RE: Anxiety or Avoidance?

[Guest guest]

,What exactly are the writing assignments? Does it involve writing the same thing over and over? If so, you might negotiate with the teacher about having him write the words two times instead of five, if writing is laborious for him. I know handwriting at age 7 was terribly laborious and tedious for my son. It still is, but he doesn't mind it so much any more. And his professors, bless their hearts, haven't complained. If you can tell us what the assignments are, I think we may be able to generate more ideas for you.LizOn Jan 16, 2008, at 1:51 PM, A. wrote: <snip>He has a hard time with writing but he had been doing very well. Now he has started to crumble up his paper and then crawl under his desk when he doesn’t want to do the work. When he decides not to do his work he would usually have to stay in during recess to finish the work. It never takes him long so he is eventually able to join the other kids outside. But now he refuses to do it all together. So it gets sent home as homework. He will do it at home though he cries about how now he has even more homework. We don’t really know what to do. When asked why he doesn’t do the work at school he responds with either an I Don’t Know or I Don’t Like The Work. But it’s never math or science- it’s always writing.<snip>

[Guest guest]

Also we had 's work in class modified so he doesn't have as much. Especially written work & sometimes they let him do it on the computer. Betty " A." <adrlopez@...> wrote: I haven’t posted in a long while as things at school had seemed to improve and we

haven’t had much problems. However, since the week before Christmas vacation things have turned south. My son is 7yrs old and is in first grade. He’d been doing incredibly well at school. We had a couple of incidents in the very beginning where he would go under his desk when he didn’t want to do something. His teacher has been incredible and was able to help him and he stopped doing that. Well in the past couple of weeks it has started up again. However, it only happens during certain times- during writing. He has a hard time with writing but he had been doing very well. Now he has started to crumble up his paper and

then crawl under his desk when he doesn’t want to do the work. When he decides not to do his work he would usually have to stay in during recess to finish the work. It never takes him long so he is eventually able to join the other kids outside. But now he refuses to do it all together. So it gets sent home as homework. He will do it at home though he cries about how now he has even more homework. We don’t really know what to do. When asked why he doesn’t do the work at school he responds with either an I Don’t Know or I Don’t Like The Work. But it’s never math or science- it’s always writing. I don’t know if it’s just

avoidance tactics or if something else is going on his little head. He never really seems able to explain it to us. We’re to have a meeting with his teacher to talk about this as it’s becoming a problem. I really have no ideas of what to do though. Any ideas? Please? ~ In No. CA

Never miss a thing. Make your homepage.

[Guest guest]

My son can write.. But its the task and long term writing that was stopping him from doing it

Do they offer a keyboard for him?? Darned if I can think of the name of it right now

Its a little hand held keyboard that has a memory > Anyone else's kid use this? Darn what is the name LOL

-- Re: ( ) Anxiety or Avoidance?

, What exactly are the writing assignments? Does it involve writing the same thing over and over? If so, you might negotiate with the teacher about having him write the words two times instead of five, if writing is laborious for him. I know handwriting at age 7 was terribly laborious and tedious for my son. It still is, but he doesn't mind it so much any more. And his professors, bless their hearts, haven't complained. If you can tell us what the assignments are, I think we may be able to generate more ideas for you.

Liz

On Jan 16, 2008, at 1:51 PM, A. wrote:

<snip>

He has a hard time with writing but he had been doing very well. Now he has started to crumble up his paper and then crawl under his desk when he doesn’t want to do the work. When he decides not to do his work he would usually have to stay in during recess to finish the work. It never takes him long so he is eventually able to join the other kids outside. But now he refuses to do it all together. So it gets sent home as homework. He will do it at home though he cries about how now he has even more homework

[Guest guest]

http://www.alphasmart.com/k12/

ALPHA SMART That's the product my kids use the classroom LOL I knew

I would think of it sooner or later

-- Re: ( ) Anxiety or Avoidance?

,

What exactly are the writing assignments? Does it involve writing the same thing over and over? If so, you might negotiate with the teacher about having him write the words two times instead of five, if writing is laborious for him. I know handwriting at age 7 was terribly laborious and tedious for my son. It still is, but he doesn't mind it so much any more. And his professors, bless their hearts, haven't complained. If you can tell us what the assignments are, I think we may be able to generate more ideas for you.

Liz

On Jan 16, 2008, at 1:51 PM, A. wrote:

<snip>

He has a hard time with writing but he had been doing very well. Now he has started to crumble up his paper and then crawl under his desk when he doesn’t want to do the work. When he decides not to do his work he would usually have to stay in during recess to finish the work. It never takes him long so he is eventually able to join the other kids outside. But now he refuses to do it all together. So it gets sent home as homework. He will do it at home though he cries about how now he has even more homework

[Guest guest]

Many of these kids also have dysgraphia.

