Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Coloring/writing stamina

Thanks, everyone.


I've tried this, but my kid says he wants it to look nice.


Yes, he is a bit of a perfectionist, but only in certain areas (like coloring or writing). He hates crossing out a letter and writing. He would much rather erase the letter out. However, (and I tend to agree), erasing the letter out sort of stops the natural writing process. He also prefers to spell things correctly (he's a naturally good speller, so it has not become too much of an issue just yet)

HK, thanks. When he was in preschool, he resisted (like, openly refused to do worksheets like the math puzzle sheets with the color coding). He would, however, do the math. However, his preschool teachers forced him to color (it was a nightmare) and one day, he just started coloring in the lines. Since then, though, he has been a bit of a perfectionist when it came to coloring. He likes to color, but sort of on his terms, if it is a picture that sort of speaks to him.


This was him, till nearly 4 years and 8 months.

Now, he colors in an almost snarky, perfectionist kind of way, like the hat on the mouse would be a lighter shade of brown, while the mouse itself would be a darker shade of brown.

I talked to him more last night, and he told me he sees no point in the worksheets but does them because he does not want to get into trouble. However, he does not seem motivated enough to finish them on time. He said he thinks about other interesting things when coloring.


I will try it this weekend. I hope it works



I did request a timer, and when she provides it, he is noticeably faster. But, she does not provide it consistently. Right now, I am only worried about the loss of playtime. I am not too worried about differentiation because he reads and picks up plenty at home, on the weekends etc.

I will retry approaching the teacher. With it being so close to the end of the school year, I think she just wants to be done. But I will approach her and post up if anything changes.

I am not sure whether my kid has ADD or not. But, I do think reading a book on managing it will help and hopefully she will be more receptive.

No real advice, but atleast the year is almost over! Sounds like your child's teacher is a close relative to mine. These type of ultra structured teacher who want to make all the kids fit in the box really shouldn't teach k, in my opinion. My ds also hates to color- always has, but doesn't want to be told he is doing scribble scrabble either. It's so hard. I do agree with the above poster that if things start to look like this next year, you are going to have to intervene quickly.

My son hated coloring. He hated so much that he finished it as fast as he could just to be done with it. He is a perfectionist about some things, but coloring in the lines was not one of them. He wanted to read about interesting things like science.

The kindergarten teacher felt that coloring in the lines was so important that she wanted to hold him back a year to learn to color better since he didn't need to learn anything the next year. He could already read beyond a 5th grade level, could spell very well and could identify words that were verbally spelled out for him. He could even identify words that he had never seen before. He was also doing math above grade level including some multiplication and math with negative numbers. He could read an analog clock if there was a big enough difference in the size of the clock hands and he could count change but had to look at the nickel and quarter because size differences were a problem for him. He had undiagnosed vision issues but he was smart enough to compensate for them.

It didn't matter to the teacher that my son had a mild disability that affected endurance. His hands hurt after writing or coloring for more than five minutes. My husband and I told the teacher that we didn't care if he colored in the lines since we didn't feel it was a necessary skill. We didn't know at that time that he also had vision issues that affected fine motor skills.

We talked to the principal and a first grade teacher who told us we needed to homeschool. My son's endurance for coloring and handwriting never got much better even though he took piano lessons and did hand exercises. He is 14 now and we are still homeschooling.

Thanks, again. He did have a decent day (without coloring, but with writing). I spoke to him more -- and he told me he does not see the point of doing the booklets about "insert any topic, whether science or social studies ", because he says he can always read a book which has better pictures on it. Yet, he says he does it because he does not want to get into trouble (not realizing that he is in trouble for not finishing (therefore missing out on playtime)).


If you don't mind sharing, what was the disability ?

I had him do some worksheets today, just to strengthen his hand muscles. He did them okay, but kept placing the pencil/crayon/marker down after every couple of minutes (like it was too much to hold them till the worksheet was completed). I feel bad for him, because his written output is so out of line with verbal output (well, other than math).

Lori H's son and mine have the same disability, I believe. (our sons are very alike - except Lori's is older). It is called benign congenital hypotonia. Both of our sons have it "mildly" if you look it up on the internet our sons do not have it to the extent of it affecting walking, jumping etc. My son has it in his posture stability and hands - his muscle tone is low and his joints are hypermobile - not severely but still hypermobile enough to make writing and fine motor skills difficult and painful. You can build strength, which helps maks/accommodate the low tone but you can't "build" tone... Despite years of traditional OT is always about two years behind his peers in fine motor skills and writing.

Anyway, my son needs a scribe at school to keep up with the writing and to truly access his curriculum and show his abilities... We intend to get him on Ipads and keyboards as soon as we can. You wouldn't know anything was wrong with my son looking at him - it's 'invisible' but it is very real.

If you search back on my posts, I describe a lot of how it affects my son... you could probably learn lot and see if any of it sounds familiar for your son.

Judging by my sons improvement colouring is important to his teacher too. One of those stupid colour is the sum pictures was the only maths thing in his assessment folder this term. My so had obviously either run out of time or enthusiasm part way through. Surely once they are writing fine motor skills would be better developed by writing.

You can probably put DS5 in the "invisible but very real" disability category as well. I have a connective tissue disorder called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS). My kids have a 50% chance of inheriting it from me. DS5 seems to have it and will be seeing a geneticist in a few months. It is difficult to diagnose in kids before they are five. He's been in OT for the symptoms for over year. Writing or coloring for very long is painful, he has low tone, postural instability, hypermobility and problems with proprioception.

Reading Lori H.'s posts actually put me on the right track with what was going on.

EDS can manifest differently among family members. Since it is a collagen problem and collagen is found throughout the body, it can really look different in different people. While my son and I both have hypermobile joints and some skin issues, our secondary issues are different (at least for now) but all fall under the "things that can be wrong with you if you have EDS" umbrella.

While it is bad to have a rare genetic disorder, the good news is that if he does have it, there seems to be a supportive national foundation that has anticipated the needs of students with the disorder. Here is a nice guide they make available.

http://www.ednf.org/documents/EducatorsGuide%28r2011%29.pdf

I am taking my DS to a connective tissue specialist in June... I have been looking at a lot of the disorders and I am thinking maybe nemaline myopathy for my DS ... A relatively mild case. I am not a doctor though - just seems to fit him. Whatever it is we believe my husband has a mild case of it as well.

Son...mild hypotonia...OT helped. Hated coloring with a passion in K,1,2.

I was homeschooling and using a history curriculum that had a lot of coloring sheets and maps to color (Story of the world) and we just adapted it and he didn't color on a lot of them. Instead, he would label things and make notes on them. The maps he would label and the two of us would color them in together once he said what area to color what color (like if you were supposed to color the Upper Egypt area green he would show me the area to color and I would). Loved to cut and paste though!

One thing that is easier and can be a modification is that fat markers are easier on the hands than crayons and colored pencils. In fact, K teachers won't let kids use markers because they are a bit messier and they don't develop hand strength as well. But if a kid is having issues and you are trying to make adaptations, markers might be a starting place.