Advice re Word Study Group

[Anonymous]

Re-posting to fix the title - I would appreciate it if the moderators can delete the earlier post.

I have a 7-year-old with ADHD who is doing really well with medication in a mainstream classroom. Her Achilles' heel, however, is writing and spelling. She has basically been looking at the same word study words since kindergarten. This year, she was placed in the lowest word study group because she did not do well on the assessment (she is not great at taking tests, even one-on-one). She has been saying to me, "Mommy, why am I doing this again. Does my teacher think I am stupid?"

She is never going to be a great speller and her handwriting is never going to be great (her father is the same way and it did not prevent him doing very well professionally). But I don't want this holding her back - she is doing so well in all other areas. But trying to explain this to her teacher got me nowhere. She will not change the groups.

She does have a 504, but it is primarily for concentration and organization.

Any advice as to where I can go from here would be appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Yes, testing for learning disabilities. I mean honestly, what else do you think the answer is?

[Anonymous]

Have her tested for dyslexia and dysgraphia.

[Anonymous]

You describe my child, who is diagnosed with ADHD and Learning Disability (Dysgraphia).

Write a letter to the school saying that you suspect an LD and want an IEP and are asking the school for a full battery of IQ and achievement testing including testing in reading achievement, spelling achievement, knowledge of sound/symbol relationships (i.e. encoding and decoding in spelling and reading) and OT evaluation for handwriting, and a full language assessment. If the school refuses to provide, move for an Independent Educational Assessment.

FWIW, our child has dysgraphia and does much better at "spelling" tests when his spelling words are chunked and audio-recorded for him. He can listen to them several times a day in about 5 minutes and he will do very well on a test. Repeated writing, sorting exercises, writing sentences, etc. do absolutely nothing for his learning because the high cognitive load created by his dysgraphia prevents him from learning anything thru writing.

This kind of "spelling" help was meaningless for his ability to become an on grade level speller in the context of written work. For that, he needed extensive, explicit phonic (i.e. sound/symbol) instruction in both decoding and encoding. Once he got that his spelling improved dramatically.

[Anonymous]

My kid with dyslexia is not in a word study group with the other kids, but does phonics-based work with the reading specialist. I don't think the techniques they use in word study sound like they would help him spell, either.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Why would we need more testing. We already know there is a problem. I would like advice as to how to address it with the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Why would we need more testing. We already know there is a problem. I would like advice as to how to address it with the school.

You know she has ADHD, but have you ruled out dyslexia and dysgraphia? Who made the diagnosis? Did you have full neuropsych testing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Re-posting to fix the title - I would appreciate it if the moderators can delete the earlier post.

I have a 7-year-old with ADHD who is doing really well with medication in a mainstream classroom. Her Achilles' heel, however, is writing and spelling. She has basically been looking at the same word study words since kindergarten. This year, she was placed in the lowest word study group because she did not do well on the assessment (she is not great at taking tests, even one-on-one). She has been saying to me, "Mommy, why am I doing this again. Does my teacher think I am stupid?"

She is never going to be a great speller and her handwriting is never going to be great (her father is the same way and it did not prevent him doing very well professionally). But I don't want this holding her back - she is doing so well in all other areas. But trying to explain this to her teacher got me nowhere. She will not change the groups.

She does have a 504, but it is primarily for concentration and organization.

Any advice as to where I can go from here would be appreciated.

How will changing groups help? Your DD needs a full neuropsych eval to see if she has learning disabilities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Why would we need more testing. We already know there is a problem. I would like advice as to how to address it with the school.

You know she has ADHD, but have you ruled out dyslexia and dysgraphia? Who made the diagnosis? Did you have full neuropsych testing?

Yes, had full private neuropsych testing (at Family Compass in Fairfax). Writing was identified as a problem area, but no separate dysgraphia diagnosis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Why would we need more testing. We already know there is a problem. I would like advice as to how to address it with the school.

You know she has ADHD, but have you ruled out dyslexia and dysgraphia? Who made the diagnosis? Did you have full neuropsych testing?

Yes, had full private neuropsych testing (at Family Compass in Fairfax). Writing was identified as a problem area, but no separate dysgraphia diagnosis.

Okay, here is the Wrightslaw take on dysgraphia:

http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/read.dysgraphia.facts.htm

Does this sound like your DD?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Why would we need more testing. We already know there is a problem. I would like advice as to how to address it with the school.

You know she has ADHD, but have you ruled out dyslexia and dysgraphia? Who made the diagnosis? Did you have full neuropsych testing?

Yes, had full private neuropsych testing (at Family Compass in Fairfax). Writing was identified as a problem area, but no separate dysgraphia diagnosis.

