Disorder of Written Expression

There is information on writing on this board look under LD In Depth. I was looking at it last night for help with my child’s IEP. I’ll be interested in what others say as well.

Is his problem in the physical act of handwriting, in constructing a written answer, or both?

I work on the handwriting skill, and yes, there is much that can be done. You just have to sit down with him and do it (ahh, the hard part.)

Someone here just yesterday posted a link to a lady who does handwriting retraining — I have to find the link and re-post it.

I have outlines among my how-to-tutor notes with advice on effective methodology.

Once the physical handwriting issue is under control and there is some energy to spare, many kids do better on content and form right away.

As far as genuine difficulties in content and format alone, much more difficult. Many people here can help you find good programs.

Thanks for leading me to the link on the website. I am going to swim through the information this weekend.

His writing problem is with every aspect of writing; however, he seems much more capable of expressing ideas when he uses a computer and spellcheck. When he is actually, physically writing, his inability to spell, to recall the alphabet (particularly the lowercase or uppercase letter he needs at the moment), and to write legibly interferes with his expressing himself. He totally blocks and just stares at the paper. On the TOWL he was given two weeks ago, he wrote three, basically illegible, simple sentences in fifteen minutes, for the essay section of the test.

For anyone who is reading this and asking himself/herself why we let his writing disability go this long, we adopted my son two-and-a-half years ago. We were told his language issues were developmental because he had not had much schooling before moving in with us as a foster child three years ago. It took his living with us and our using various remedial interventions for diagnosticians to be able to rule out his socio-cultural background as a reason for his difficulties. The gig is up, and the school is concerned. Rightly so. But what to do?

Mava,

This disorder is also called Dysgraphia. One of my favorite articles on this topic is right here on this site:

http://www.ldonline.org/article.php?max=20&special_grouping=&id=550&loc=79

That article has great suggestions, but bottom line, at his age it would take monumental effort to get minimal gains with the handwriting, even though I agree with Victoria that it may be desirable to try. Get him the accommodations he needs and let him type everything!!!

The dyslexia does need to be dealt with. He obviously can’t write or type above the level he can read. And he simply will not get what he needs for reading at school.

I’d personally suggest reading the book Reading Reflex to understand the instructional issues, but I use the materials from a program called ABCeDarian to actually teach decoding skills:

www.abcdrp.com

(Oh, and p.s., writing is not scored as writing IQ. He is not MR in writing. He may have scored in the poor range, but this is not comparable to IQ. They are simply scored on the same scale with 100 being average.)

Janis

I would recommend joining the dysgraphia email list at http://groups.yahoo.com . Some of the parents there have extensive information and experience.

Is your son in school and, if so, are you planning on an IEP for him? Or are you homeschooling? My suggestions would be somewhat different in each case. There are specific accommodations that should be listed in the IEP, for example. A lot of the programs I will mention below are homeschool programs.

Most dysgraphics the age of your son are moved into assistive technology. AlphaSmart is one commonly used option (http://www.alphasmart.com). Most schools will provide one, along with software such as Co-Writer.

In my opinion, it is more important to intensively address the reading problems (dyslexia) first. There is much more handicap associated with not being able to read, in our society, than there is with not being able to write or spell. My preference is for Phono-Graphix (http://www.readamerica.net), because it is very efficient at teaching reading. The home version of PG is contained in the book “Reading Reflex” by McGuiness. Your library should have a copy, and most bookstores carry it for under $20. A good follow-up to Reading Reflex is the Rewards program (http://www.rewardsreading.com) Intermediate level is good for students reading at a 2nd grade level. The original Rewards program is excellent for students reading at a beginning 4th grade level or better. Both programs provide scripting, so a parent could do them at home.

Once reading is remediated (I try for at least grade level), more attention can be turned to writing. Dysgraphia tends to be a much more persistent problem than reading, so one would expect to spend considerably more time remediating it.

Once a child is reading on about a beginning 4th grade level, you can start him on Sequential Spelling (http://www.avko.org). This program could be done at home even if the child is in school, because it takes only about 10 minutes per day. Spelling Through Morphographs is another excellent spelling program (primarily for middle school and up). There is a placement test for it online — try Googling for it. Sequential Spelling can be a good preparatory program for Spelling Through Morphographs.

A very good grammar program for dysgraphics is Hake (http://grammar.cc). I would not use their writing program, though (not sufficiently explicit).

For writing, a good place to start is the Four-Square approach (see Amazon). The next step up from this would be WriteShop (http://www.writeshop.com), followed by IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing, http://www.writing-edu.com/). These are all homeschool programs whose equivalent you will probably not be able to find in public school programs. However, it gives you a place to start.

Hope this wasn’t too much information in one post!

