Everyday Therapy: Tips for a Struggling Writer in Early Elementary
I still celebrate every time I watch my child writing somewhere. Each time, I remember the extra effort we both put in to help them as a struggling writer. I am proud when I see a new sign on their door they wrote because not long ago they couldn’t use the crayons we were given at a restaurant. The first sign we had of their autism was a developmental delay in their fine motor skills. These are the exact skills needed to color, draw, and write.
Me: C, that’s a great drawing, what is it?
C: It’s an octopus.
Me: That’s great, let’s label it.
C: Ok how do you spell Octopus? I know it starts with an O
Me: O-C-T-O-P-U-S, (to which they dutifully wrote each letter in a mostly straight line!)
To say we celebrated was an understatement.
Preschool Therapy
For their preschool years, we took this child twice a week to Occupational Therapy sessions. They would work on stringing beads and digging in the rice to find treasures. They would shape Play-Doh and maybe if she was lucky they would create a picture to take home. Eventually, they started to draw lines, light faded lines from not pushing hard, holding the pencil tight was hard enough.
Their therapist was amazing. She worked patiently with him and earned their trust and in return, they tried the new things she asked. I was so sad when she announced she was expecting her first child and we could either take a break or be paired with another therapist. My child had made great strides and she had taught me many of the activities she was doing with him so we could keep doing them at home.
I prepared their Kindergarten materials, including the Handwriting Without Tears workbook their OT had recommended for him. And every time I met another homeschool mom, I asked for reluctant writer tips. The only problem was a few weeks into the year there were tears; tears and screaming. They could read the letters, they knew the shape of the letters, they knew the sounds of the letters, but they couldn’t write the letters. We gave up and quit doing handwriting. Sometimes I would try to trick him into picking up a pencil, but they were too smart for that trick and wouldn’t fall for it.
Our Struggling Writer unlocked
During an “after Christmas Clearance” sale I picked up a kid-size easel and chalkboard: I thought it would be a fun creative space for the kids to draw or create. It ended up being the key to unlocking writing for my child.
Their sibling, my artist, enjoyed drawing on the new chalkboard right away. while the struggling writer, copied when they drew a circle with several lines coming off of it. That’s when the magic conversation happened Slowly they wrote each letter to form the word to form Octopus. They had written a word!
We repeated the drawing on the chalkboard and labeled it for several months. We started using a Step by Step Drawing Book to give us simple drawing ideas which also helped us practice drawing shapes. At the very end of the school year, I pulled out the Handwriting Without Tears book. This time though there were no tears, only pride. They quickly worked through the book!
Sometimes our differently-wired kids remind us that the skills they need are there all along we just have to work with them to find the way to release them. They are now 7. They have slowly but surely shown me that he wants to get their ideas out but he is doing it in their own time and their methods.
This year their writing took off when we used a Star Wars writing book. He was previously bored doing a page of copywork but the Star Wars content motivated him to complete 2 pages a day without me prompting him. He is finally writing in a journal and picking up a pencil to draw their pictures.
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