Background: I have a 3rd grade dd, who has struggled in school with her reading and her written language. She excels in math, but, is held back by her reading skills. I was researching yesterday, and came across a site on dysgraphia. EVERYTHING that they said, could have been said about my daughter. There was even a writing sample, that could have been written by my daughter.
She has been diagnosed already, with a central auditory processing disorder/auditory figure ground deficit (only on the left), as well as an unrelated high frequency sensory neural hearing loss in her left ear.
We do not have a dysgraphia diagnosis, yet. But, as a pediatric PT, I am able to put 2 and 2 together, look at all the signs and symptoms listed, and say with 99 % surity, that yes, this is what we have been fighting all along.
I need to find a support group of parents who are dealing with children with dysgraphia. I cannot find a forum solely dedicated to it. If she does get the diagnosis, I may have to start one up.
Thank you,
Christine
Dysgraphia- any parents of children with Dysgraphia on here?
Dysgraphia is among my dd’s issues. She was dx’d with it in 4th grade. Getting a dx would be great and allow you to tap into some resources such as assistive technology. Currently my dd is using Kurzweil 3000 for writing. It has a great word prediction program which helps with spelling, one of her weak areas.
As for handwriting, we found that gymnastics made a huge difference. I’ve read several times that upper body strengthening can help with handwriting legibility. It really helped her. She went from barely legible writing to getting compliments on her writing. She may never be fast enough to take notes but she has learned to enjoy writing.
You may also want to look into using colored paper. This can help some people because they have issues with the brightness of white paper.
Dysgraphia- any parents of children with Dysgraphia on here?
Thank you!
She does do dance, and I feel that that is helpful for her gross motor skills, and honestly, she enjoys that, and to put her into gymnastics, also, would be too time consuming. We can definitely build upper body strengthening activities into her daily routine.
My main concern is the ability of others to understand what she is writing. (ie: my man kunsn is the ablte of uddrs to odrsn wut she is rtn) I am working on getting her evaluated and diagnosed so we can get the right help.
Dysgraphia- any parents of children with Dysgraphia on here?
Christine,
Is it that her spelling as well as her writing is an issue? If so, she may benifit from a multisensory reading program that incorperates spelling. Having an occupational therapist work with her for her fin motor skills would probably be useful. Encouraging her to do anything at home that uses fine moter coordination is good too.
Realize, if her handwritting is never fluent, she may be able to use a keyboard (I forget the name of the keyboard, but one of my student’s uses it for short answers and essays on tests) in school to write essays when she is older. Technology is great for bypassing difficulties like that.
Re: Dysgraphia- any parents of children with Dysgraphia on here
Hello! I have a son who has a Disorder of Written Expression, which encompasses dysgraphia. Although I have not found a forum that deals exclusively with dysgraphia, I suggest you check out Schwablearning.org, for many parents there have children with writing disabilities. Also, Susan Barton’s website, Bright Solutions for Dyslexia, may be a good website for you to look at, as well. With your daughter’s auditory, reading, and spelling issues, along with her writing issues, I would think she may need to be evaluated for dyslexia.
Dysgraphia- any parents of children with Dysgraphia on here?
Technology definitely can help the spelling issues. Programs with Word Prediction really help a lot. There are some that have demo versions to help you evaluate what might work best for your dd.
Traditional spelling at school did not help my dd with her spelling. We used AVOK (http://avko.org/materials.html) for spelling. My dd really liked the program because it was instant feedback.
At school she is using the Read180 program by Scholastic. She also really likes this one because it is computer based and instant feedback.
Re: Dysgraphia- any parents of children with Dysgraphia on here
My daughter has add and dyslexia. I have read a little about dysgraphia and would like to check out the web site that you found. Could you send the link?
Thank you
Dysgraphia- any parents of children with Dysgraphia on here?
Here is a group dedicated to dysgraphia:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dysgraphia/
Dysgraphia- any parents of children with Dysgraphia on here?
A good tutor will work on the dysgraphia while tutoring the reading disorder/dyslexia. It is very common for these two things to go together. I recommend contacting the International Dyslexia Association and getting the name of someone who can assess your child for both dyslexia and dysgraphia. Just be forwarned that you will have to get help for this privately as schools rarely do an adequate job with it (mostly because teachers simply do not have the training). There are nice hand-outs on the IDA site, too. Also, since you are a PT, you might enjoy reading Mel Levine’s book, A Mind at a Time. He has a chapter on neuro-motor disorders.
Hi Christine,
I am not a parent, only a teacher (working on an additional certification to become an intervention specialist) and someone with LDs myself.
I was never diagnosed with dysgraphia (my diagnoses came later.. but I had intervention early for reading, handwritting, aritmetic, fine and gross motor skills, visual and auditory perception), but I still grip my pencil ackwardly, my writting is still not neat (it gets worse as I go) but it is legable, and I still break my pencil point all the time.
Is your daughter also clumsy? If so, she may have dyspraxia as well. Don’t dispair, though, because things can improve. Occupational therapy can help work on her fine motor skills (and gross ones too, if that is an issue). A multisensory approach may be helpful with her reading issues.
Hang in there.