Is it weird that she's not interested in writing?

[earthgirl]

My DD will be 4 next month. She has ZERO interest in writing and/or drawing. I don't think I would think much of this if it weren't for the fact that she seems to show a pretty early interest in literacy. She's known the alphabet and the sounds they make since she was two. She currently does a fair amount of sight reading. But for some reason writing does not appeal to her. On the few occasions where she does pick up a crayon or pencil, she just scribbles and scribbles. Honestly, I don't think there is any difference in how she draws now than she did a year ago. My memory is rusty, but when I used to teach preschool it seems like most kids her age, especially those who seem to be interested in letters, tend to want to write them. FTR, I do think she will eventually be interested in it, but there is a tiny part of me that is a little bit concerned for some reason.

[starlein26]

Have you tried it with her? How does she respond? Is she possibly a perfectionist?

[eepster]

You might want to get an occupational therapy evaluation. The not interested in writing is pretty typical, but when you combine it with a lack of interest in drawing and the early literacy skills, it could be a fine motor problem.

[tylerdylan]

I wouldn't be concerned. My DS wasn't interested at that age either. He is 5.5 now and still has little interest in learning to read or write, but he spends literally hours a day drawing pictures (and he's quite talented at it if I do say so myself). I know he is very bright and he'll learn to read and write when he's ready (he does his name and our names, but that's all he is interested in)

[pbjmama]

Is she going to traditional kindy next year? If so I would look into it. I think a general kindy screening would be a good first step, or OT eval.

[Daffodil]

I think it would be weirder if she were interested in writing at not quite 4. My kids also knew letters and letter sounds early, but weren't interested in writing early. I guess they both occasionally tried writing easy letters like O or X at 3 or younger, but I'm pretty sure DD didn't get interested in writing words until after she was 4, and I know DS didn't. He's almost 5 and just in the last month or so has suddenly gone from having essentially no interest in writing or drawing to being quite interested in it. He's in preschool, and I get the impression that he's better at writing than most of the other kids in his class.

My kids did both occasionally draw something simple as 3 or 4 year olds - I can recall DS drawing balloons, and DD used to draw volcanoes and "moops" (blob creatures with stick legs.) But both were just short of 5 when they suddenly got interested in drawing people and experimenting with drawing a lot of things they hadn't drawn before.

[LynnS6]

Is she just not interested in writing? Totally normal at this age.

Is she not interested in coloring, drawing, painting or any other visual artistic expression? I'd be more concerned. It could be that she's just not into the visual arts. It could be she's avoiding them because her fine motor skills aren't up to it.

So, if she's avoiding art and avoiding a lot of other activities with fine motor skills, I'd have her assessed. Our ds was doing this, and he did have a fine motor delay. Occupational therapy got him up into the range of normal, and he can write neatly if he needs to. He'll never have stellar fine motor skills, but he can function.

[karanyavel]

DD was like this. No interest in writing, drawing, coloring, but she did like to paint (just messy splatters on the paper). And she learned to type much earlier than she learned to write.

DD is gifted and has a fine motor skills delay but we did not go the OT route. She is homeschooled. At 6 y/o, her writing is now legible but not pretty. She still has an intense dislike of writing, drawing, and coloring, but she can write legibly when she needs to now. She definitely prefers to type.

--K

[tbone_kneegrabber]

ds wasn't interested in art/drawing that much until recently. he's gotten really into collage (really into it) and I can see his fine motor skills skyrocketing, now he draws things that kinda look like things.

I got a bunch of star and butterfly confetti, googly eyes, pom poms, glitter glue etc and he loves gluing and picking up all the tiny pieces and sticking them to stuff. Engaging in those activites has really improved his fine motor skills and now he "fake writes" all the time.

Now if he was just STOP writing me "to do" lists with things like "go to the museum, go to a resturant for lunch, go to my friends house" etc!

[mom2happy]

At 4 DS was not interested in writing or drawing for more than a minute.
I was a little worried that kindergarten would be hard for him.
At 5 he is showing a lot more interest and even comes home from school and wants to write letters. Of course most of what he writes doesnt make sense, but he is finally inspired to do it.

