I have been reading some wonderful ideas on getting children with written expression LD some help. I am a little confused on the whole LD/School issue.
My son was tested and diagnosed through the school at the end of his 4th grade year with a disability in written expression. I had been told 2 years before after private testing with a clinical psychologist that he was ADHD and borderline dyslexic. The issue I am confused on is that the school test didn’t show any problems related to dyslexia only written expression. As a parent I see my child swap letters, words, forgets punctuation, and generally has trouble getting things on paper. He is very strong in Math and enjoys Science when writing isn’t a requirement. He has an IEP from last year but up we haven’t really used it… that is fixing to change.
Yesterday he wrote a paper to a teacher regarding a student who took his pencil (it’s the little things to 11 year olds). I was floored when I saw this paper with hardly any errors in spelling, wonderful sentence structure, correct punctuation you name it… Absolutely perfect.
Is it possible to “out-grow” an problem area just for the moment. If the paper had been a requirement I can guess that the end result would have been different.
How often is it necessary to have a child tested? Should he be re-evaluated every few years or as the parent/school sees fit?
Are there any suggestions in regard to motivating children with written expression LD to write?
He can do it but if he isn’t motivated it takes hours and pulling out a few teeth!
In my experience very few ADHD students can write. I read it is something like 80% who CAN qualify in written expression Ld. I think writing makes heavy executive function demands and this is why ADHD kiddoes cannot manage the activity well, unless the particular child is highly motivated and really WANTS to write. We all know about ADHD, they can do what they are very highly motivated to do. If they are not exceedingly highly motivated, it does not happen. And, the executive function does cause difficulty with the planning and organizing, not to mention to task perserverance. I have not found that programs fix this problem. I have found that a teacher next to the child with a good structured approach will produce a decent product. Remove the teacher, leave the structure and the product quality drops dismally.