Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Helping the reluctant writer

I could use some advice from those of you who have been here, done that about my DS9. We just received scores back from Explore and they were very strong. What was interesting was that while we have always pegged him as a mathy/science kid, he did equally well on the reading/English portions of Explore.

Yet. . . while he reads at a very high grade level (he is currently reading 1776) his writing is horrible. Not just his handwriting, but his writing. He writes as little as possible, makes no effort, etc. I honestly thought he had a hard time with reading comprehension as well, but his Explore scores suggest that is not a concern.

He did OT for a year to help with dysgraphia. It did help, and his actual handwriting has improved (if he makes an effort) and he is learning cursive and that is a big improvement for him as well. We let him keyboard his reports, etc. which also helps. But we just can't seem to get him to write even the minimum, and even that often brings tears of anger and frustration. He loves to learn, but doesn't seem to care if he can communicate his ideas (and I know he has a lot of them to share).

He complains a lot about the projects in school, and they are admittedly pretty boring. We thought perhaps we could find him an online writing class or writing workshop that would help him, if not become passionate, at least become engaged in writing. A couple hours of writing over the summer, when he has more time to sit and be creative, research in his own areas, etc. might at least help him along.

If you know of courses, programs, teachers, etc. Or just have words of wisdom to share, I would love to hear from you.

Thanks, Cat

With dysgraphia , even with the OT, it is likely that the act of physically having to coordinate written output with composition is part of the problem. Does he like making up stories, or telling you about things that he has learned or is interested in? If so, maybe you could act as scribe or secretary and type up things of his own choosing that he narrates to you, or have him narrate them into a recorder and then have him type or write it up going from the recording. Breaking out composition from the physical act of writing worked well for my seriously dysgraphic son, and as he got older, he was more and more capable of putting them back together (on the computer - he still can't compose for beans or write legibly when he has to write by hand). It made a huge difference.

At 14, writing is one of his favorite subjects, and he has a gaming and fantasy/SF blog which has numerous adult followers, most of whom aren't relatives.

It is something to think about.

The tester we used for DS7 recently recommended a voice recognition package called Dragon Naturally Speaking. We haven't used it, but I think I saw it mentioned on this board before. I wonder if something like that might help some?

I think is the video. Michael Clay Thompson has a English cirriculum. I'm not saying you should get that program. I am posting a link to his sales pitch because he makes a very good point that gifted children should be taught formal writing because otherwise they're stuck trying to communicate big ideas with baby words, how disheartening after a certain age. This struck a chord with me because I have drastically relocated several times in my life and have learned a new pattern of speech, say from the north to the south, and it's hard to express yourself if you only have words for 35% of what you're thinking and of what you're thinking. People who can't draw complain that their hands can't do what their mind imagined. Back to the language. When I moved one time as a kid they complained I sounded too much like an encyclopedia, when I moved another place they marveled at the southern speech. Those were relatively easy adjustments to make. Now I'm on the border or Mexico where everybody was raised bilingual. There's more Spanish radio than rock or country, etc. I never join in the Spanish conversations in a group. I use Spanish if I have to because conversational Spanish is nothing like book Spanish. My neighbor heard me using Spanish talking to an old man and she told me I sounded like I was talking to a toddler. Well, it's the best I can do. I can say what I need to say, but I can't say everything I think about.

"th importance of formal writing lessons for gt kids."
Excuse me, "Grammer is cool"


Actually I am just getting over my analysis paralysis and using Spanglish how everybody else does anyway. I'm saying whatever I want in English and just casually throwing in a Spanish phrase here or there like it naturally goes there. You would not believe my reluctance unless you realized at 30 yrs old I'm forced to sound like a toddler if I want to talk. I think I'm finally on the positive side of this particular Dabrowski re-orginization. I even answered the hubby's phone the other day saying "Bueno." instead of "Hello." the other day, making his friend think he dialed the wrong number. Lolol.ha-ha

Anyway that's how it feels when people notice how you say it and ignore what you are saying.

Thank you for your ideas. I feel like there may be two ways to go. First, DS and I are very close, but he really doesn't like me teaching him - it is really hard for him to take much criticism from anyone he cares deeply about.

I did however find a class locally with a woman who is all about making kids love writing, and she also has a class just for boys, based on suggestions from here: http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/download/nwp_file/10976/mshaughnessy_ednews.pdf?x-r=pcfile_d

So that would be one direction.

The other direction would be to have him take a writing class over the summer via NUMATS that was created (and maybe is taught by) Michael Clay Thompson, the person La Texican references above. Making writing purely academic might not be a bad thing at all. But the classes are not inexpensive.

I'm leaning toward trying the local writing class first, and seeing what enthusiasm we can create.

I appreciated hearing that others don't think the school does it well. My DS's school has a brand new writing curriculum, and it is better than before, but it still has left him unengaged and unhappy.

Same boat over here, writing is an issue.
My DS8 doesn't do any writing in school so that doesn't help any. Soon I will have to find a solution ether a tutor or a writing class. The writing is our biggest challenge right now.
Good luck to you and you are not alone.