Dysgraphia? What first

[Anonymous]

Hi - I'm hoping the wisdom of the group can help a little here.

My son just finished second grade at a Fairfax County school. His handwriting is terrible, noticably far below that of his peers. He also has a lot of trouble getting throughts on paper, and in fact used to cry at the beginning of the school year when faced with a writing assignment. He'll talk intelligently about details of books, but if asked to reduce it to paper it comes out very simplistic.

I've wondered for a while, based on internet searches, whether he has dysgraphia, which is related to, and often paired with, dyslexia. In the following link, I'd guess motor dysgraphia. http://www.vaxa.com/learning-disabilities-dignosing-dysgraphia.cfm . Bad spelling, crude drawing, difficulty writing and great reluctance, but no letter inversions or other symptoms of dyslexia. I'm also not sure if this is a "real" diagnosis or not. Some web sites I found suggested not. I asked his teacher to have his writing evaluated (without saying dygraphia because of my doubts), but it didn't happen before the school year let out. I didn't push.

However, I found out last week that my younger brother had the same problem, and actually a diagnosis of dysgraphia and extra help, in second grade himself. So, i've decided it's time take action and quit wondering and dithering.

So, what doctor - regular pediatrician or occupational therapist? Can I push the FFX schools to test him over the summer, and if there is a diagnosis, get the IEP process started now so it's in place before school starts again? Other ideas I haven't thought of? Where to start?

Thanks for any advice.

[Anonymous]

Most teachers have no clue what dysgraphia is, especially the younger ones. I have had two teachers tell me they were not familiar with it and had to look it up. My child has symptoms of this but has actually has been diagnosed as ADHD. Difficulty writing can be part of this. A WISC test revealed very high verbal comprehension and a 40 point spread between that and working memory. Sometimes the writing process can be difficult if your thoughts are racing too fast. I would start with a WISC and see what the psych says...in our case we did the WISC for AAP and the psych came back and said she recommended the full neuropsych eval.

[Anonymous]

IDK if Ffx tests for dysgraphia but you could get a handwriting specialist from Handwriting Without Tears to make an evaluation. If you are concerned about dyslexia as well (ie if he is not picking up reading and is having trouble recognizing letters and their sounds) you can refer him for an eval, but the referral process takes awhile and there is no guarantee he will get tested.

[Anonymous]

Sounds just like my son in second grade. (He's now 17.) As was said earlier you need an IQ test (WASI) and then an achievement test - Wechsler (WIAT) or Woodcock Johnson. You could add Test of Written Language and/or Gray Oral Reading. You should also have an OT evaluation. It's great to be looking at this now. I agree that most teachers don't have clue about dysgraphia. I volunteer in an elementary school and am always educating teachers about dysgraphia. (Even special education teachers.) In high school my son had a teacher (of 20 plus years) who didn't believe dysraphia existed. So we had an Educational Psychologist at the IEP meeting to explain it. I left it to my son and his case manager to make sure she did what was stated in the IEP.

This is very real. My son's verbal IQ is 143 (almost gifted) and his sentence composition is 71 - performance is less than half his potential. His sentence composition score has increased from his original diagnosis. His case manager says she's never seen someone work so hard. He would rewrite something 5 and 6 times to improve it. During class discussions his insights were often the highest in the class and his written work was always the lowest and didn't indicate what he knew - if you could read it.

My son just finished his junior year in high school. He was in the early college program and attended a local college instead of high school. He wouldn't have been able to do this without the technology he has. His psychology professor told him that she expects to see him publish work sooner than later. He's very smart BUT if you look at something he wrote you would think he was in early elementary. However if he dictates it on Dragon Naturally speaking he produces A work in college.

I'll add that during recent testing he was also given the diagnosis of dyslexia. His reading comprehension is 145 and his decoding is 92 with a fluency of 98. (the 40 point spread). These kids have so much to offer. A great book to read is the Mislabeled Child but Dr and Dr Eide's.

