Anonymous wrote:May I ask what is the minimum qualification to get OT from MCPS? I have a kid with IEP, and she could not write any letter or number that is readable. She is going to be a rising K, does that mean she will at least get OT support? I think she has dysgraphia and dyslexia, all LDs.

Your kid will only get OT if it's in her IEP.

We are going through this right now and it's a nightmare. Our 3rd grader can't write a coherent paragraph, her writing is all over the page, and she has letter reversals in her writing . Mcps has no specialized research based instruction for writing. The OT observation was slanted to show "improvement" based on giving her shaded paper for a much easier task. I am aiming to fight for high tech accommodations and having to fight for this and get an advocate

May I ask what is the minimum qualification to get OT from MCPS? I have a kid with IEP, and she could not write any letter or number that is readable. She is going to be a rising K, does that mean she will at least get OT support? I think she has dysgraphia and dyslexia, all LDs.

Even if you have private testing that shows a dysgraphia diagnosis, MCPS will still want their OTs to do their own assessment. The MCPS assessment team will say the kid doesn’t have any issues and just blame it on being behind in reading. Seriously, our report says kids will have trouble spelling until they are fluent readers. Nothing was addressed about the physical act of writing. MCPS OT only cared about spelling and mechanics. Disregarded the fact that kids have to write multiple sentences for Eureka math

MCPS understands nothing about dysgraphia. They spent several years denying our kid had it and actively refusing to hold IEP meetings and do appropriate assessments.

Get a complete neuropsychologies from an outside assessor. Then go back for an IEP but don’t expect any helpful special instruction - you will have to pay for that on your own.

Tere are several components of dysgraphia. One is the physical component that is evaluated and treated by an Occupational therapist. OT's can also teach proper handwriting technique. The other is the ability to write language (spelling, writing sentences, paragraphs, and eventually essays) this can be evaluated by a psychologist or learning specialist.

OP here:

Thank you for the feedback! And the personal stories.

Good to know that MCPS might just be a dead end for something like this that doesn’t seem to be a huge issue, even if we can tell she’s struggling.

I think we’re fine with going private - luckily we can budget for it!

Anonymous wrote:We aren’t as concerned about her getting accommodations at this point as we are with trying to figure out how best to make writing not an awful process for her.

The threshold to qualify for PT or OT with MCPS is very, very high. MCPS likes to push speech-to-text, which is embedded in Google Docs. Accommodations are cheaper and easier to provide than services. OP you may need to go private for both the assessment and the help.

Anonymous wrote:Will Ness perform just specifically dyslexia/disgraphic testing? Or do they insist on doing a huge expensive unnecessary "comprehensive" evaluation.

phone her and ask

Will Ness perform just specifically dyslexia/disgraphic testing? Or do they insist on doing a huge expensive unnecessary "comprehensive" evaluation.

Anonymous wrote:Ness Associates in Silver Spring specialize in these kinds of tests. It isn't cheap though.

https://www.nesspsychologicalservices.com

Lorrie Ness is terrific, she evaluated our oldest 9 years ago and set us on the right path.

Ness Associates in Silver Spring specialize in these kinds of tests. It isn't cheap though.

https://www.nesspsychologicalservices.com

Yes, Neuropsych - Childrens and KKI take insurance, so you have to wait a long time. Private practitioners also have a wait of 3-6 months.

You can schedule a private neuropsych. That’s what we did to have our son diagnosed years ago. We used Children’s but there are many neuropsych practices in the area. You might need to call a few because appointments can be hard to come by. I know Childrens always has a terribly long waitlist. Years ago you could request to be placed on the cancellation list to speed it up a bit. But honestly while we had a great experience with testing, they make the entire scheduling process a pain.

We actually started with MCPS who claimed in 2nd grade their testing found no LD. We knew that wasn’t possible. The 3rd grade teacher said she was certain they missed it and would go to bat for our son if we did private testing. So we did. We brought the private testing report and an advocate to the table. The neuropsych called in. The teacher spoke up. We got the IEP for specific learning disability.

I wish I had known that MCPS does a crappy job with LD. We had a beautiful IEP with great accommodations and lots of service hours but they didn’t provide any evidence based intervention. So you will likely need to do outside tutoring/therapy. We sent our son to McLean School for their summer writing intensive, did lots of OT and worked with him at home. We later moved him to a private school that provided a very strong language arts curriculum. A few years later follow-up testing showed his LD was successfully remediated.

Based entirely on our observations over the last year or two, we think our bright, but not genius-level, 8 year old has difficulties with writing and spelling that track with dysgraphia, but could also just be from a lack of instruction in a way that clicks for her. Practice alone isn’t improving things at all.

We’ve tried to work with her, but she gets so anxious and distressed, no matter how low-pressure we try to be. And now that school work is transitioning from learning to write to writing to demonstrate learning, we don’t want her physical and mechanical difficulties with writing to hold her back. So we’d like to figure out first if it’s something like dysgraphia and then have her work with someone one on one other than her parents to give her the tools that help her.

Do MCPS elementary schools test for dysgraphia? From what I’ve read, the testing is a full panel, which is fine with us. If so, what’s the best way to advocate for her to be tested? We’ve brought this up with her teacher a few times, and she finally told us to ask the principal, so we did. The principal hasn’t even responded to our email, which seems par for the course based on conversations with other parents in the school.

Is there private testing available? If so, any recommendations?

We aren’t as concerned about her getting accommodations at this point as we are with trying to figure out how best to make writing not an awful process for her.