Handedness: I need some advice please

[mystery]

I am picturing your son in his high chair, fingers typing away words faster than speech. It reminds me of my daughters' favourite picture book "baby brains".

As a quick fix he might like a trip to a fantastically well stocked pen shop to buy something with the help of a knowledgeable assistant.

Just to add to the expense for you he could purchase the left and right handed version and perfect writing with both simultaneously to double his speed.

[Tinkers]

My party trick is to write with both hands at the same time...Backwards.

On a really good day I can write two different words at the same time. Now that really freaks people out.
Maybe an incentive for your DS to learn to use both hands.

[pheasantchick]

[DC17C]

- he has always been able to spell, and he read very easily, talked very young indeed, that kind of thing. I have had a look at the dyspraxia questionnaire you suggested DC17C and while there are a few tick boxes, I don't know for sure whether they form a coherent picture of anything much. I will do it again and maybe PM you if that is OK.

Hi Amber no problem if you want to PM - my DS is much the same with reading and spelling, was talking early and is very articulate - his teacher is always telling me how much he has to contribute in class if they are having a discussion about something. School have been much the same with him - " well he is doing so well elsewhere do we need to worry if his writing is a mess? " but then they tell him he needs to be less concise in his writing and neaten up with his maths

[mystery]

I don't think that without a good paediatric OT and the kind of tests that they run that you could work out for yourself whether there was anything underlining in terms of core strength, fine motor skills, gross motors skills etc. The things my OT have spotted in my DD2 would, according to the OT, be very difficult for school to spot.

[scary mum]

- he has always been able to spell, and he read very easily, talked very young indeed, that kind of thing. I have had a look at the dyspraxia questionnaire you suggested DC17C and while there are a few tick boxes, I don't know for sure whether they form a coherent picture of anything much. I will do it again and maybe PM you if that is OK.

Hi Amber no problem if you want to PM - my DS is much the same with reading and spelling, was talking early and is very articulate - his teacher is always telling me how much he has to contribute in class if they are having a discussion about something. School have been much the same with him - " well he is doing so well elsewhere do we need to worry if his writing is a mess? " but then they tell him he needs to be less concise in his writing and neaten up with his maths

I think there must be a lot of it about, you could be talking about one of my sons, but suddenly I'm being told that he might be marked down in his GCSEs if they can't read what he has written!

[mystery]

Yes, of course if it's not legible you have to do something. Yes, everyone uses computers most of the time once they leave school / university. But really not being able to write legibly after 12 years of schooling is something else. GCSE markers will do their very best to decipher scripts, and re-marks can be requested if you suspected they lost marks through an examiner not reading it all "properly", but it's preferable not to enter that territory.

These children's writing can't be that bad though otherwise they couldn't have got successfully through school thus far. They are just being sloppy if it is now truly illegible to an external examiner but up until now it has been OK.

I presume school is giving this message because they are hoping you might have some influence?

[Amber]

These children's writing can't be that bad though otherwise they couldn't have got successfully through school thus far. They are just being sloppy if it is now truly illegible to an external examiner but up until now it has been OK.

Well I would say my son's writing is very bad; and I don't think he is being 'sloppy' - he genuinely finds it very hard to write neatly. I have been looking through old photos this morning as I am making a book for him, and in most he is using his left hand to do stuff like eat, do jigsaws and point. If I had thought he was just a lazy little monkey I wouldn't have started this thread!

I presume school is giving this message because they are hoping you might have some influence?

School is not really giving me any 'message' other than that his effort could be better (sure it could anyway, he is 12!) and I can see for myself that his work looks a total mess, as if it were written by a much younger child; and there isn't enough of it either - he can't write quickly.

Mystery, how did you find your paediatric OT? I presume this is a private referral?

[wonderwoman]

Older brother at school suggests that children who use laptops are mercilessly teased, so I will need to tackle that one if we go down that path.

My DS - y12 who does use a laptop says exactly the same, so must be common in schools. He does still use it sometimes, but is quite resistant and also doesn't like having to sit with the group having 25% extra time.

I have found the handwriting scheme - Speed up! A kinaesthetic programme to develop fluent handwriting by Lois Addy.

It did help a bit, but DS is dyspraxic and I haven't tried it with disabled DD, but now I've found it I might. I suspect it will be more useful with primary age and what I liked was, it wasn't just more handwriting practice which is quite depressing. DS did one scheme after another and his neatness has decreased as he has progressed through secondary as the pressure to write faster has increased. It is definitely worse now than when he was a Y6.
I have come to the point of realising it is how he writes, most of it is legible and he has managed to pass his exams. He may have done better with neater, faster writing, but he has done 'well enough' to move on to the next stage in his education and I hope he will do 'well enough' to get into a university.

[mystery]

I googled and googled. Also there's a search facility on the College of Occupational Therapists. I found an OT who had recently set up on her own after doing a good deal of work with schools locally in an NHS job. I found another one who sounded even better as she had various handwriting programmes up her sleeve and a wealth of OT experience with a very wide range of schools including children in independent schools purely with writing difficulties and nothing else. Trouble was, she wouldn't take on the job as school wouldn't even let her in to observe my daughter for 5 mins in the classroom, or do any of her assessment on the premises. She even phoned them up and spoke directly to the head and explained why it was important, and the head said no.

I do have some answers now as to how to help my child improve .... but carrying out the work necessary with her to improve things is a different matter. And making sure that she sits and writes the "right" way at school is impossible. As the majority of her writing is at school the "impasse" is very frustrating.

Think you misunderstood me on the "laziness" Amber- I was just saying that the other poster who was being told that it could be problem at GCSE couldn't really have a child that had legible handwriting in the past and was now completely illegible ... well OK that is possible, but the child is clearly capable of legible handwriting (not the same as neat). And it can't have been illegible to date otherwise they couldn't have got the grades they have done so far.