I have a 9 year old student who is gradually making progress, especially in his oral English. His reading and writing are improving slowly but he is just incredibly SLOW at writing...I don �t mean the grammar, etc, JUST writing as moving his pencil on paper...

His speed of writing is at the level of maybe a 7 year old. And although we use computers a lot, he still has to learn to write faster to be able to catch up with the work in class. His class teacher mentioned he is much slower than his classmates...

I tried to use a timer and a stopwatch to increase his motivation which helped a bit, but he gets so nervous he almost passes out if he doesn �t get his writing on time. He gets upset too.

I suggested to his mum to get a passage from a story book for him every so often and get him to copy it using a timer. I reckon he can master this skill with lots of practice and time, but do you have any other ideas on how to help the boy to speed up his writing? 

Thank you 

Unfortunately, expecting the child to speed up his writing simply makes matters worse.  In fact, this boy needs to be reassured that he will be given enough time to finish his work so that he calms down and is able to control his writing in order to do what he is expected to.  Using a timer also creates a stressful atmosphere, and that �s why he has problems doing his writing tasks.  In these cases, when the child is given a written exercise, it should be shorter than that of his classmates so that they can all finish the activity at more or less the same time.  It �s important that all written activities are adapted to suit the boy �s special needs as regards his writing disability.  As you have noticed, this boy is much better at speaking than at writing, which is very common among dysgraphic children (compensation).  As it is, oral work should make up for written work (I don �t mean "replace", though.)

Sometimes this is not a question of "practice and time" just like you wrote, practice does help but up to a point,  this actually has to do with the level of dysgraphia the boy has, and this needs to be diagnosed by a professional, that is, a certified graphologist or a doctor that specializes in pyschomotor skills.  As teachers are not trained to spot dysgraphic children, most of them are considered "lazy" or "slow" when in fact they have a poor control of his motor skills, and there �s little the child can do to reverse the situation, that is, write faster or improve his/her handwriting.

Hope this helps, please don �t hesitate to contact me if necessary.

 

Thanks for your post.  I have a lot of students with this problem and I feel completely inadequate in handling it.  I tell parents to take their children to specialists but there seems to be a lot of denial surrounding the matter.

 

If you can suggest some good reading material on the subject, I would really appreciate it.

 

Thank you,

Esther

Carina, I sent you pm. 

Thanks again and have a nice day/evening :)