thankfully we live in the age we do. As long as she has access to a computer, iPad, etc... and has the option to use assistive technology - which is really stepping up in this area - these challenges will be less challenging than they would have been just 10 years ago.

I think your greatest ally here would be to figure out WHY he's having trouble so you can target his learning correctly. Sometimes it just is hit or miss until you find what works.