Okay, here is the Wrightslaw take on dysgraphia:

http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/read.dysgraphia.facts.htm

Does this sound like your DD?

Somewhat. Not completely. She reads slightly above grade level and has no problem expressing herself in writing. But the spelling and the penmanship are atrocious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Why would we need more testing. We already know there is a problem. I would like advice as to how to address it with the school.

You know she has ADHD, but have you ruled out dyslexia and dysgraphia? Who made the diagnosis? Did you have full neuropsych testing?

Yes, had full private neuropsych testing (at Family Compass in Fairfax). Writing was identified as a problem area, but no separate dysgraphia diagnosis.

Okay, here is the Wrightslaw take on dysgraphia:

http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/read.dysgraphia.facts.htm

Does this sound like your DD?

Somewhat. Not completely. She reads slightly above grade level and has no problem expressing herself in writing. But the spelling and the penmanship are atrocious.

So when you say she has no trouble expressing herself in writing, do you mean there is no difficulty formulating ideas, organizing them and getting them on the page? How about writing mechanics like capitalization and punctuation? It's just the spelling and penmanship with no other writing issues? Is there any anxiety around writing? As for reading, our dysgraphic DD reads way above grade level, but she has definite dysgraphia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Why would we need more testing. We already know there is a problem. I would like advice as to how to address it with the school.

You know she has ADHD, but have you ruled out dyslexia and dysgraphia? Who made the diagnosis? Did you have full neuropsych testing?

Yes, had full private neuropsych testing (at Family Compass in Fairfax). Writing was identified as a problem area, but no separate dysgraphia diagnosis.

Okay, here is the Wrightslaw take on dysgraphia:

http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/read.dysgraphia.facts.htm

Does this sound like your DD?

Somewhat. Not completely. She reads slightly above grade level and has no problem expressing herself in writing. But the spelling and the penmanship are atrocious.

So when you say she has no trouble expressing herself in writing, do you mean there is no difficulty formulating ideas, organizing them and getting them on the page? How about writing mechanics like capitalization and punctuation? It's just the spelling and penmanship with no other writing issues? Is there any anxiety around writing? As for reading, our dysgraphic DD reads way above grade level, but she has definite dysgraphia.

No difficulty formulating ideas. Organizing them and putting then on paper is somewhat of an issue, but not always. Mechanics definitely - it took her a long time to grasp the concept of spaces between words. Definitely lots of anxiety about writing.

Thank you for all of your ideas - it looks like we definitely need her evaluated specifically for dysgraphia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Why would we need more testing. We already know there is a problem. I would like advice as to how to address it with the school.

You know she has ADHD, but have you ruled out dyslexia and dysgraphia? Who made the diagnosis? Did you have full neuropsych testing?

Yes, had full private neuropsych testing (at Family Compass in Fairfax). Writing was identified as a problem area, but no separate dysgraphia diagnosis.

Okay, here is the Wrightslaw take on dysgraphia:

http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/read.dysgraphia.facts.htm

Does this sound like your DD?

Somewhat. Not completely. She reads slightly above grade level and has no problem expressing herself in writing. But the spelling and the penmanship are atrocious.

So when you say she has no trouble expressing herself in writing, do you mean there is no difficulty formulating ideas, organizing them and getting them on the page? How about writing mechanics like capitalization and punctuation? It's just the spelling and penmanship with no other writing issues? Is there any anxiety around writing? As for reading, our dysgraphic DD reads way above grade level, but she has definite dysgraphia.

No difficulty formulating ideas. Organizing them and putting then on paper is somewhat of an issue, but not always. Mechanics definitely - it took her a long time to grasp the concept of spaces between words. Definitely lots of anxiety about writing.

Thank you for all of your ideas - it looks like we definitely need her evaluated specifically for dysgraphia.

I hope some of this was helpful. In our experience, school personnel (in a mainstream private school) were completely unfamiliar with dysgraphia and even when it was explained, they thought it was strictly a handwriting problem that a little OT could fix. I wish that were true. Of course your DD might not have dysgraphia, but it is worth ruling out. You could talk with the evaluating psychologist as a starting place, and consider whether your DD might benefit from an IEP rather than a 504 plan. I think the Wrightslaw sheet is very helpful in spelling out potential specialized instruction, as well as accommodations. If you feel you're getting nowhere, you might want to consult with an advocate and see if that's helpful.

Good luck, OP!

[Anonymous]

How long ago was the testing OP? If they identified hand writing as a problem area--what does this mean? Did they give specific recommendations?

I agree with PPs about asking the school to test for dyslexia/dysgraphia b/c if she needs accommodations this is the way to get them. Also kids with ADHD often have trouble with executive functioning, which may include getting thoughts out/organizing them.

This may sound like your DD:
http://www.ldonline.org/article/12770/