Just went round and round

I would ask for the TOWL-3, Test of Written Language. This test would be given by a special education teacher. This mirrors more closely writing required in the classroom. The test requires a lot of writing and will pick up on struggle and fatigue in writing. My son the last time he was tested on the VMI (test where they reproduce shapes) scored a 93% but the tester noted that great effort and time was taken to get the score. Observations are an important part of testing. Take a look at Margaret Kaye’s site on dysgraphia.

Helen

http://www.margaretkay.com/Assessment%20of%20Dysgraphia.htm

Helen,

I thought of this test, having read a recommendation for it for someone else. My son though has really never been taught to write or spell and I wondered whether the results would be discounted, perhaps rightly, for this reason. He is 8 and in third grade. He is nearing grade level on the reading but in the quest for reading competency have ignored other things like grammar and punctuation.

Is this test valid on a child this young?

Beth

Yes the test is valid from 8-years. If he has trouble with written expression and has not being taught in this area the test will pick it up and he will score poorly.
A low score will qualify him for a Specific Learning Disability in Written Expression. It sounds like his is the direction you are heading.

Helen

Honestly, what I would like to do is keep the door open. I was pretty happy with the status quo, I guess. He is already classified as having a specific language disability. He is getting therapy outside the school with good results but, having read this board for 1 1/2 years I know this can be difficult to overcome. His present teacher gives him written notes and doesn’t object to me writing homework when it is necessary.

Given my and the teacher’s comments, I think the OT now wants to work with the teacher on a consult basis (as opposed to dismissing him from OT). Do you think it is reasonable to wait until next year and pursue the TOWL-3, if his ease of handwriting doesn’t improve or am I foolish not to push now?

I would go ahead and ask especially if he has not done any written language subtest of an achievement test yet. The writing demands go up with each year and next years teacher may not be so accommadating without the back up of test results.

Helen

I know my hesitation is accepting another label but in reality it doesn’t create anything or make him any more disabled than he already is. I know, at least now, there are problems. And if we resolve his problems, we can always do without any accomodations. We may not be so lucky with a teacher next year. (although I am on their radar screen—the one who is hard to ignore).

Beth

Hi Beth,

The TOWL-III is the test my dd took in May in which her Specific Learning Disability in Written Expression was identified. Like your ds, we have been focusing on reading during the past school year so written expression was pushed to the side. However, her written expression was always as bad if not worse than her reading so I believe this dx is accurate in spite of the lack of systematic written expression instruction for the past year. Because of her improved reading skills, we are now focusing on written expression this year. It’s a toughie!

And yes, even though I already KNEW her writing skills were poor, it was still difficult to get another label.

Blessings, momo

Based on experience with my district, I have two pieces of advice to offer—

First get the TOWL done privately if you can. In the five years I’ve been dealing with public schools and testing, I’ve found that private testing is more thorough and is unbiased. Schools have $$$ at stake and are less likely to provide the all important label, such as dysgraphia, in the evaluation results. The school testing tends to focus more on the child’s strengths rather than needs and some statistics favoring services for the child are sometimes conveniently left out of the report. Also, getting the testing done privately will help you cut out some of the red tape and waiting time. Let’s face it, if your son hasn’t had testing done and if you haven’t had your eligibility and IEP meetings by January, the school is going to string you along until June and another year will be lost.

Second, buy a big plastic bin to keep all your son’s school work in. When it comes time for a meeting, be sure you go through the papers and pull out samples that show how his writing problems are impacting his progress in school. When the OT pulls out the sample of your son’s beautiful handwriting and tells you how he has no problems with handwriting, you can produce your own samples showing how the beautiful handwriting does not carry over to real world assignments. If the OT comments on how much improvement your son has shown over the course of the year, you can pull out papers from the beginning of the year, midyear, and year end and compare them and show how progress is or is not carrying over in the classroom.

LJ

In the meantime, do what you can to teach your child keyboarding. It will come in handy. There are some neat typing programs out there. Over the years, my son used Type to Learn and Jump Start Typing and Read, Write and Type. They all helped.

Consider Handwriting without Tears at hwtears.com. For written expression, private tutoring can work wonders in a short amount of time. If there’s a university or college near you, it may have a program within the Speech and Language department or the Education Department that accepts LD kids. We’re in Maryland and my son received a lot of help in speech and writing from graduate students in the speech and language department. The UMD tutoring was about half the price of using a professional tutor.

LJ

Who would do the test privately? Would a neuropsych? We have been considering getting a neurospych evaluation anyway.

I have been keeping all my son’s work this year. Not sure why, but you give me a reason. And yes, she pulled out all this beautiful work he did!!!

