dysgraphia

: I finally have a name for what my son has! He is now 14, almost 15,
: and was just diagnosed with dysgraphia. I cannot believe it took
: this long. I wonder how many other children are out there with
: this problem, and are not going to be understood or helped. I do
: believe this disability has caused other problems for my son. We
: are just now exploring this disablity and ways to help our son
: help himself. Any information out there would be helpful.I have a son with dysgraphia as well. This term, though, can be used by people in many ways. In my son’s case, he is unable to “translate” his thoughts into written language. While his handwriting is not good, that is not the underlying problem.Many will tell you that keyboarding or typing will be helpful to your son and it might. With typing, they do not need to work to remember the shape of each letter, they can recognize it on the keyboard and strike the key.Sadly that hasn’t helped my son much. We tried “voice activation” programs but never found one that worked for him. I believe, though, effective voice activitation programs will be available for these kids in the near future.In the meantime, I let my son dictate his work to me and I type it for him. I did a great deal of reading in the medical literature on dysgraphia and it is thought that sadly there is no effective remediation for it. So I did not go the route of investing in tutoring or occupational therapy but some do.The good news is, though, over the years, he has gotten better…slowly. In the 4th grade, he could not write much other than his name. Now in the 10th, he can. It’s poorly spelled, it’s missing words that he thinks he’s written on the page but hasn’t, he doesn’t use punctuation, but he can sort of write a paragraph on his own.School has been the biggest issue for him and I think if it weren’t for school, he wouldn’t have had to suffer so much. Some of his teachers were willing to let him speak his answers on tests and others allowed him to take his essay tests home and their compassion helped him. Like your son, I’m sure, they know the material. But if they have dysgraphia, they can’t write up their understanding of what they know.There is a book about Dysgraphia. It’s short and well-written. If you search on Amazon.com under Dysgraphia, it should come up.Good luck to you and your son.

: I finally have a name for what my son has! He is now 14, almost 15,
: and was just diagnosed with dysgraphia. I cannot believe it took
: this long. I wonder how many other children are out there with
: this problem, and are not going to be understood or helped. I do
: believe this disability has caused other problems for my son. We
: are just now exploring this disablity and ways to help our son
: help himself. Any information out there would be helpful. Dysgraphia- I have dysgraphia. Go back to whomever diagnosed you child and especailly if it is the school system and insisted that they write a prescription for a computer that is a lap top get you son a lap top teach him how to use the word processing features and he should be allowed to use it for all notes and as well for written exams. His accomdations should not be just double time on all tests especailly those which invoolde a lot of writing but a serpate location and until the school system gets him a computer and allows him to use it then you must fight to get him a scriber and a scriber for all tests especally those that are written. during the tests a scriber would wriite whatever you son would have writter and you repeat to a scriber what you would want want written write to me who exactly diagnosed him and what the school system that you son goes to is willing to do for him and then you E Mail me and i will tell you how to suceed also tell me the city and the state as that gives mea clue as to how much suppoirt that I know you amy or may not be able to locate but i can guide you.

My son is 9 yrs old and has just been diagonsed with dysgraphia. Along with spelling/writing issues, one thing I have noticed is that he is not able to read social cues from his peers well. For example, he isn’t able to tell that a peer wants him to stop talking, joking etc just from facial gestures. He would need someone to say, “stop it” which leads to other problems. I’ve been told it’s part of his visual processing learning disability.It is amazing how encompassing dysgraphia is.: I finally have a name for what my son has! He is now 14, almost 15,
: and was just diagnosed with dysgraphia. I cannot believe it took
: this long. I wonder how many other children are out there with
: this problem, and are not going to be understood or helped. I do
: believe this disability has caused other problems for my son. We
: are just now exploring this disablity and ways to help our son
: help himself. Any information out there would be helpful.

I am wondering how you get a child tested for this disorder, and I am also wondering what the symptoms are. My son has great difficulty writing, cutting, coloring, crossing midlines and in general a visual motor problem. Could he have this disorder? Where do I go for help. He is in the fourth grade and we are making him work to maintain good grades, however, we work with him at home for aroung 3 hours each evening. Please respond. [email protected] We live in WV, and we have not been extremely successful with the school system working with us. I have a constant battle with them. He does have an IEP, but he falls under a special condition 504. For this reason the school system is not real excited to work with us.

: I am wondering how you get a child tested for this disorder, and I am
: also wondering what the symptoms are. My son has great difficulty
: writing, cutting, coloring, crossing midlines and in general a
: visual motor problem. Could he have this disorder? Where do I go
: for help. He is in the fourth grade and we are making him work to
: maintain good grades, however, we work with him at home for aroung
: 3 hours each evening. Please respond. [email protected] We live in
: WV, and we have not been extremely successful with the school
: system working with us. I have a constant battle with them. He
: does have an IEP, but he falls under a special condition 504. For
: this reason the school system is not real excited to work with us. The best place to go for an evaluation is a neuropsychologist, perhaps referred by a family therapist or educational consultant. However, make sure that you personally confirm how much of the cost will be covered by your insurance carrier. Call and take specific notes, including the name of the customer service rep, about what you are told or you will be fighting for reimbursement. A full neuropsych evaluation can easily cost $2,000.

It was suggested by my son’s third grade teacher in his old school that he be tested for a writing disability. I thought she was joking…a writing disability. My son had already been tested as gifted and was in the gifted program; however, he does have ADD. Anyway, we moved before that school could test him. At the new school system, those in charge assumed that because he was at the high end of their gifted program, he simply could not have a learning disability! It took me almost two years to have my son tested for dysgraphia—the test was positive. We now have a “504 plan” through the school system. This plan outlines a program for teachers to follow to assist him with his school work: he is allowed extra time to complete assignments and tests, his teacher must keep in contact with me on a regular basis (mainly concerning homework), when doing essay-type assignments - he is allowed to turn in rough drafts typed into the computer. These few are just examples of what is on his “504 plan”. There was talk of letting him type information into the computer/wordprocessor in class, but that was put on the back burner for now. I would definitely suggest talking with your school about this type of program if you haven’t already.

While performing a search on learning styles, I extended the search to include multiple intelligence. This gave my some very interesting information about how children learn and different ways to help them learn. A few sites I used were www.aboutourkids.com, www.smarterkids.com/rescenter/learnstyle.asp, www.betterendings.org/FosterCare/MFlearn.html.

The thing I would most strongly suggest is that you become your child’s strongest advocate and teach him to be an advocate for his learning disability. Teachers, as well as other students, need to be educated that just because someone has a LD does not mean that they are “stupid”, it just means that they learn differently. Good Luck!