Nancy

Please don’t get too discouraged by any individual score being “in the MR range.” As soon as you take that zoom lens and focus sharply on one area, then a specific problem is going to look downright crippling.
Writing is an especially complex task. ***Much*** can be learned. I have watched some students progress from that “MR” range to becoming downright good writers; others get at least to the competent range so that writing doesn’t keep them from doing what they want to do in school & life.

Thanks for all the great responses! I’m very happy I found this forum, for you have given me much needed advice. I will join the Dysgraphia forum, as well. My feelings, at this point in my researching, are to put handwriting aside for the time being and to focus on keyboarding and dyslexia interventions for reading. I am not sure if I am going to face resistance from the school system, though. He will be required to take the state-mandated writing test next year, and if he has to actually use handwriting, there is no chance of his passing the test, so I am going to have to check with the state about the accepted modifications before I have the IEP meeting. The school may insist on handwriting remediation, so he can be prepared for the test (which, of course, he will not be, even with remediation this year).

The IEP…*sigh.* The testing I had done was private testing, and he is in the process of being tested by the school, as well. I wanted him tested for dyslexia by a dyslexia specialist because he reads slightly below level. The problem is, he cannot read for any extended period of time, and he NEVER reads for pleasure. Because the testing showed his being slightly below level, I question whether or not they will offer any services. He took a practice reading test, similar to the state-mandated one he will be required to take in the spring, and he failed it badly. Why? Because it took two hours. There’s not a chance this child can pass a reading test that is two hours long. The fact that he failed this practice test may help me get the school to recognize his dyslexia. We’ll see. The writing is so obvious and the scores are so low that it cannot be ignored.

Again, I can’t thank you enough for all of your help.

>I wanted him tested for dyslexia by a dyslexia specialist because he >reads slightly below level. The problem is, he cannot read for any >extended period of time, and he NEVER reads for pleasure.

Not being able to read for an extended period of time is often an indication of an undiagnosed developmental vision delay. Developmental vision skills are not assessed in regular eye examinations. You would need to get a developmental vision eval to find out if this is the underlying cause. For more information, see http://www.childrensvision.com . You can search for board-certified developmental optometrists in your area at http://www.covd.org . Developmental vision delays is not an area schools are equipped to deal with. Medical insurance usually will not cover the eval. Where I live, a good developmental vision eval costs about $175 and an additional $50 for a written report of the test results (a good idea if problems are found).

Developmental vision problems can also interfere with visual-motor coordination (handwriting), although for many dysgraphics this is not the primary problem.

Nancy

Nancy,

He was diagnosed last May with a binocular vision disorder. My problem with this is that people who are dyslexic or who work with dyslexics scoff at this diagnosis. They say all dyslexics have this, that an inability to track and focus both eyes when reading is a result of dyslexia and the compensation strategies that dyslexics use to read. They say that having a child with dyslexia go through vision therapy is a total waste of time and money. My husband, however, believes it is time and money we need to spend.

Any thoughts?

Hmmm…. not all dyslexics have that - many people with dyslexia do *fine* once they learn how to figure out the words. (Not all — too often teachers/parents think that’s all they have to do.)

I would try to figure out whether he can’t read for a long time because it takes a lot of mental effort (not being fluent at figuring out the words), or because it takes a lot of physical effort (the tracking problem).

Does he read accurately and fluently for a little while, but it makes him tired? That would *definitely* indicate a vision issue.

If he struggles all the time, then things aren’t as clear; I’d want to know how well he decodes single words (where he doesn’t have to track). If he struggles with them, then I would be inclined to tackle the decoding.

My brother & sister both benefited immensely from vision therapy, and neither of the are/were dyslexic. It’s just hard to read the words if you’re seeing two of them, one image from each eye.

Mava, you are speaking to the wrong people about dyslexia. IF the child really has a visual tracking problem, then yes of course vision therapy should help. After the vision therapy, then he still has to be taught to read (it doesn;t come by magic) and bad visual habits have to be prevented from re-starting, but yes, you can do a lot of good. The people who claim nothing can be done and you shouldn’t even try are a political subgroup with a defined agenda, and personally I would recommend you avoid that direction.

Well, now. It’s interesting to finally hear some positive things about vision therapy! I tell you, it’s baffling, and because I have not been through all years of my son’s developmental history, it’s hard to know what to do.

On the one hand, my son is a “typical” dyslexic—has difficulty distinguishing left from right (although the forms he has to do in martial arts have helped tremendously with this), difficulty distinguishing north from south and east from west (he loves social studies, but hates having to answer questions about directions on a map :) ), transposes letters and numbers, confuses similar letters, cannot memorize the uppercase and lowercase alphabet, has great difficulty memorizing math facts, used to be unable to decode words (when he moved in with us, he did not have any concept of phonics), etc.