[Attached2Elijah]

My just turned 4 y.o DD is pretty much obsessed with writing. She is CONSTANTLY asking me how to spell things or what certain letters spell. She is starting to read pretty much on her own. She loves to write.

HOWEVER, my now 7 year old was exactly the same as your DD until he started kindergarten. He had 0 interest in writing, reading, any of that stuff. He would not sit down to learn the letters or anything. Now? He LOVES school. He doesn't particularly love writing (he's also left handed so it was difficult for US to teach him proper writing since we are both right handed) and his worst grade is in handwriting. However, he is at a 5th grade reading level now that he is in first grade and absolutely LOVES to read. I think it can be completely normal and not a cause for concern. Some kids just don't want/like to write. Each child is different.

[Greenmama2]

Originally Posted by earthgirl

My DD will be 4 next month. She has ZERO interest in writing and/or drawing. I don't think I would think much of this if it weren't for the fact that she seems to show a pretty early interest in literacy. She's known the alphabet and the sounds they make since she was two. She currently does a fair amount of sight reading. But for some reason writing does not appeal to her. On the few occasions where she does pick up a crayon or pencil, she just scribbles and scribbles. Honestly, I don't think there is any difference in how she draws now than she did a year ago. My memory is rusty, but when I used to teach preschool it seems like most kids her age, especially those who seem to be interested in letters, tend to want to write them. FTR, I do think she will eventually be interested in it, but there is a tiny part of me that is a little bit concerned for some reason.

You know, I could have (and probably did) post something similar about my DD. She was reading sight words well before three and loved to work on phonics with reading eggs (that was my garunteed peaceful shower or put the baby down for a nap time) yet she really didn't like to draw and definitely didn't want to write. Very occasionally she would do a simple colouring page (which I found challenging because I was all idealistic about free creativity rather than colouring within the lines). Yet she'll be 4.5 in a less than a month and has started writing, not just her name but "Mama, I'm going to write "moon"/"web"/"tree"" etc and off she goes, no coaching, no help. The only spelling mistake he has made so far is leaving the e out of "spider".
DD has always been somewhat of a perfectionist, preferring to hone her skills privately before displaying them. Perhaps your DD is similar?

[Greenmama2]

and now having read the rest of the thread

Originally Posted by karanyavel

DD was like this. No interest in writing, drawing, coloring, but she did like to paint (just messy splatters on the paper). And she learned to type much earlier than she learned to write.

DD is gifted and has a fine motor skills delay but we did not go the OT route. She is homeschooled. At 6 y/o, her writing is now legible but not pretty. She still has an intense dislike of writing, drawing, and coloring, but she can write legibly when she needs to now. She definitely prefers to type.

--K

I'm nodding at this. DD also loved to paint (and still does). Until recently she also only painted messy splatters. Then suddenly she could do amazing things like adding milimetre thin details to peacock feathers

Originally Posted by LynnS6

Is she just not interested in writing? Totally normal at this age.

Is she not interested in coloring, drawing, painting or any other visual artistic expression? I'd be more concerned. It could be that she's just not into the visual arts. It could be she's avoiding them because her fine motor skills aren't up to it.

So, if she's avoiding art and avoiding a lot of other activities with fine motor skills, I'd have her assessed.

Nodding again. I was concerned because DD seemed to have no interest in any kind of visual expression beyond splashing paint around. However she didn't show any other signs of a fine motor delay and in fact seemed pretty competent, just uninterested in visual expression including writing. I'm glad I waited it out.

[deditus]

At 4 yo my dd had zero interest in writing. 3 months later, and she is writing almost all upper case letters just about perfectly, even height and straight on the page and everything (definite perfectionist). She also really only drew faces prior to this year (and scribbles). She likes to scribble and then find something in her scribbles. Now she draws a few things, people with bodies, a few animals, spiders & spiderwebs, & trees (including family trees where she draws a tree and then draws faces and cuts them out and pastes them on the tree!). So I don't think it is unusual to not be interested, somethings like that are like a switch that flips.

[earthgirl]

Thanks, everyone. I think she is somewhat of a perfectionist. She does tend to give up on stuff quickly if it doesn't work out the way she wants. It is possible that it's a fine motor delay, though. She's not really into anything that really requires her to use her fingers. (Although i have seen some improvement in this area.) She won't be going to school so I don't really feel like there's a rush to figure this out, but maybe an evaluation is in order? I guess I'll bring this up at her upcoming doctor's visit and see what he thinks. Fortunately, we have a pretty stellar pedi so I feel like I can trust what he says.

