The best typing game I've seen on the web:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/My ds hated to write too, perfectionism, maybe. Sorry to hear your ds is struggling/struggled with this illness that seems to have pushed him away from area where he might really excel.
Very big welcome, and hugs!!
One thing that was sort of a breakthrough for ds was a weekly writing 'prompt' that the teacher would send home. It had a subject and a question to sort of get the ball rolling at least. A huge blank page can be a bit much for anyone!
Then on the
other end of the spectrum ds started attaching too much significance to the prompt and it was sort of stiffling his creative juices. I explained to him that he could just write about whatever the prompt brought to mind, he didn't have to necessarily write 'what he thought the teacher wanted'. Really, at the point we were at, I would rather he write something fun and interesting and get an F instead of write the minimum number of sentences with no joy at all.
He finally hit a happy medium; he is still a minimalist but will have a beginning-middle-end thing going most assignments. (Unfortunately this year it is harder for me to tell since most writing is done at school. )
Also, about failing 1st - you might want to check with the teach if you are just assuming that is the case. You might be surprised by what passes as passing...maybe it'll just take a summer school class to make things up, especially considering he's been verifiably sick, poor guy
I think in this case it is a good thing that schools usually recognize that a child's self esteem sometimes trumps 'showing mastery' of a subject before moving on. Hopefully you will find some flexibility that will work for your ds. You are probably already meeting with the school, but if not, you might want to get that ball rolling.
