Dysgraphia

I’ve got a 7th grader with dysgraphia. He had OT in 2nd and 3rd. He also had problems with reversals of numbers and letters. In 5th grade he had keyboarding added to his IEP (earlier would have been better. I did feel that it was important for him to learn cursive so he could read it.). Once he learned the finger positions and could type 11 words a minute I let the school provide him with an alphasmart. In the meantime I let him dictate to me for homework assignments. In 6th we bought him a PDA with Microsoft WORD to take to school. He now does most of his work on the PDA/computer. He will be taking the PDA to Boys Scout camp because the major badge he will be working on requires a lot of written observations. ( At this point neither of us can read his handwriting). His work on the computer is superior to his handwritten work.

My son also reads very well. His scores last year in the SAT-9 for language (due to a fabulous teacher) and reading were in the high 90’s %ile. Luckily his teachers have always seen his intelligence and looked beyond his hand written work as his verbal output was far superior to his written output. I think it is appropriate to bridge the gap for a child and allow them to dictate some of their work so their knowledge and creativity shine forth. ( My son did get frustrated at times because I could not type as fast as he could dictate; it is so nice that he can do it himself now.)

Helen

Our son is 19 now, going to JC and working. He is very dysgraphic (so am I).

In the early grades, written work was often quite difficult, with much frustration and often cruelty from teachers. We used to beg for him to be taught keyboarding skills, so he was given a small board with a keyboard printed on it (woo hoo!)

Anyway, spelling tests given orally were something we had to fight for; but he tested far better this way, than written. Letter reversals, transposition of letters etc. made it difficult, and anything but correct spelling was marked wrong (when written). Transpositions and reversals pretty much eliminated when spelling orally.

Math problems with doing computation upside down and backwards was a huge issue in 4th grade. He got very frustrated as he was convinced he was right and teacher was wrong. In truth, if you computed it his way, subtracting upper left from lower left and move to the column to the right, his actual computation was correct (weird).

No internet to speak of back “in those days”. I used to show him how I survive by typing (on a typewriter, and the old 280?). In elementary and middle school age, he really didn’t want to be “different” from the others by typing homework… By high school, internet and typing became more standard, so he started typing more.

One of the biggest break throughs in typing for him has been the instant messaging to friends. His typing skills improved most by doing this talking with his fingers. Spell check can take care of most mispells on homework stuff.

Neither of us can write cursive, AT ALL. He cannot sign his name in cursive (I can sign mine, but you can’t read it). He is almost done paying for his own car, pays his own insurance, gas… in other words, on his way to doing very well. In fact, he stands up for himself, advocates when necessary about being dyslexic and is really doing great. I’ve told him it’s time he start advocating for his parents at family functions if he ever hears discouraging remarks (hahaha).

Me? (Peeved isn’t too far off the mark) I’m 42, a senior superintendent for a builder. I didn’t survive 1 semester of college, but somehow surviving (so far) the school of life; the subject I have mostly majored in is “survival”. Honestly, people (my employer included) still make fun of my handwriting; however, he did get me a lap top which mostly stays in the office unless I have to travel for work. I write in a daily log (most days), very few could read it, sometimes I can’t, but it helps to remember what happened on a given day. I have taken to using a digital camera with date/time on the photos and then I dump the pictures into folders and track jobs that way too. I am responsible for sometimes 2, 3, 4 and more projects that are in progress simultaneously, and it can get a bit hectic. Each house (typically large custom homes) are all different, on different schedules, with different start/completion dates and endless details… Funny thing is the ld issues help me to not get crazy about the confusion, I think I thrive on it.

So much for the family history. Your question, will he be able to keep up? Maybe, but also maybe not. Will you be able to help keep his esteem in check so that when he doesn’t / can’t keep up, he doesn’t fall apart? That’s the tough one. God knows we had countless gallons of tears spill, many hours of frustrations, homework time that desparately needed breaks and regrouping… that’s the hard part.

Teaching your child that everyone is different. Everyone has some kind of handicap if you look hard enough. Just like everyone has strengths and abilities that need to be nurtured and encouraged. The hard part is teaching them to survive the pounding of a system that tries desparately to fit square pegs in round holes. In the early grades such a big deal is made about writing and penmanship. If you simply cannot do it, you end up feeling less than, or lacking / deficient somehow.

At IEP Meetings, we used to beg for mercy on the handwriting stuff. Our district would not even acknolwedge that dyslexia existed, let alone address it. I used to compare him to a child with a club foot in PE. It’s cruel to make that child run laps if it caused pain. It’s absolutely unfathomable that a teacher would further punish the child for running slowly or sloppily by making him run further, or run up stairs, or humiliate him in front of the rest of the class. I would ask if that same child was a behavior problem, why not put him on a bycicle and make him ride till he dropped??? (Our son never had the behavior issues, and it was just to draw a picture for them). Needless to say, I woud get a bunch of blank stares and no comment. Hmm, Peeved, could that be when we first met?