[Anonymous]

OP Here - this is all very helpful.

We had the WISC done for AAP and his processing speed index was markedly lower than everything else (34th percentile), working memory was low-ish at 84th percentile, and everything else was in the 90s. We didn't get a recommendation for further evaluation though.

So, I guess a good start is having followup tests done, either Handwriting without Tears or using George Mason for the Test of Written Language or Gray Oral reading (they did the WISC).

What does an OT evaluation mean? Go to an OT? How do you find one?

[Anonymous]

Asdec.org call them and they can give you guidance and names of therapists hay can help.

[Anonymous]

OT is Occupational Therapy. I'm a Reading/Writing tutor and most of the kids I tutor that struggle with writing end up in some type of Occupational Therapy. If the students are young enough it seems to have some really positive effects. I have to say no one suggested OT to us until my son was in 7th grade and the gains were minimal. Even the therapist said that at this age it's hard to correct and you have to decide if the small incremental benefit is worth all the work.

Maybe some from the list can suggest a Therapist in the DC area (I'm in MN).

[Anonymous]

This is significant now, but it will become even more significant as he gets older and he is graded on his writing skills as opposed to his "participation". The ACT and the SAT both have writing portions, as do most AP and IB tests.

Document, Document, Document. Save each and every peice of paper from the 504, IEP and testing you have done so that when you apply for accommodations for these very important tests you have the paper trail.

The College Board (which administers the SAT and AP tests) wants to see a diagnosis going back much farther than middle school in order for your son to have accommodations for use of a computer.

You will also need a test called the Beery VMI (visual motor skills) done in order to have accommodations on these tests.

Get your son typing ASAP.

Good luck

[Anonymous]

OP, can your child sound out unknown words? If you give him a fairly simple "nonsense" word, would he be able to spell it for you? (Nonsense is a word that follows spelling rules, but isn't a real word - like "chab" or "dripe".)

My son has both dysgrahia and dyslexia. We're in MCPS. He is going to a handwriting therapist/OT who is trained with "Handwriting without Tears." (Google it. You can get trained tutors from their Parents page.) His handwriting, while readable and somewhat neat, was just all over the place - random capitalizations, floating letters, uneven sizes, etc. The tutor is helping a lot.

The summer would be great for you to begin therapy. He can keep "active" by writing some over the summer, but also begin to fix issues before the school year begins.

Our son's tutor for dyslexia is from Susan Barton's system. Her web page has a list of common warning signs for Dyslexia. Please review it.

http://www.dys-add.com/dyslexia.html and warning signs: http://www.dys-add.com/resources/RecentResearch/DysWarningSigns.pdf

Our son didn't have many of the early warning signs and I NEVER woud have suspected it because he reads much above grade level (thanks to amazing word recognition), but he could not sound out an unknown word (the very first thing I mentioned). He also changed many words to synonyms or other word forms when reading and would drop/add things like "the/a/an", "of", "to", etc. I finally got so upset after he had an answer marked incorrect on a science test that was correct, just with unacceptable spellling, that I started looking into his spelling issues and pursued an evaluation and tutoring.

I began pursuing a 504 at the end of the school year. We made some progress, but due to the timing the school is delaying the next meeting until October. Based on some of the horror stories I have heard about schools and their "cluelessness" about dyslexia, I am not sure I want an IEP. The schools seem even more clueless on dysgraphia, although they do have OTs on staff who tutor in Handwriting without Tears. HWT is highly regarded and I suspect may also be used in FFxCo.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

MY DS has both dysgrahia and dyslexia as well (MCPS). He has an IEP but it is mostly about accommodation rather then remediation. In other words, he get some minimal OT through the school but they really just want to give him a keyboard. Since his reading always manages to be on grade level, they offer him nothing. They do offer writing support but just extra resource time to help finish assignments. Nothing to solve the problem. We do everything else privately (OT, tutoring). He is in MS now and it is tough as he really does not want to do either anymore..and i don't blame him as we have been doing it since 1st grade.