I relate to this dilemma so well as my son was the same. Is it possible to have the teacher or assistant scribe his tests for him? does he have an IEP? If so, does it make comment that he needs assistance with written tests?? It would be in his interest to have this included in the IEP for future help in school as well. He does need to learn to write himself, however if some of the pressure was off him, he may come through. How about a larger pencil (carpenter pencil or an attachment on the pencil for easier grip).

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I am having this problem myself. My son has an IQ of 130, but writes on an "entering second grade" level, even though he is at the end of his 3rd grade year. The school feels his grades are too high to warrant LD testing and the teacher is adamant that "he could do it if he WANTED to, he just CHOOSES not to". I have no solutions but want you to know there is another mom out there who truly feels your pain.

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A bit of insomnia tonight, so I thought I would do something useful. I'm an Occupational Therapist working in the education setting (often addressing handwriting issues). I'm also an adult with ADHD and can understand how difficult writing can be. Organization and following through with written work is still difficult for me, but there are excellent tools out there to help with writing. I would seek out an assessment to rule out a specific learning disability in written language first. But, a Neo by Alphasmart is a great tool. It's a portable keyboard with eight files to organize your work. It runs on AA batteries and is compatible with both Mac and PC formats. Keyboarding is so much more functional for kids with written language difficulty and this is a tool that can follow them through high school and into college. I would try to stay away from having an adult provide in-class support if possible. Another option is voice recognition software (you talk, it types). I use Dragon Naturally Speaking 8. It would be most appropriate at home or in a resource room setting. In the last few years, the technology has finally become very functional.

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In an attempt to make writing assignments more interesting in our house, my sons used the computer to complete their work. My oldest son would never complete the in class journal of 3 sentences when he was in 1st grade. He would do the entry at home on the computer. In the 4th grade he would email spelling assignments to his teacher on a daily basis. Not only was he improving his computer skills he was connecting with a teacher that would have overlooked him (the teacher actually told me he forgot that my son was in class because he was so quiet. That was his 1st and only year at our school as a teacher).

Writing is a very difficult task for both of my sons as they both exhibit dysgraphia which is a common characteristic of ADD. Any way that we can come up with to overcome the tedious and agonizing task of writing is worth a try.

Soon every thing will be computerized so the ability to keyboard will weigh in pretty heavily in our children's futures.

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I, too have an eight year-old, almost completing second grade. Spacing and formation of letters is a problem for him. O/T consultation is all he gets, but, for your ADD child (my child has agenesis of the corpus callosum, a structural defect of the brain, in which the linking part between the left and right hemispheres is missing, so it is expected he would have this trouble), O/T, with an emphasis in DSI, which was called SID (sensory integration dysfunction) assessment and treatment, may be the answer.

Stimulating his base senses (proprioceptive, tactile, and vestibular), will impact his mental state, as well as his fine motor control. It will also increase his mental compacity to concentrate. While ADD is a biochemical disorder, and my child is on meds for ADD, hoping this will help his behavior, what has helped him the most is sensory integration treatment. It, of course, is not provided by the school.

However, in early intervention and outside school, it helped him tremendously. You may also want your child to have a sit and stay cushion on his chair, or at night, to stand up and write, all are sensory-based techniques. Using a squishy-ball in the other hand, which is not doing the writing, or using raised tablet paper, may also help. I have other suggestions, but Carol Kranowitz has ideas in her books, or you may want to visit sensory international's website. I am also (trying) to write a book about the optimal benefits of early (infancy) exposure to sensory integration methods. Those are my two cents.

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