Messy writting, Tying shoes

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Hi!
Just a question for all you AS Moms. Do you have trouble with your childs writting and easy things like tying theisr shoes? My Son has struggled so much with both of these...is he the only one?

Thanks!

Messy handwriting is also common with AS but I have observed that quite a few people with AS are excellant artist. My son who is just seven has had meltdowns because of being made to write alot. He now uses a portable key board to do more than half of the writing required at school Since I got him his quick pad all of his scores especially spelling have gone from C to A's. This type of key board is an example of something the school must provide for him but will not do it unless you ask. Good Luck

My son, who is now in 8th grade, also has both of those problems. His handwriting is atrocious! I make him write in cursive because at least you can read it better than the printing. He also walks around with his shoes untied. He ties them, or tries to, but for some reason they don't stay tied and when they come untied, he doesn't tie them back. I have to buy extra shoestrings when he gets new shoes! So, your not alone!

ohh my! I would have never known! My son has to do his homework over plenty of times! I hope that when the school psych finishes his eval they can provide these things... I am soo glad I finally have someone to talk to! Thanks!

Wow! My son will sometimes (alot of times) take until he gets home from school until his bedtime to get his homework done, and then some of the time it is not even completed! I'm sure the school psyche will get you headed in the right direction. That is how my son started to receive his services, was through the school. They helped me fill out all the necessary paperwork to get his services started. It will take awhile. We started towards the beginning of 7th grade, and he just started to receive his services this past August. So don't give up, there is a light at the end of the tunnel! It really helped me alot to come here. I was so amazed that there are so many others out there like my son, when I thought he was the only one.

Yes, this site is great! I actually have no problem with my son DOING his homework it is getting him to remember to turn it in! or remembering to bring it from school.

LOL........I have those problems also. He is so disorganized that he loses EVERYTHING! I had an IEP meeting with his teachers today, so we are going to work on that. If he could just keep up with his stuff he could do so much better!

Same here! he gets awsome grades and has been in gisted classes since 1st grade but he always gets a unsatisfactory in homework and he needs to use his time wisely.....poor baby! to think I made him paly tackle footbal at age 8! he must have been petrified! except one time he had a fit because he did not want to paly and ended up knocking 3 of the guys out!

Welcome. I'm not a parent, but I remember when I struggled with that kind of stuff. My handwriting always has been (and still is) a complete disaster. Many of my teachers in the past few years have made me type up my assignments to hand in because they have a difficult time reading my handwriting. (I am also left-handed, so that does not help.)

I would almost always do my homework (depending on the class...) and forget to turn it in. It got so bad that in ninth grade, I almost failed one of my classes. Then my parents sat down with my teacher (and later with all my other teachers) and decided that I needed extra help to make sure I was turning in assignments. I had a notebook that I would write the assignment down in and my parents would have to sign it. The next day in class, my teachers would have to sign it saying that if there was homework, I had turned it in and if there wasn't, that there was no homework assigned. The teacher also had to sign off that my behaviour was acceptable (the system was designed for kids with behavioural problems, but adapted slightly for me). This carried on throughout second semester of ninth grade.

I did not use this system in tenth, eleventh grade or this year (thus far) and have done well in school without it. Since all of my teachers know about my AS and the problems that it has caused, they are all well-aware of the fact I may have to be reminded once or twice to turn homework in. Even though I'm far from achieving straight-As, my schoolwork has improved quite a bit and I am now passing and doing well in honours and other advanced courses. I also turn in assignments on time now.

Encourage your son to communicate with both you and his teachers about what assignments need to be completed and when. I have only one question, how old is your son? If he has one teacher (probably elementary school), try talking to the teacher about this. If he rotates classes and has several different teachers (middle or high school), this might be a little more difficult. But whatever the situation, hang in there. We aspies sometimes need a little extra help and are grateful to our parents for helping us, even if we don't show it.

He's not the only one who's had writing and shoe tying problems.

For me, I didn't wear shoes with laces until I was in fourth grade, and my handwriting always has, and always will be atrocious.

When I was learning cursive (this back in the later part 80's) no one knew about aspergers or any thing similar to that, I would often get yelled by my teacher and my parents about my handwriting. Especially my dad, he would yell himself hoarse at me, claiming I was ruining my life that no one would want to employee me becasue they couldn't read my handwriting.

I am so happy on this board! I get advice from parents and young people with this diagnosis! this is soo awsome! MY son is 10 y/o and this is his 1st year in middle school. He has had a trying 1st weeks. Vladi still has no real DX the school & regional center are still working on this. However the school psych has said most likely aspergers. The regional center is still working on it. When Vladi began school this year I spoke with his teacher and advise her about the AS. Unfortunately she does not know much about it and i feel the psych does not either because when I asked him about his gait he said he had never heard of AS affecting the gait soo.. I am doing research to enlighten them. I have a question for Namiko & Scoots. When did you ride a bike? or climb a gym? Vladi can't do any of those.

I used to start my homework before dinner and sometimes have to stay up after bed-time to finish it. Part of the problem was undiagnosed ADHD (innattentive sub-type wasn't known back in the 70's so everyone just thought I was lazy) and part of it was dysgraphia, and my hand was constantly getting muscle cramps from holding the pencil too tight and writing with my fingers down at the very bottom of the pencil. I eventually developed a very large callous on my third finger from squeezing the pencil so hard. The other problem I had was that I could never figure out if there was enough room on the line for the word I was about to write and would often end up writing smaller and smaller and go past the end of the line into the margins. Sometimes the teacher would make me re-write the homework, but that usually didn't help. I switched from writing back to printing by grade 7 or 8 and that improved legibility a bit but at the expense of increased transposition errors, particularly among "q", "d", "b", "p", "a" and "o". I was a winner when it came to spelling bees, but my hand simply wouldn't write down what my head was telling it and I spent a lot of my life scratching out, erasing, or attempting to insert words on the page. I'm 40 years old now, and still manage to omit or duplicate a word in just about every other sentence I type (I rarely write anything by hand now).

From grades 5 through 9 my teachers used to write my homework down in a notebook that I had to take home and have my mother sign every night so that she could make sure I did all of it and remembered to take it with me in the morning.

Forgot to mention the shoes.... I never really had a problem with getting them tied. The problem was getting them UNtied. I "invented" knots the Boy Scouts have never thought of. Now that I'm an adult the problem is more like OCD -- I always tie my sneakers the same way (right one first 100% of the time) but often when I'm finished it "doesn't feel right" (mentally, not physically) and so I untie them and do it over again and again even thought there's absolutely nothing wrong with the way they were tied. I'm also completely obsessed with keeping the laces flat and will untie the shoes again if I see one of the laces twisted as it passes from one eyelet to the next. I can't help it.

When I was in school my teachers always told me what bad handwriting I had (I still write in print rather than cursive because my cursive is completely illegible and my print is pretty close) and I didn't learn to tie my own shoes until the 6th grade - and I don't do it the same as anyone else . . .

relatedly, I think, I didn't learn to ride a bike until the sixth grade and only then after meeting up with the pavement many times . . .

D, at age 12, still can't ride a bike. Well, he probably could at this point but he couldn't for years and finally just decided it wasn't important.

As for his shoes, http://www.furthers.com/notie.htm


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