Here are a couple of websites; you can also google “dysgraphia” for

more info.

http://www.as.wvu.edu/~scidis/dysgraphia.html

http://www.ncld.org/index.php?option=content & task=view & id=468

From: [mailto: ] On Behalf Of Jewel

Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2008

1:57 PM

Subject: RE: ( )

Anxiety or Avoidance?

at age 15 now absolutly hates writting any thing. He writes

like he is in 2nd grade & that is the truth. He can not cursive write. He

can not even read it nor I at times. He's had OT in school for writting for a

few yrs then they stopped it saying that is the way he is going to write. Great

maybe he will be a Doctor. LOL He hates to hold the pencil ( sensory

issues) & he even hates to color. He writes sentences like your boy. The

fewest words he can.

Take care,Betty

" A. "

<adrlopezearthlink (DOT) net> wrote:

One assignment was a brainstorming

worksheet. He had to think of a time when he’s been sad and just write

the Who, What, Where and Why. It was a very simple task- writing out at

the most maybe 3 words for each section. He told his teacher that

he’s had too many sad times to write just about one and he told me that

he couldn’t think of any times he’d been sad.

Another assignment was writing

what he did over Christmas break. At the most he had to write 3 sentences. What

he did, who was there and how he felt.

He ended up writing: I played the Wii

with my brother. I had fun.

The assignments aren’t any

different than what he’s done in the past few months of school- which is

why I have no idea why he’s beginning to react this way. And of course if

you ask him we get the standard “I Don’t Know”.

We have cut back repeat writing-

like write a word 5 times- he only needs to do them twice. His teacher thinks

that perhaps we should have him start writing a sentence at night as part of

his homework.

Oh and another thing- which is

why I wonder about the anxiety- they told the kids that the district

assessments are coming up. I’m wondering if he’s anxious over them

and if that’s what’s setting him off. However, he’s never had

any other problems taking other tests. Only the district tests- and only in

writing.

Thanks! Any ideas are

appreciated. Like I said this sort of crept up out of nowhere.

~

From:

[mailto: ]

On Behalf Of Liz Bohn

Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2008

11:22 AM

Subject: Re: ( )

Anxiety or Avoidance?

,

What exactly are the writing assignments? Does it involve writing the

same thing over and over? If so, you might negotiate with the teacher about

having him write the words two times instead of five, if writing is laborious

for him. I know handwriting at age 7 was terribly laborious and tedious

for my son. It still is, but he doesn't mind it so much any more. And his

professors, bless their hearts, haven't complained. If you can tell us what the

assignments are, I think we may be able to generate more ideas for you.

Liz

On Jan 16, 2008, at 1:51 PM, A. wrote:

<snip>

He has a

hard time with writing but he had been doing very well. Now he has started to

crumble up his paper and then crawl under his desk when he doesn’t want

to do the work. When he decides not to do his work he would usually have to

stay in during recess to finish the work. It never takes him long so he is

eventually able to join the other kids outside. But now he refuses to do it all

together. So it gets sent home as homework. He will do it at home though he

cries about how now he has even more homework.

We

don’t really know what to do. When asked why he doesn’t do the work

at school he responds with either an I Don’t Know or I Don’t Like

The Work. But it’s never math or science- it’s always writing.<snip>

Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Mobile. Try

it now.

[Guest guest]

Dylan (11) used to be like that, but he had an amazing 4th grade teacher who encouraged him and worked with him so much that he ended up getting COMMENDED ON HIS WRITING PORTION OF HIS TAKS TEST. Talk about floored! He still was having a hard time remembering to captialize the first letter of his FIRST NAME but he ended up w/ a commended score on his writing sample. Just goes to show you what our children can do when they really focus on achieving a goal. Perseverance is my son's middle name. If he makes an effort, he really makes an effort. It's just getting him to try that's the difficult part sometimes.

