I knew that writing activities were a challenge for D and it became apparent during a class project on Native American tribes. Caregivers were invited to a class presentation on different Native American tribes. Each student had a large tri-fold with lots of facts about their selected topic atop their desks. Drawings and words adorned each desk, except for D’s. He had one sentence. A single fact about his selected tribe. After working on this for days. He had nothing to show for the time. My heart sank and I tried not to focus on his classmate’s work. I failed. My child’s struggles became so public and of course, I imagined D’s project to be the topic of dinner conversations that night.
While in the classroom I saw other writing examples that fell short. Literally, short. The essay about a dream he had was just a few sentences. I remembered him telling me about the dream story and how elaborate and creative the story was. But this paper showed none of it. The colors and details were missing. The multitude of characters didn’t show up. In that moment, I allowed myself to explore the nagging feeling that it was more than D being a lazy kid.
I started to think back about his work the past two years. My chatty boy could tell you all about Greek mythology but couldn’t show a teacher that he knew it. His notebooks were empty but he could tell me all about mag levs and land forms. He took in the information and learning but couldn’t produce written work to prove he knew it. And when I or his teacher could get him to write, it was large. Letters in the middle of words were capitalized. Punctuation was virutally none existent. I decided then to get him tested to determine what was causing this block.