That’s what our IST teacher said, when we told her the creative writing teacher was really inspiring for our 6th grader ( because her main teacher is NOT inspiring at all ). She said, “See! She can do good work!” I didn’t like it when she said that but couldn’t figure out why. Now, reading your postings, I understand what her code was all about.

Beth,

An SLP would do the TOWL-III. It is a speech and langauge assessment, but there may be a psyche that would do it too. I have given the TOWL and the TOWL-III. The first version of the TOWL had a score for handwriting but it has been so long since I did the TOWL-III that I can’t remember if it has a score for handwriting or not.

Are you looking more for his motor coordination and neatness for writing rather than his written expression content? The TOWL would look at his content moreso than motor coordination and writing neatness with testing on vocabulary usage, his spelling, his writing style, if he knows how to construct logical sentences. It would also test if he can combine two sentences together. On his 15 minute timed written portion he is given a picture of either a space scene or a caveman scene and he has 15 minutes to organize and write whatever he wants about the picture he is shown. From that writing a composite score is assembled which looks at his story construction, the way that he incorporates the imagery with his written expression, and the language that he uses in his writing. It is kind of a tricky test to score too.

I know of one kid who did the TOWL. Her handwriting was beautiful during the assessment but according to the parent her handwriting had been atrocious before meds for ADD. The parent was pleased to see that her handwriting dramatically improved along with her ability to attend but she still has problems with organizing her writing due to ADD.

can administer the TOWL-III. You only have to be taught how and the scoring directions are pretty specific so it is hard to mess it up. Handwriting is not assessed except in general legibility term. I give it a lot- but the Resource Room teachers are just as apt to here.

Robin

Well, he doesn’t use grammar and punctuation correctly. Frankly, that is less of a concern to me at this point than the fact that he gets physically tired with writing. The therapist we are seeing privately says that is because the letters are not automatic for him. For example, we have not been able to get through even the first level of ASW with PACE. He will say to me “what does a f look like again”? The OT has this neatly written alphabet that he did that she thinks proves that he is capable. It is just very different to write the alphabet in order as opposed to real words.

Beth,

Your son again sounds a lot like mine was at his age. The OT is not taking into consideration the time it takes your son to produce those letters. My son could produce those beautiful letters; but to do that he had to spend 150% more time then the other students. It is not practical or reasonable for a child to do that. Get an overall assessment of his visual-motor and writing skills. When my son was in 2nd grade he would reverse many leters even the first letter in his name when it was used else where in his writing. When I asked him about it he said that when he wrote his name at the top of the page he knew he should postion it so it would not fall of the edge of the paper. He had learned a method to get his name going the correct direction. All these coping mechanisms take time and energy and need to be realized and taken into consideration. If your son is spending so much energy trying to recall the form of a letter then there is little energy for punctuation and content.

Kids need to learn cursive so they can read it. For some kids cursive comes easier. I would suggest getting your son onto keyboarding There is no way that my son now in 8th grade could produce the quanity and at both the short-term and long-term picture. Try to get a hold of a book by Regina Richards on Dysgraphia; she calls it correctly a processing problem.. Mel Levine’s books also deal with this kind of problem. Your son seems to have a problem in automaticity and retrieval of letters. Maturation will make this a bit easier but like my son it will never be good enough to keep up with note taking in the class. My son has been taking a light wieght computer to school since 6th grade and this has worked out well for him. It doesn’t solve all problems there are still the worksheets that have to be filled. He uses the teacher’s computer if he takes an essay test in class since he cannot print from his at school.

One of my son’s IEP reports says that “… with sufficient time, xxx is able to compensate for his visual-motor difficulties.” Well, given enough time one can dig a whole to China; but is that reasonable.

Writing can be broken up into different skills. Punctuation and grammar can be taught without doing a lot of actual writing. Dictation of written work to an adult can allow for transformation of ideas to paper without taxing the child physically.

I would also suggest that you ask the school to administer either the Gardiner Test of Pictures/Forms/Letters/Numbers/Spatial Orientation and Sequencing or the Jordon Reversal Test. Thes tests will pickup on your son’s problems with reversal of letters.

Helen

Helen,

I like that!!! I will remember that!!

Yes, you are right. My son is having trouble with automatically retreiving letters. He doesn’t see letters in his head. Is your son like that too? We’re doing therapy specifically directed at that privately but I know a lot of this is tough to remediate. We have seen great improvements, although not total automaticity with directionality, through PACE. My son recently had a developmental vision exam and the optometrist was uncertain how to rate him on directionality. He hesitated but got everyone right.

I will check into the tests you recommend. He had Bender’s done last year and scored in the low normal range.

Beth