[N+J]

Are any of you experiencing with your children, or has anyone experienced with themselves or their children any difficulties with reading and writing?

My son has just started reception and he seems to be doing really well with his phonics and recognising letters and making the actions and sounds etc

However we visit an OT once every couple of months and she says that she reckons Samuel is behind in his visual processing skills and that school should delay him writing. She did a series of tests with him. She thinks that he is not ready to start writing yet. So she wants the school to contact her and practise improving his visual processing skills first.

Does this sound like a good/bad idea to you?

I have no idea what Samuel's visual processing skills are like. I just have to trust the OT. But he has done so well so far, I really don't want to put him, on purpose, behind his friends in the class.

I could go on with my worries, but won't.

Just wondered what any of you might think.

Thank you.

Nicola.

[LMJP]

Hi Nicola

I had exactly the same happen with Jake. Whilst reception was a very hard year for us both, I would not allow the writing to be put back indefinately.

I had the OT make his teachers aware of her thoughts but to me it was a case of - if Jakes wants to write then leave him be!

Dont get me wrong, his writing was not the best. He would tend to write letters backwards and the word backwards aswell.

Personally I was very worried about Jake in his first year at school but if I am honest at Jake's school time was mainly focussed on fun time, maintaining friends, story time etc .... lets not forget in reception they are only 4/5 year old... they are still very young.

Jake does have a problem with his attention - he cant sit too long in one place or doing one thing.

Jake started year 1 in september, recently had a meeting with his teacher who advised his learning including writing, sounding & blending his phonics was below average - I know this is a worry to them but again personally I think with everything his has to cope with daily - his writing should be an achievement!!!

I kind of envisage the school years getting harder and I do expect Jake to have learning problems - but he has proved me & the doctors wrong already in the past 5 years and could still do so in the years to come.

Whilst us as parents have to focus on sometimes negative news regarding our children, I think we easily forget all the positives that they do ( I dont want to offend anyone at saying that but I was a prime suspect ) Whilst I still have to hear news from the professionals that Jake cant do this or cant do that - I will make everyone aware of what has been said but people will be told never to stop him from doing it if he wants! I have also started to celebrate his achievements alot more , more recently Jake got 3/10 on his spelling test ( not the best in his class ) but he got some correct - which is good enough for me !!

Again I think they are both still very young, personally I dont want Jake to remember his school years for me or the teachers going on about his learning - we take one day at a time and anything Jake does small or huge is fantastic in my eyes !!!

Lauren x

[N+J]

Hello Lauren,

Thank you so much for your reply. I didn't write much in my initial post - but I've contacted the OT since to say that I don't want Samuel to be stopped from writing. He is really keen on learning with his peers and is doing so well, I think - that it would be crazy to purposefully stop him from learning.

The teacher is going to let him carry on learning to write and will teach him some supporting stuff at the same time like learning to draw shapes and diagonal lines.

I, like you, have always expected the worst and so am constantly amazed and delighted by Samuel's achievements. I am so so pleased that he is doing well with his phonics and the fact that he is having a go at writing is more than I expected for this year.

I suppose what I've learned from our journey so far is that professionals don't know our children as well as we do and are not always 100% right in their predictions - even the professionals that I really respect and trust.

I'm also expecting Samuel to have difficulties with learning along the way - but this moment is a reminder to me that I have to trust my own instincts in dealing with each stage we face.

Nicola.

[ceriandshannon]

Hello, I have just read your posts and you have made my day...my daughter is 7 years old and is in year three at school. Shan still does not write or read, her letter recognition is poor to. I have had a few emotional days about this and feeling that she might be stugglin in mainstream. But actually reading posts on hear have made me realise that it will come in time when she is ready to read or write. We work on these skills daily at school and after her play time after school.

Shannon is currentyl in mainstream and doing all this by herself without any extra one to one support in her classroom so I am delighted to praise her for this....