High school and the rest of life becomes much more tollerant of typewritten word, and as soon as he can start turning in assignments and papers via typing, the neatness is there, the pride in finished product is there, and most importantly, at least for us, the pain, anguish, frustration and futility of writing by hand is eliminated.

I don’t know about any of the programs out there, but typing games did entertain our son for a while. We both had more fun watching me play and see how high I could score (I type about 60 wpm). Now, I think he can almost type the equivilent, but IM stuff seems to be the main interest besides school assignments, papers etc…

We did have some OT help in the early years, the pull out program we had was with a very insensitive teacher and that made things worse. 5th grade-12th ended up in non-public placement (our expense). 5ht-6th at a ld school (too expensive). Remainder at small parochial schools and things worked out fine (no IEP, no help from public district), just vigilant parenting and the grace of God.

Hope my early Saturday am rantings help.

Good luck.

Andy

We have a 7th grader who struggles with dysgraphia and dyslexia (and ADHD). Like you, it became apparent in 3rd grade when more written output was required. He constantly compared himself to other children and decided he was just stupid. Gave up on himself and pretty much stopped putting anything on paper because of how other kids and even teachers ridiculed him. Finally the school caved in and assessed him. Since then, he has had accommodations on written output. Allowing me to scribe or type for him was a miracle that unleashed the power of his mind. Finally, he could concentrate on the ideas rather than the laborious process of writing. Some of the teachers (having no experience with LDs) didn’t like it. Tough luck. And I told the teachers, to heck will all this homework you are assigning that is taking us three hours every night. We are only doing 40 minutes because you are making my son miserable (and I am about to go off the deep end, too). We would hit 40 minutes and I would write “40 minutes” and initial it. Try to find a way to make homework a positive time for your child; bend whatever rules you have to to make it better for him. (I’ve never actually done the work for him but I’m always there to give him guidance and clues so his limited patience is not wasted). Be supportive. Don’t stress perfection or good grades.

The school has provided an Alphasmart for our son but he is a weak typist - low muscle tone/finger dexterity - and can’t remember where the keys are. It will be a while before typing is an advantage for him. This year I bought a scanner so we could scan in his worksheets and type onto their image. It has come in handy for a lot of different homework assignments but he gets teased about typewritten homework at school.

In 6th, the teachers have been trying to get me to turn the writing function back over to him (although he writes no better than he did in 2nd). As an alternative, I bought voice recognition software. It’s frustrating to get its vocabulary up and running and it still is way off the mark sometimes. We had to increase the PC’s RAM to 128 just to get it functioning in a timely manner (even with a 533mhz CPU) and Dragon still wouldn’t win any speed awards. He gets frustrated using it. But when he makes the effort to enunciate clearly, it’s fabulous to see correctly spelled words come out (his spelling is abysmal).

We still have far to go. But his confidence in himself is improving. And this year, he has actually started advocating for himself and insisting that the teachers provide the accommodations in his IEP.

Best wishes to you and your child. I hope you can find some strategies that make him happier about his schoolwork.

Hi Lin,

If your son is still open to and willing to work with you (or a tutor) on this, there is a great program out there I can recommend. It is called Handwriting Without Tears and it is available through the internet, just go the HWTears.com the materials are also quite cost effective. The program was designed by an occupational therapist, and kind of boils down printing and cursive into their simplist forms, and makes them easy for a child with motor issues to master. The basics of the program are that you use a small slate (chalkboard) to practice the letters, using chalk first (you model it), tracing with a wet finger, a small wet sponge, and a piece of paper towel, etc. — this all allows for a lot of practice on the formation of the letter (or number) before pencil is ever put to paper. In cursive, a lot of attention is given to the connections between letters.

As an educational therapist, I’ve used it with several 5-7 years olds (the printing program) with great success, and have also used the cursive program with older kids. One kid I did it with recently was having constant struggles in his fourth grade class over writing, and this past week he wrote a two-page essay in ten minutes without a struggle, this was a real breakthrough for him. The program teaches how to do cursive without the slant, which is a lot simpler and more legible, it turns out. She (the OT who created it) says that the only reason cursive used to be slanted is because it was done with a fountain pen, that’s the only way you can use that kind of tip, and that’s true. The school gave him a little bit of trouble over not slanting at first, but they are so thrilled that his production has gone up they finally dropped that beef.

I agree with all the comments about keyboarding, and there is also a self-contained computer keyboard that teaches this important skill, it is available through V-Tech, their toll free number is (800) 521-2010 and it is called the Keyboard Wisard. I think the cost is around $50.

As for the IEP, you can ask for an Assistive Technology evaluation, in many districts, which is designed to show exactly which high-tech and low-tech devices a child should have access to, on order to “level” the playing field. They should also allow your OT to come to the meetings, and any “AT” devices and other adaptations/modifications should be clearly delineated in the IEP. All responsible parties are legally required to allow them if they are in the IEP. Oral spelling tests, a pencil grip, a slant board, access to computer for writing, even a laptop are not outside the realm of logical requests if you can document the need.

Hope this helps, hang in there!

Sharon
for more info see my website “Solving the Puzzle of Learning Disorders at
www.angelfire.com/on2/thepuzzle

Has he had testing? I imagine he has and that you’ve established that he has a true dysgraphia - a inability to “translate” his thoughts into written language.

