Had P/T conferences...Hannah is doing great at school in all subjects except one - writing. She knows the rules like capitalization and punctuation, but she hates writing! her teacher said she has a gigantic pile of incomplete classroom work because she won't do it if she has to write, she just sits there. Writing is very labor intensive for her, because her fine motor skills aren't that great...I am not too worried because her reading and verbal communication skills are above grade level, but at the same time it is unacceptable for her to just not be doing her work.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can encourage her? I am at a loss for what to do.

See if you can find something that interests her for example if if were my son I would have him write about why he likes Monster Trucks or What's his favorite thing about soccer. Or maybe she could keep a journal. Everyday in Kindergarten they have to draw a picture about a story that they heard that day and write a couple words describing their feeling about this. Maybe she could do this but up to her grade level. It escapes me what grade she is in.

She's in first grade. The problem is that there are tons of things that interest her, but the actual act of writing discourages her. She just won't do it. She'll "write" books, super-creative, but they are just pictures. If I ask her to write dialogue she refuses.

Writing is hard for Ben as well he has trouble with fine motors skills too. We have to force him to do it. It's definitely not the right answer. I wish I could help more. We are think about seeing an occupational therapist to see why he hass such trouble with this. Maybe it will help him. I'm not saying that that's the answer for your daughter but maybe some for or professional help is in order.

Hmm. I am not opposed to that idea, but I wonder what types of things an occupational therapist would do? If it is something I could do with her I'd rather not devote the time & money to a professional, of course if she truly needs it I would not hesitate.

IDK we are just now looking into it. Ben has a Neurological disorder that may be impairing his fine motor skills as well as causing him to have seizures and so we see a Neurologist regularly and now we are looking into seeing an Occupational Therapist. Probably a different boat than the one you are in.

thats great that she is doing well, well except for the writing. I hope you can figure out a way to interest her

One of the things we did with our daughter early on when she wouldn't read is we would take turns and read for her. So if she was to read a chapter of a book we would read a page and then walk her through reading the next page on her own. It took awhile but she eventually got it. If it were writing that she was discouraged about, I would sit her down and pick a subject to write about. Make it something small so she isn't fearful of the length. Then you start writing the first sentence or two. Then ask her to write something and you provide her with the exact words. As you move forward maybe she will feel comfortable with coming up with her own words to add.

You may have already tried this but I figured I would throw it out there. If you haven't done so yet, this might be worth a shot.

Ask her to start coming home daily from school and writing about one exciting event that happened.... Eventually as she becomes more acustomed to the assignment she will write more! Then after she writes it, you can discuss it!

I got DL a really nice diary...I totally she is free to draw pictures but the one rule is she must write at least one sentence to go with the pic. That seemed to help us

My girls have composition books I got at WalMart. There is a big space on top to draw a picture and lines below. They do that with stories, with field trips, all sorts of things and now they look forward to that part of the day.

Ask her to start coming home daily from school and writing about one exciting event that happened... I like this idea as well and I think this might work. :)