Can your child write their name? | Autism PDD

My ds handwriting is very poor. He can write well but it takes a long time and he struggles with frustration. He usually does not take the time to write nicely.

My son Christian (6 ½) can write his first/last name. It’s not very legible and he writes very lightly. OT is working on his handwriting and verbal spelling b/c when it comes to spelling his last name, he’ll say the first three letters P-A-S then he’ll say T-I-A-N which is from his first name. I can’t remember the term the OT used to describe this but they are working on that too. Chris cannot write in a straight line even on lined paper and some of the letters are gigantic! I am so worried about his starting 1^st grade. He started crying last night because he knows school will re-open next month. Poor little fellow!

Magnadoodles are great - that is what my son prefers to do as well. I think it has to do with perfectionism and not wanting to make a mistake. He can erase it easily and start over - and there is no sign of his "mistakes" that he made!

We have a hard time getting him to write anything BUT his name which was why I was so amazed at how hard he worked on the card for Benjy Heil's family. He wrote out the front of the card and wrote a long sentence on the inside, signed his name and drew a picture! We haven't seen much writing since though... Now that we are back in town after a family wedding (utterly exhausting but fun) we will start back on working on this later in the week - I'm too tired right now!

My daughter can write her name and simple sentences. She has problems spelling. I have to sound every word out loud for her. She will be in 1st grade this fall. She has an OT. I bought her the big line paper and it has helped. He can spell it. He knows it is his name. He will write it, but only intelligible enough for DW and I to understand. Then again...he is three. I don't expect him to be able to do it perfectly yet.No, we're still working on circles!

Yes, she can! She began at 5.5 ... and writes her first name, and now her last name.

Sometimes Left to right, and other times, Right to left ... in perfect mirror handwriting!

Nobody is quite sure how to address this, and when I googled all I could find was that it indicates "poor language organization," in the brain. No help at all!

My ds could spell and write his name at 3.5. He also knew all the letters
and numbers. He now is almost eight and his writing has not improved
much since then - some days you can make words out but most days it's
completly illegeble. He can read some sight words but is far behind in
reading compared to his class. I am kind of puzzled how he started out
ahead in reading/writing skills and now is behind in both despite having
pull-out services for two years.No but the OT and ST who work together with the boys recommended I buy a tape called alphabet beats. Its a tape made by an OT and a mother of an autistic child and they do the writing of the alphabet with songs. Apparantly it is really good for kids who are resistant to writing and is suppose to work when other things fail. I haven't ordered it yet but I do plan on it.

My son can write his first and last name (and tons more words, lowercase and capital letters), and I have to say, his print is beautiful. (It's one of his strongest points.) I think he began doing that at around age 3 - just out of the blue, by himself. Then one day, at 4 years old, he just started reading something I had written and left on the table - out of the blue, by himself. We were amazed. Believe it or not, I think he can read at a 2nd grade level now.

BUT....my son has trouble with pretty much everything else, so.....that's that.

My girl isn't writing any letters. She can pretty much draw a smiley face now.

Patty

Mom to Jeffrey (5) and Erika (3 1/2) both ASD kids.

hamnpook39277.8140625My little guy will be seven years old next Thursday. He can write his first name faily legibe by the letterd sort of slant off to the side. He is not able to write his last name as of yet and part of me is in no rush to tackle this either because of his level of frustration. He too has no interest in writing either.

Yes. both my kids can. They use upper case for the first letter, and lower for the remaining. They can also copy their last name if I write it out for them first.

We taught upper and lower case letters to both starting around age 4.5. They picked up on it pretty quickly. So far my son's handwriting is better than my NT daughters. We'll have to wait and see how this plays out over the next few years.

Ty can write his name, my name, your name, or what ever he sees. He will copy the font or style of whatever he looks at. He will describe what he is writing when he writes Toy's R Us as, "Capital T,oy, apostrophe s, Capital backwards R in a Star, Capital U,s.". He describes what he writes. For example, Wendy's is, "Capital W, endy, apostrophe s". He will copy the exxon logo with one cross bar through the 2 x's.

If I can ever figure out how to show you folks some of his stuff, I will. At his IEP for his impending kindergarten start, he drew the Peanuts characters on his MagnaDoodle as he saw them on the school psychologist's screen saver.

Yes he can ,but often gets stuck in the middle and needs a prompt,we are up to half his last name ,about half his letters he will need a visual to remember how to make them.he is almost 6

Linda

not even close to doing that yet, still working on circles here too.Yes, at 5. Just now thinking of adding last name.My son can write his name, but hates writing, so it is difficult to get him to do it. He prefers writing on his magnadoodle. This is one of the areas that he will be working on in OT. My son at 5 can write his first and last name. Using uppercae then lower
case. We too worked on this. My fourteen yr old daughter learned to write her name at around 6 after a yr of head start and then kindergarten. She didn't learn to read until she got the leap pad pro books and that was at the end of second grade (so then they moved her from m.r. to l.d. classes). She was diagnosed as autistic from at risk of autism at 13 and at that time perserverated in tracing her letters to the point she would make holes in the page when writing her name.

My boy benefitted from Montessori style of teaching where they have worksheets every single day, Monday to Friday. They practice on 1 letter at a time, writing in upper-case and lower-case side by side within the lines.

Initially my boy's writing were like scraggly lines, more due to his weak motor skills. Later on, it got better, and after one full year at Montessori when he was 6 years old it improved dramatically. These worksheets also progress from just letters to words.