[meemee]

earthgirl my dd is 8 reading faaaaaaaar ahead of her 3rd grade. she STILL hates writing. it isnt just about motor skills. she too is a perfectionist. she is forced to write so she does the bare minimum. her thoughts come too fast for her to write and then when she tries to slow down her thought disappears.

at that age my dd HATED pen and paper. she did white erase board, on sand, chalk on sidewalk, i forget what they are called. those erase and write plastic thingys.

the first picture my dd drew was with chalk on sidewalk. and the first alphabet she wrote was with foam on a car window.

would she like beading? can you get her alphabet beads (or just plain big plastic beads).

we have never used crayons except at school or in the restaurant. dd hates crayons.

she has JUST started drawing of her own accord. she has done so before - but really only because she has had too. this is the first instance she IS drawing on her own.

[JunipersMom]

playdough, clay - push pins into paper - scissors.. all these things will help build fine motor skills. My 5.5 year old is in public kindergarten and her teacher is semi concerned that my dd doesnt like to write - but really she can.. she just doesnt want to. I'm not worried - she'll do it when she wants to. Until then, she does enough to appease the teacher lady Everyone does things at different times and in different ways - I think some people are too quick to jump in and 'fix' somethings that will unfold given time.

[earthgirl]

She doesn't seem to really enjoy any of those fine motor things. We have a TON of things- beads, lacing cards, stickers, playdough, etc. She doesn't do any of them for more than a few minutes at best.

[LynnS6]

Since she's not quite 4, I think I'd adopt a "wait and see" approach. We didn't seek help for ds until he was 5 and it was clear that not only was he not doing fine motor things, he was actively avoiding them. I think bringing it up with your ped is a good idea.

I will say that I was thrilled with our OT in many many ways. Ds is in 4th grade now (we got OT in K and 1), and his teacher complimented him on his handwriting in a writing task he did recently. That was HUGE for him. I don't think it would have been possible with out OT.

The fine motor stuff was part of a larger picture of difficulties with motor planning he was having, along with some sensory stuff. So, what applies to our child may well not apply to yours.

[eepster]

For a lot of things, I get why the wait & see approach is better, for this kind of thing, I just don't see much down side to addressing it sooner than later. Also, there are some advantages to addressing it sooner.

To start, if the child is avoiding fine motor activities b/c of the difficulties, they are not building those muscles and skills, so the problems will simply become more and more dramatic. By starting OT as soon as possible, the child will have more time to work on developing pre-writing skills and building muscles.

As the child attempts to compensate for the problems s/he may develop bad habits that will need to be unlearned. The sooner the problem is addressed, the fewer bad habits the child will develop.

The child is missing out on the joy and learning that go along with may activities that require fine motor skills. For example, drawing pictures gives children away to express emotion and tell stories. Stringing beads helps develop mathematical concepts, such as pattern.

One big advantage to doing it early is the child is more likely to just view it as a fun activity and not internalize the idea that something is wrong/deficient with them.



DS was tongue tied at birth, and I not only had the surgery to correct it, but also had OT. I'm so glad we addressed this early. The OT was very simple and only took a few sessions to correct DS's tongue control problems. DS ended up being a early and very clear speaker. We met another little boy who was born with the same problem, but didn't have it corrected till much, later. This other child needed much more OT as well as speech therapy. His speech was quite difficult to understand, and he went to early intervention preschool so he could do daily ST.

More recently, DS was just slightly behind in fine motor development. Not significantly delayed, but on the low end of normal. DS was having problems at school and it was thought that his frustration over his fine motor skills being out of sync with his other skill/abilities might be part of the problem. So, last winter/spring we did a few months of OT. Just those few months had a huge effect on DS. This summer he actually asked to take an arts and crafts class (he had zero interest in art before OT) and he loved it. It is amazing how proud DS was over each of his projects. DS uses art to express things all the time now. He draws pictures of him and other family members doing things all the time. He loves making b-day cards and what not. It really was a great help for him.