Completing Tasks

by Kaye
(McKinney, TX, USA)

Can anyone suggest strategies to assist a child with SPD that has problems staying on task or completing work, especially if it is writing or something that has to self direct?




My son's major problem is with writing, he can write and his writing is readable and fairly nice at times. So something like the Handwriting without Tears is not what he needs.

He just does not like to write and this keeps him frustrated so he does not complete his work the majority of the time. It seems this dislike of writing then distracts him from staying on the task at hand. This is not just an at school issue it is an issue with homework as well.

Any thoughts?



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Feb 07, 2011
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starstarstarstarstar 		writing
by: Steve Faherty

Is she doing printing or cursive. If she is printing, then a transition to cursive may be easier. Established work/play times with a timer with an alarm may make the task more endurable.
Feb 03, 2011
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starstarstarstarstar 		schoolwoork
by: Anonymous

It is quite common in children with SPD have difficulty in schoolwork. For your child tries to switch lesson enjoyable activity, if the media is having difficulty, try again when it is less tired. this is what I find a little positive. greetings
Feb 02, 2011
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starstarstarstarstar 		Movement & computers
by: Joanne

Hi, I'm not sure how old your son is, but my daughter is 8 and have been working on this for the past year. Thankfully her school have acknowledged these issues and as we start a new school year her teacher is prepared to work with Amy to help keep her on task. The initial plan is to keep Amy "topped up". This means to keep her sense of arousal high enough by physical movement, so I will get her to run up & down the drive before doing her homework, and the school make sure there is movement before sitting down to writing, even if it's just going to get something from another classroom. The other main thing this year is computer skills! Although Amy can write adequately we did an experiment last year (suggested by Amy's OT) whereby she wrote the draft copy of one of her stories on the computer and then wrote the final copy by hand. Not only did she do it faster, it was longer and "better" than normal and when she wrote it out by hand, the letters were a better shape and size than normal. From now on we are working on how much of her work she can do on computer given that she is only Year 4.

The way our OT explained it to us is the Amy is busy trying to thinking of the shape of the letters that she forgets what she is trying to write. She did also suggest that she write in small blocks with reasonably frequent breaks so Amy doesn't get a sore/tired hand and gives her a chance to switch off between tasks.
Good luck

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