And yes, he can now write his own name very nice and proper, upper-case first followed by lower-case. Only contention, which I'm sure a lot of us here experience, he writes very hard... making the words appear dark and more often will erase and write the words over and over again till they are perfect !!! Sometimes with a hole on the paper... which needs his Papa to bring "band-aid" to plug the hole.

He does not have a good idea of use of space and usually starts in the middle of the page, writes way too big and writes at an angle. However, he hasn't started kindergarten yet and I am hopeful that with all the practice he will get there - this will improve. I konw it improved a lot this year as at Head Start they make them write their name on EVERYTHING they do!

BTW -- "Handwriting Without Tears" is the classic handwriting program for sped kids. Most OT's swear by it.Yes he can write his name. It has taken lots of practice, but he finally can do it. Some letter are not that great. He is 5 years old.At my son's LEAP preschool's open house the OT came up to me and said that they teach "Handwriting without Tears" to every child in the school, NT and ASD, except my son. When I asked her why they didn't teach my son, she replied, "Because Tyler's printing is better than mine, and we don't want to confuse him since he has mastered lower and upper case printing and most of cursive writing by himself.".

I'd be too depressed I think to read through all the answers...my daughter is 7 and honestly....we can't even get her to make a LINE !!

She does a lot of stab-stab-stab with writing utensils and if you hold her hand to help her do a line, you can just feel her let go of the crayon and let you do it.

C's handwriting is age appropriate. Both kids have somewhat messy handwriting, but we're told that because they are boys and left handed that this is somewhat typical for this point in their development.

The one issue we have is that when the teacher tells C to put his name on the paper, he sometimes wants to put more than just his name. He would write out his name (1st and last) as well as his brother's name, mommy, daddy and sometimes our nanny's name. It took the teachers a while to get him to only put his own name.

My son's writing skills developed typically. He could write his name by about 4 1/2. He could write all age appropriate curriculum without out any problem, though spacing was an issue, and he has always had an awkward grip. He had 2 years of OT to work on this. It fixed the spacing problem, but the grip is what it is

We have discovered through the years that his written language skills improve profoundly when he types rather that handwrites. For the past two years his IEP has provided a portable keyboard, and all written assignments (except math) are allowed to by done on the keyboard.

Yes, IB, we have keyboarding in our IEP too -- in anticipation of need! How great is THAT? I am thrilled.

My own handwriting ... ppppppft. Wish they had taught ME keyboarding, so early!

Mason just started writing his first name from memory...but he can copy his last name...only problem is it is very sloppy and if it isn't on lined paper he just puts the letters wherever he wants not in a line, so technically I guess, he is only writing the letters in his name.

But when they work on it in OT and when I work with him at home on lined paper he can usually write it in order, but he still has a problem with the sizes of letters...usually he makes a GIANT O, no matter what kind of paper he is writing on.

I have a funny story about my son writing his name. I don't remember, exactly, but I believe he learned to write his name in kindergarten. It was legible, but not really great. However, one day (I think he might have been in first grade by this time), I walked into our newly painted kitchen and say, in big letters created by a Sharpie -- JAMIE. My gut reaction was anger -- kids are not supposed to write ona freshly painted wall in permanent marker, are they? But then I saw his face...it was GLOWING. He pointed to the name and said "Jamie's house." Those letter are STILL memorialized on my kitchen wall, even through subsequent paintings. In fact, at one point I put a gold frame around them! We sure learn a lot from our kids, don't we?Not even close to being able to write...still...doing scribbles and circles here too. she will name letters...and say different swirls are different letters. but to me and everyone else but her...they just look like swirls.Kind of - my son is 6 and a half. he can write letters that somewhat resemble his name.

That is so cute Tzoya!!!!!!

I can see how it would be hard to get angry or even remove it!

At this time he can write just about anything (words and sentences) although he does sometimes alternate inappropriately between upper and lower case... not always but on occasions... like I've seen him write his brothers name "mAttHew" or something like that... if that makes sense.

Yes, but she writes her name in all caps, I'm working on correcting that. She was writing it very large but is writing it smaller now. My youngest son could write his name at 4. He didn't start using proper sized letters or writing his last name until 5. Sarah could spell it at 2 with ABC blocks but writing came at 4 on magnadoodle....properly on writing tablet at 5 ..upper and lower case letters at 6:)

The girls can write their name and simple sentences. They tend to always write in capitol letters, and it's a little sloppy and no, the letters aren't always the right size, but I think it's age appropriate. Evie writes a bit better than her sister.

My asd ds has absolutely no interest in writing

Mikey could write his name since 3 1/2 ys old and writes some simple words.He also uses uppercase and lowercase appropriately for his name but uses uppercase only for all other words. Here is a little clip of him writing the word school by himself I took with my cellphone. I was quite impressed that he corrected his own mistakes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xscd-zyhs9U

Aryan39277.4400578704Billy is 9 and he can write his name. He started writing his name at around 7 years old. He often spells his name Biyll. But, thats ok. He writes very big for the most part. He cannot write sentences or words. He can write some letters. He hates to write because he gets frustrated. I often use a highlighter for him to trace the letters, and also a short pencil works best because he has more control over it.

Cole is 6 1/2 and can write first and last names. The letters are over an inch tall and aren't particularly legible. He was also a micro-preemie (one pound), so he may not fit the "just PDD" pool you're looking for. Good luck!