Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Conference with teacher

DD#2 (5 yo) is in kindergarten and we had her first conference for the year today. The teacher says by DRA standards she is at a 2nd grade level in reading and improving rapidly (moved up 1/2 a grade level in about a month's time). However, she mentioned that dd's writing output (while on level for kindergarten) doesn't match the speed of her reading ability and is causing dd frustration. She also said it doesn't seem to be a problem with fine motor skills as she is great at coloring (loves to color actually). And it's not about knowing her sounds either b/c she has those down pat (including blends).

She gave some suggestions on how to work with her at home to improve her writing. Did any of your gifted children struggle like this in kindergarten and eventually catch up without intervention? The only thing dd has complained to me is about how school is boring and mornings are becoming a challenge because of this.

Our kid started kindergarten reading at about a 4th grade level, and writing like a kindergartner. He was ahead of beginning kindergarten, but not at end of kindergarten.

They moved him into a first grade classroom for language arts, and he has totally caught up to where the highest first graders are. We really didnt do much to help him at home with writing, except give him lots of opportunity to color, draw, paint, use clay, cut, etc.

DS is 6 and last year started kindergarten reading at mid second grade and finished the year at mid/end of third grade but his writing skills are slightly below average for his class. The teacher says he rushes to write down his thoughts and can't be bothered to slow down and work on neatness and spelling. So far we have not intervened in anyway.

We have used for first grade this year (I bought it on the internet) Handwriting without tears. I had my son do the first voluem and now he's on the second volume.
His handwriting went from the worst in the class to a bit above average. Probably b/c he writes more smoothly, he is writing more when they do their "Writer's Workshop."

That's what our school uses. Except instead of starting the kids on the method in K they wait until 2nd grade . Which might be why the psychologist who evaluated DS7 in 1st grade last year noted that he formed his letters oddly... DS5 is now doing quite a bit of writing/copying, and it is all a mess.

Where did you get the handbooks from?

This is very common - ability to read is different from the fine motor skills necessarily to write well (and having the stamina to write a lot). Add a lot of ideas rushing to get out of a gifted kids brain and you can see that many kids (gifted or not) may be advanced in reading and delayed (or only on grade level) in writing.

I wouldn't worry about it too much unless it was keeping a child from some form of advanced work (i.e. "no, your child can't go up a grade for LA because her writing is not at grade level"). If that was the case, you might do a bit of handwriting hothousing to bring her along (you can order handwriting without tears books online very easily). Or if you just want to support her writing (our schools don't do much in the way of penmenship) you can do the HWT or just encourage other things (as Mom of 1 suggests) that will develop fine motor skills.

I don't understand why there is still so much emphasis on handwriting in school. Who here on this board writes with pen and paper on a regular basis? Other than signing your name to a credit card receipt? They should be teaching them how to type on a keyboard at the same time they are teaching them to write. From K on.

Handwriting is not stressed anymore, but writing is. My daughter loved writing and usually scores highly. Being able to express thoughts on paper is as important as reading.

I think cursive is a waste of time, personally.
SiaSL- I googled "Handwriting without tears" and just bought it online, probably from amazon.com It was cheap. I have my first grader do a page a day. It's not difficult and his handwriting is soooo much better.
Practice, practice, practice.
I do want him to have reasonable handwriting.
SiaSL- what part of california are you from? We are in N. CA.

Quite a few of us who are parents of dysgraphic kids have found that handwriting is, in fact, stressed quite a bit in many schools. Not that it makes any sense, but just fwiw!

From my perspective, very few students develop evenly in all subjects - handwriting at grade level expectations in kindergarten isn't something I'd worry about. If your child wants to practice at home, HWOT is a good way to go, but if she'd rather do other things such as focus on reading, I'd let her do that. I do believe the reading and simply spending time wherever her natural curiousity takes her is far more valuable at this point in her education than worrying about her handwriting.

Another thought:

"However, she mentioned that dd's writing output (while on level for kindergarten) doesn't match the speed of her reading ability and is causing dd frustration."

This doesn't entirely make sense, I think what the teacher means is that her handwriting ability isn't up to speed with your dd's thought processes or the high volume of the thoughts she'd like to express. This isn't uncommon at all in the very early years of elementary, for children with any level of overall ability. Our elementary schools offered a lot of options for "writing" in K-2 grade - children didn't just write, they drew, told stories, created plays etc. If you want to help your dd develop her "written expression" have her tell you stories verbally, let her use Garage Band or something like that on the computer to record stories, or have her draw pictures to illustrate stories.

Best wishes,

polarbear