Trouble with our 5 year old....

[DEBBYIAC]

My Ds(11) has fine motor skill problem and it was not until he was (9) that we figured it out, he will be fine kids do thing at there own pace, some days they want to do it and somedays they don't , for a long time we just thought he was just being lazy. he will do it when he is ready just keep trying to get him to do it.

 

[connorlevismom]

Oh boy, I could have writen your post OP! We also has a 5 year old who is having trouble in K. He knows all his letters, sounds and can write his letters. However, at school he refuses to do it for whatever reason saying that "he can't" or "does not know how". Throwing fits or just refusing to do it. It is driving us insane because he too, is getting bad scores in his testing because he refuses to show the teachers that he can do it. At conferences she told us she has no idea where he was because he would not test for her.

His K teacher recently put him in a special reading class because he was having trouble reading and reciting his letter sounds. I did not argue with her because I know at school this is how he is and to me, it can never hurt to have a little extra help. It was funny, I picked him up the other day from school and his teacher excitedly told me that with his reading teacher he knew 15 letter sounds that day! I had to laugh because we do flashcards everynight with him and he know ALL his letter sounds. And we have him read every night before bed and he does it just fine.

But I worry that this is what it is going to be like for his entire school career. That we are going to have to go through this for YEARS and it is never going to get better. He has anxiety about a lot of things and I wonder if this is not another thing that he has anxiety about. I don't know what to do about it though. Do we take him to a councelor?

Anyway, I don't have any advice for you, just wanted to let you know that you are not alone in this at all. PM me if you want to talk about it more. Maybe we can come up with something together that works.

kristine

 

[hedgehog2owl]

I have read on the Dis how others have kids his age that already know how to read! How did you do it? My DS is sooo stubborn I can't encourage him to learn a thing and I am getting quite frustrated with it all

Kids are so different! I wouldn't try to compare your son to what other people on message boards say their child does.

I personally would be tempted to not pressure him. He's going to get over the fear of '-ski' soon enough, and he probably doesn't need more anxiety about it.Is he anxious in general about things?

I do understand though that you are worried and won't be able to let it go That's ok.

Are you in the US or Canada? Does his school get title 1 funding? maybe that could help.

Has he ever played with the website starfall.com ? that can help build confidence. Does he have a leapster? there are several games that you must you the stylus to do pre-writing strokes and full letters. I know some kids really enjoy the Kumon workbooks books as well. you can find them at amazon or Barns and Noble.



How is the teacher helping him? Is he getting extra help?

 

[mommyof2princesses]

Lots of different replies and advice. It is good to get all the information you can.

If I remember correctly, the op's child can color. How well? Can he stay in the lines? Can he draw pictures that are recognizable? If he can, then I would have to say that he doesn't have fine motor problems and is just stubborn!

Kids are different. Not one child is going to develop exactly like another child. Some children will color at 2, others will color at 6. Their is no mold for children. There are standards that people come up with that they hope will fit for most children, but honestly, the standards don't measure up.

I taught public school for years and in a classroom of 25 10 year olds, I would say their was such a difference in abilities. Putting aside the few children who were labeled learning disabled or gifted, even the rest of the average kids had a wide range of abilities. I had students who had beautiful handwriting, some with horrible handwriting, some who could draw masterpieces and some whose stick figures didn't even look like people!

As I mentioned in a previous post, by dd6 doesn't care to write. I think it is because she is a prefectionist. If she can't write a perfect lower case e, she doesn't want to write a lower case e at all. In fact, last week she finally wrote an e she likes and I don't have to remind her to do a lowercase instead of a capital! It just happened.

OP, the shaving cream idea is fun, also pudding and the pudding is tasty! Also, how about an easel. He can use sidewalk chalk to write on an easel. Don't make him do too much at a time. Maybe just his name once. And don't stress. He will do it in his own time. And, as a side note, many boys that I have taught in the past are not interested in handwriting. They have bettter things to do!