On the other hand, I checked nearly every box pertaining to visual perception problems when I answered the questionnaire on a vision therapy website. Those boxes included: reads with one eye shut (he used to do this), prefers to read in dim light, complains that the words “swim” on the page, uses his finger to keep track of what he is reading, skips lines and words if he does not use his finger or other tracking device, complains that reading makes him sleepy and makes his eyes hurt, etc. My son also complains that the print on a page appears darker with one eye than with the other. The optometrist said that my son’s major problem was binocular vision disorder (eyes moving in different directions when he reads), but he also had tracking problems.

Gee, now I’m wondering if he can have both problems—dyslexia and a vision disorder??? Poor kid!

Many people on this board have had positive results with vision therapy. It is still an experimental field so getting a good provider seems to be very important. You would do well to start another thread asking specifically about vision therapy and ask for advice.

Not knowing anything about phonics isn’t dyslexia, it’s dysteachia. A lot of people throw around the word dyslexia without any really well-defined diagnosis.

I reverse numbers, don’t know my left from my right, have a hard time with map directions, have no time sense, and all the rest — and I am the opposite of dyslexic! These patterns are more in line with what is now called NLD, non-verbal learning disability.

A certain group of people lump everything under the sun together under the umbrella term “dyslexia” (which technically means *only* a reading problem so they are misusing the term) and have a strong political agenda demanding extreme modifications in education and extensive services. You have a choice; you can try to get to the roots of the problem and do everything you can to overcome it, or you can demand that everyone else has to accomodate. Personally I go for the overcoming problems route.

I implicitly trust the diagnostician who dxed my son with dyslexia. She used to be the President of the local chapter of IDA, she’s worked as a diagnostician for twenty-five years and specializes in diagnosing dyslexia, and she used to work part-time as an Orton-Gillingham tutor in addition to being a diagnostician. She’s great! I also trust the optometrist. What’s interesting is they don’t trust each other!!! The diagnostician is one of the people I talked to who scoffed at vision therapy; the optometrist asked me not to let anyone diagnose my son with dyslexia, until he had undergone vision therapy for a few months, because the optometrist believed my son would be diagnosed with dyslexia, when in fact he didn’t have it. So, WHO does one believe??? It’s exhausting!

I will post about vision therapy because I would like to hear what people have to say about it. It looks as if my son will begin the therapy after Christmas because my husband is insisting on it, which is unusual for my husband. Most of these decisions are left to me. With vision therapy, however, my husband says we are going to try it and see if it helps.

I just started a thread on vision therapy in the parents’ section. Thanks for the suggestion!

Vision therapy works on correcting visual efficiency problems (such as the binocularity and tracking difficulties you mentioned). You need to be aware that correcting these problems may or may not have an immediate impact on reading. If the visual efficiency problems are the *only* thing or the *major* thing holding back reading fluency, then you will see significant gains from VT.

As others have pointed out, there can be a simultaneous decoding issue which also needs to be addressed. I think some of the bad press about VT has come from parents with inflated expectations of what it does. If a child does not know how to decode and also has visual efficiency problems, there may be no improvement in reading after VT. For this reason, parents sometimes think that VT has been a failure. They don’t realize that for some children, vision issues are only one piece of the pie.

If a child has both a vision problem and a decoding problem, it seems obvious that both issues need to be addressed appropriately in order for fluent reading to occur. Very often reading specialists have not studied vision and, as with many professionals, put on their blinders and focus narrowly only on the specialty that they know and know works for a lot of children.

There is still another huge piece you need to research, and that is cognitive skills training. Often the benefits of vision therapy are not fully realized because the child needs cognitive skills training as a follow-up. VT works primarily on correcting visual efficiency skills. Cognitive skills training works on developing visual processing and other skills that build on the sensory foundation.

Your original post mentioned directionality problems, for example. In the same way that martial arts training helped with the left/right issues, cognitive skills training works to develop a wide variety of skills commonly taken for granted — directionality, visual and auditory sequencing skills, visual and auditory short-term memory, attention skills (the ability to sustain focus, the ability to sustain focus in the presence of distractions, the ability to multi-task), etc. From the general description of your son, it sounds as if he would be highly likely to benefit from a cognitive skills training program once vision therapy has been successful. The very best program I know of is PACE (http://www.processingskills.com). Other less intensive and/or comprehensive programs are BrainSkills (home version of PACE) and Audiblox. BrainSkills and PACE include intensive exercises to develop phonemic awareness skills — segmenting, blending, and phoneme manipulation skills — that can help explicit reading programs remediate much faster.

I do want to mention, though, that disorders of written expression are often relatively unresponsive to interventions. It is usually much faster and easier to remediate reading than it is to remediate spelling or writing. VT sometimes has an impact on writing, but not always (and probably not even usually).

Nancy