Like so many of our kids though, the creativity is in there, it's just hard to get it out. In 5th grade, his writing was okay and he was the only 5th grader who wrote in cursive (teachers thought it could be neater but they were pleased he was writing in cursive so they let it slide.) I think it's because he got used to writing in cursive so he didn't want to switch back to printing. Cursive was in the forefront of his mind. Now in 6th grade, Dylan has another great language arts teacher that he adores and she him so he's writing up a storm now. It's still a struggle sometimes b/c like na's example of the 3 sentence assignment her son had below, he's very black/white. And his handwriting isn't very good at all. He constantly misspells words and still forgets to capitalize the first letter of the sentence at times. If

you ask him writing "rules" though, he knows them all. I just think his brain is going about 150 mph but due to his motor skills, grasping the pencil/pen is just uncomfortable. His hand is going closer to 30 mph. But I can say it's much improved. Now if he's writing something that he's not too excited about, I have to be very specific w/ the instructions (which I get from his teacher.) "You need to write three paragraphs and each paragraph needs to have at least 4 sentences. You need to write about the price of oil and how the increase affects your family. It needs to have at least 5 examples of how it affects us and there needs to be at least 2 sentences for each example." I'll even write it all out so he can refer to it often. If I just say "please elaborate more" he'll add one more sentence.

Re: ( ) Anxiety or Avoidance?

,

What exactly are the writing assignments? Does it involve writing the same thing over and over? If so, you might negotiate with the teacher about having him write the words two times instead of five, if writing is laborious for him. I know handwriting at age 7 was terribly laborious and tedious for my son. It still is, but he doesn't mind it so much any more. And his professors, bless their hearts, haven't complained. If you can tell us what the assignments are, I think we may be able to generate more ideas for you.

Liz

On Jan 16, 2008, at 1:51 PM, A. wrote:

<snip>

He has a hard time with writing but he had been doing very well. Now he has started to crumble up his paper and then crawl under his desk when he doesn’t want to do the work. When he decides not to do his work he would usually have to stay in during recess to finish the work. It never takes him long so he is eventually able to join the other kids outside. But now he refuses to do it all together. So it gets sent home as homework. He will do it at home though he cries about how now he has even more homework

[Guest guest]

seems to have no ‘drive’. He could care

less- even if it’s about something he wants. He will give up so easily. Which

is why I worry about him so much. He does however love being told he’s

done a ‘good job’. That makes him so happy.

He spells VERY well. He can also read just about anything put in

front of him. How much of it he understands is sometimes at question but he

seems to have a pretty good grasp of what he reads. It’s just his

writing that is- I hate to say- atrocious- not that I’ve ever told him

that. I’m just happy that he writes at all. It’s such an issue for

him.

As for keyboarding- the school usually doesn’t start it until

the kids are in 3rd grade. Supposedly it isn’t until then that

they’ve seen kids begin to fall behind from their classmates. We plan to

start having him practice using the keyboarding to write. He has no issues on

the computer in general so I don’t think it will be too difficult.

He’s had a couple of good days with no problems so I have

no clue what’s going on. Maybe he was just being a first grader not

wanting to do his work- or maybe something was on his mind and just blocked his

mind in being able to do his work. I have no idea.

I think it’s something we just have to carefully watch and

we will still be having a meeting with his teacher. I’m just not sure

what’s going to come out of it.

Thank you everyone.

~

From:

[mailto: ] On

Behalf Of MacAllister

Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 8:21 PM

Subject: Re: ( ) Anxiety or Avoidance?

Dylan (11) used to be like that, but he had an amazing 4th

grade teacher who encouraged him and worked with him so much that he ended up

getting COMMENDED ON HIS WRITING PORTION OF HIS TAKS TEST. Talk about

floored! He still was having a hard time remembering to captialize the

first letter of his FIRST NAME but he ended up w/ a commended score on his

writing sample. Just goes to show you what our children can do when they

really focus on achieving a goal. Perseverance is my son's middle

name. If he makes an effort, he really makes an effort. It's just

getting him to try that's the difficult part sometimes.

Like so many of our kids

though, the creativity is in there, it's just hard to get it out. In 5th

grade, his writing was okay and he was the only 5th grader who wrote in cursive

(teachers thought it could be neater but they were pleased he was writing in

cursive so they let it slide.) I think it's because he got used to

writing in cursive so he didn't want to switch back to printing. Cursive

was in the forefront of his mind. Now in 6th grade, Dylan has another

great language arts teacher that he adores and she him so he's writing up a

storm now. It's still a struggle sometimes b/c like na's example of

the 3 sentence assignment her son had below, he's very black/white. And

his handwriting isn't very good at all. He constantly misspells words and

still forgets to capitalize the first letter of the sentence at times. If

you ask him writing " rules " though, he knows them all. I just

think his brain is going about 150 mph but due to his motor skills, grasping

the pencil/pen is just uncomfortable. His hand is going closer to

30 mph. But I can say it's much improved. Now if he's writing

something that he's not too excited about, I have to be very specific w/ the

instructions (which I get from his teacher.) " You need to write three

paragraphs and each paragraph needs to have at least 4 sentences. You

need to write about the price of oil and how the increase affects your

family. It needs to have at least 5 examples of how it affects us and

there needs to be at least 2 sentences for each example. " I'll even

write it all out so he can refer to it often. If I just say " please

elaborate more " he'll add one more sentence.

