My DD8 in 4th grade (skipped 2nd) is starting to struggle with getting information down on paper. 4th grade is a big year for writing in Florida and she has never much liked writing, so this is starting to become a real problem, and I'm looking for any and all advice.
I think I see a couple of issues. Firstly, she is the youngest student in the class and is struggling with the sheer volume of writing. She has an odd pencil grip (similar to mine in fact) and despite learning cursive last year in 3rd grade she is not comfortable with it, so handwriting is on the slow side. We also have the ever constant perfectionism, so she considers sloppy handwriting unacceptable and I'm not sure I want her to follow in my illegible tracks anyway.
But those are relatively minor technical issues - I think the biggie is that she just can't figure out how to get the stuff in her head down on paper the way she wants it (that rotten perfectionism, again). On the last math test, one of the questions was an "Explain . . " type question. She simply wrote "No!" for her answer. When we discussed the math problem it prompted a meltdown about how she doesn't know how to explain the math - I think she's making it too hard. She does claim to understand that the purpose of those questions is to show general understanding, not necessarily the underlying math theory, she just can't figure out how to explain it; she can't even explain it to me verbally. On the regular writing assignments she spends much of her time thinking rather than writing and is headed toward flat out avoidance.
The big writing test they are practicing for is a 45-minute window based on a prompt - the most recent practice was "My favorite possession" with a goal of basically filling a single sheet of notebook paper front and back. This is not an exercise that allows for much drafting and editing; it's more like a quasi-organized brain dump. And its something incorporated into almost every facet of class work, so I expect the pressure to continue to ratchet up.
I've seen several people mention bottlenecks with high GAI and lower processing speed and/or working memory. My DD is very even across the board between VCI, PRI and PSI in the high 130's, with a slightly lower WM at 120. Our bottleneck is the translation onto paper. Some of this is simple asynchrony, some of it is resistance from DD, and some of it is that her brain just works so much faster than she can output, but it's a necessary component of this school year.
We are trying to crank up some journaling, with no review by parents or teachers, just so she is practicing putting words on paper. Postivite reinforcement for the effort with an expectation of one page (about a half-size notebook page) each day. I know that practice doing it is one of the best ways to build the habit, but any other tricks of the trade would be most welcome.