Sadly then, that’s a tough one as most sources will tell you if a child, like my own son, has a true dysgraphia, there isn’t much to do about it except possibly keyboard. Martha Denkcla is the researcher who’s done a great deal of work on this and her strong feeling is to give the child time and “bypass” the writing block with keyboarding or allowing the dysgraphic child to dictate their work to someone.

I have seen over time, though, that my own son slowly improves. The greatest issue has been that his school never heard of dysgraphia and they have not been terribly supportive but that yours is, is great.

There are some good books on dysgraphia and I like Dr. Mel Levine’s book called Educational Care for strategies to deal with it.

My son was diagnosed this year with a learning difference. Like your child, my son is an excellent reader but was falling way behind due to his writing skills. His self esteem was plumeting. Many test later revealed a deficit with written language. Verbal scores were very high, but when asked to put information on paper, the physcologist said “it renders him mute”. By exteme fate I found this web site one evening on T.V. with a Disney special on learning differences. I was able to accually discover that what my son has is Dysgrahia. I printed out the information, that amazingly enough, sounded like they were talking about my son. His school (a Blue Ribbon school) had barely ever heard the term. Finally with an IEP that includes, keyboarding with Mavis Beacon 3, hand strengthening excercises, oral spelling and use of a scribe, I felt accomplished. The difficult thing is monitering the IEP. I have asked my son when and how often these things take place, and it’s rare.

It would be interesting to keep in touch as our children are the same age. Perhaps we can sound off each other and offer new strategies that work for them.

Take care,
Laura

In response to Laura, 6-27, I appreciate your input. (Yesterday I typed a response and I thought I sent it, but it never showed up on the bulletin board, so it must be floating around in cyberspace somewhere.) It will be interesting to follow our sons’ progress. It amazes me how many people (including me a year ago) have never heard of dysgraphia. Apparently it is unusual to have dysgraphia without dyslexia and I think this is what kept it from being dealt with at an earlier age. Luckily our school has a LD annex on campus, where my son will spend 2 hours each morning in a language tutorial with two other kids. I hope it helps. The school has actually been terrific in working with us, his teacher, his tutor and his assessor. Tell me how to best approach the keyboarding practice; I don’t want it to turn into a chore like practicing piano. Right now my son is doing 10-15 minutes of Mavis Beacon each morning. He’s not thrilled, but he is improving a little. I’ve told him how important it will be for him in the coming school year. I hope his new teacher will be open to our ideas, like oral spelling tests. Otherwise the teacher will have serious deciphering to do! Let’s keep in touch. Anyone else out there, too - thanks for all your responses.

Hi Lin,

Thanks for your response. My e-mail address is [email protected]. I don’t regularly moniter the bulletin board, so it will be easier to communicate now and then by e-mail. I wont open anything that is forwarded, as too many viruses are spread that way. The e-mail that was attached to the first message was from work.

For, now, my son Tyler is very greatful that it’s summer vacation. A little tutoring this summer, but not overload. He needs a break.

Take care!
Laura

Hi Lin,

Thanks for your response. My e-mail address is [email protected]. I don’t regularly moniter the bulletin board, so it will be easier to communicate now and then by e-mail. I wont open anything that is forwarded, as too many viruses are spread that way. The e-mail that was attached to the first message was from work.

For, now, my son Tyler is very greatful that it’s summer vacation. A little tutoring this summer, but not overload. He needs a break.

Take care!
Laura

Wow!, I had to look to be sure my name was not on your response. That posting sounded like it came straight from my mouth, though my son will be entering 5th grade.
Lin, The best advice I coulde give to you would be to use those mommie instincts. When you see that he has had enough then that is it. If you remove the difficcult task of writing you will see a huge imrovement. Once I did this for my son he took back ownership of his work. All of those terriffic ideas came flowing out with someone else scribing for him. His LD resource teacher stated at the end of the year IEP that his AlphaSmart typing skills are not much faster then his writing skills but there is no fustration with typing. His self esteem sky rocketed, he wanted to do well because he knew he could. I will still cut his homework off when I see the fustration level start to go over the edge. The only thing I have found difficult about that approach is that I have not come up with an explanation as to why I can do that. If Alex thought that was an option every night I can assure you there would be some battles. Alex is not dyslexic either. Some stratagies that have worked for us is allowing him to chew gum while writing. I mean a big mouthful. As long as he chews it correctly we have no problem. It seems to distract him. We have also allowed music when doing no brain writing like writing spelling words 3x each. When he has to write in complete sentences he dictates the beginning re-write to me and then he writes the answer. Doing math on large grid paper was also another huge help. I re-write all of his math workbook problems on grid paper or on lined paper so he has more room. PT through school has helped along with pencil grips. I truly beleive that his hands hurt while writing. We have a terrific LD staff who will not hesitate to make modifications. Please E-mail me directly @ [email protected] if you would like to and I will he happy to share some of those modifications that made life much easier for us. Hope to hear from you and good luck.