Re: ( ) Anxiety or Avoidance?

,

What exactly are the writing assignments? Does it involve

writing the same thing over and over? If so, you might negotiate with the

teacher about having him write the words two times instead of five, if writing

is laborious for him. I know handwriting at age 7 was terribly laborious

and tedious for my son. It still is, but he doesn't mind it so much any more.

And his professors, bless their hearts, haven't complained. If you can tell us

what the assignments are, I think we may be able to generate more ideas for

you.

Liz

On Jan 16, 2008, at 1:51 PM, A. wrote:

<snip>

He has a hard time with writing but he had been doing very well.

Now he has started to crumble up his paper and then crawl under his desk when

he doesn’t want to do the work. When he decides not to do his work he

would usually have to stay in during recess to finish the work. It never takes

him long so he is eventually able to join the other kids outside. But now he

refuses to do it all together. So it gets sent home as homework. He will do it

at home though he cries about how now he has even more homework.

We don’t really know what to do. When asked why he

doesn’t do the work at school he responds with either an I Don’t

Know or I Don’t Like The Work. But it’s never math or science-

it’s always writing.<snip>

Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with

Mobile. Try it now.

[Guest guest]

Actually, this kind of writing assignment is not simple at all, especially for kids who have language processing problems or who have pragmatic language problems. My own ds has hyperlexia and WH questions are really hard for him. Another ds has dyslexia and he was in tears the other morning because he had to write a letter to someone he knows. Why is he crying? He had no idea what to write, who to write to - his mind draws a blank because he has incredible difficulty coming up with words.

So these kind of open ended assignments can be imposible for some kids like ours. Many times they need help getting started. They often can do better if they learn how to draw a word web - the main idea in the center enclosed in a circle - then draw spokes coming outward and write related facts or ideas around it.

Sometimes "What did you do this summer?" is such a huge vast question that they have no idea where to start, they get overly anxious trying and then blank out entirely. He needs supports in place to learn strategies for writing.

RoxannaAutism Happens

RE: ( ) Anxiety or Avoidance?

One assignment was a brainstorming worksheet. He had to think of a time when he’s been sad and just write the Who, What, Where and Why. It was a very simple task- writing out at the most maybe 3 words for each section. He told his teacher that he’s had too many sad times to write just about one and he told me that he couldn’t think of any times he’d been sad.

Another assignment was writing what he did over Christmas break. At the most he had to write 3 sentences. What he did, who was there and how he felt.

He ended up writing: I played the Wii with my brother. I had fun.

The assignments aren’t any different than what he’s done in the past few months of school- which is why I have no idea why he’s beginning to react this way. And of course if you ask him we get the standard “I Don’t Know”.

We have cut back repeat writing- like write a word 5 times- he only needs to do them twice. His teacher thinks that perhaps we should have him start writing a sentence at night as part of his homework.

Oh and another thing- which is why I wonder about the anxiety- they told the kids that the district assessments are coming up. I’m wondering if he’s anxious over them and if that’s what’s setting him off. However, he’s never had any other problems taking other tests. Only the district tests- and only in writing.

Thanks! Any ideas are appreciated. Like I said this sort of crept up out of nowhere.

~

From: [mailto: ] On Behalf Of Liz BohnSent: Wednesday, January 16, 2008 11:22 AM Subject: Re: ( ) Anxiety or Avoidance?

,

What exactly are the writing assignments? Does it involve writing the same thing over and over? If so, you might negotiate with the teacher about having him write the words two times instead of five, if writing is laborious for him. I know handwriting at age 7 was terribly laborious and tedious for my son. It still is, but he doesn't mind it so much any more. And his professors, bless their hearts, haven't complained. If you can tell us what the assignments are, I think we may be able to generate more ideas for you.

Liz

On Jan 16, 2008, at 1:51 PM, A. wrote:

<snip>

He has a hard time with writing but he had been doing very well. Now he has started to crumble up his paper and then crawl under his desk when he doesn’t want to do the work. When he decides not to do his work he would usually have to stay in during recess to finish the work. It never takes him long so he is eventually able to join the other kids outside. But now he refuses to do it all together. So it gets sent home as homework. He will do it at home though he cries about how now he has even more homework