Writing Speed

[gulat]

Hi Everyone

DD2 is in Year 4 and we seem to have hit a stone wall in terms of writing. DD2 does not appear to be motivated to write and considers it extremely burdensome. This is reflected in the quality of her writing and the time taken to write. For e.g. yesterday we had 5 lines written at the end of 45 minutes of feet dragging . Her school has provided the same feedback

I am looking for advice on this forum on how best to motivate her to write. Her creativity is not a problem as when we play one line stories or other story games suggested on this site she cant stop talking, it is when the same thing has to be written down where it becomes an issue.

Any parents who have been down this path before and are willing to share what worked and didn't work and how to cultivate the love for writing.

[Sally-Anne]

No promises that this will help, but it could be worth a try - I have known it to work.

Some children (particularly dyspraxic children) can find it hard to get started with a blank sheet of paper. Instead, you could take a verbal opening from her for a story that she seems excited or motivated about, and type or write out the first paragraph for her. Then ask her to carry on from there.

Another thing is that, in these days of computers, children do less handwriting than they have ever done, so the muscles required for the task become weaker and writing becomes physically harder. Encourage drawing or colouring to strengthen the muscles.

Outright refusal to write? I'm afraid I have no answers to that one, despite many years of trying to find some ...

[Tinkers]

My niece is a bit like this.
The overwhelming issue for her it all the fun of creative writing has been drowned out by the spag requirements they are expected to also include. It seems it's not enough to have an excellent, imaginative story, with correct punctuation and spelling. It has to include x number of fronted adverbials, an example of correct semi colon and what have you.
Creative writing has become a check box exercise. It's no wonder the DCs are turned off, when how they have written something is far more important than what they written.

As a result my niece thinks she is 'no good at writing' and doesn't enjoy it. Despite actually being very bright, and despite getting through to the next round of last year's 500 word competition. The first child at her school ever to do so.

I'll PM you something.

[salsa]

Very good advice. Does your daughter experience any discomfort when writing? Could her body or hand ache? This is the case with children with joint hypermobility.
It seems that the creativity is there, so I would try dictating the story to an iPad or similar or record it so that it could be written later.

This worked with my son. Although he still struggles as his hand hurts.
Good luck.

Salsa

[PerpetualStudent]

This was a problem for DD at primary - very slow and foot-dragging when it came to handwriting. This was especially noticeable in Y4 as differences between DD and other DC became more apparent. As DD is otherwise clearly academically-inclined teachers considered her lack of output as more lack of effort. Initially we got grips for pencils and ergonomic pens to help her relax her hand and improve grip position. We found a pocket guide to handwriting technique which helped me somewhat.
Ultimately though, early in year 5 DD was diagnosed dyspraxic. This made a huge difference to her confidence and how teachers responded to her. Extra time in written exams helped show her true capability. Now she uses a laptop for writing work. She learnt to touch type using the BBC online program at first and I bought a commercial touchtype package to help her brush up.

[gulat]

Many thanks PerpetualStudent (like the name), Salsa, Tinkers and Sally Anne for the suggestion. Need to find the root cause behind the feet dragging as previously when I have had a chat with her previously and she said she finds writing very boring. It doesn't excite her as a result she always appears to be distracted or dreaming when given a writing task. At the present moment I sit with her to push her along and help her plan her writing.

@ Sally Anne I will try your suggestion to start her off and see if it helps

@ Tinkers many thanks for the PM. I can completely relate to this especially with DD1 whose stories were very creative and funny but were marked down as it did not tick the check list.

Are any of you aware of any books that will provide planning templates for the various forms of writing so that DD2 has a structure/ scaffolding around which she can write.

Thanks once again

[salsa]

I saw that the Bond 11+ How to do English had some structure for writing.