How young can dysgraphia be diagnosed?

[displace]

We afterschool, DS is only 6, but his writing is illegible unless I'm standing over him.  We're looking into doing an evaluation for dysgraphia.  Is it too young for a diagnosis or is it possible? 

 

Thanks for your help! 

[Crimson Wife]

It's one of those tricky things like auditory processing where it can be difficult to distinguish between natural "late bloomers" and kids who have a real problem.

 

Some kids do much better with cursive than print. My DS is one of them. His print is *AWFUL* but his cursive is okay. If you saw two samples, you'd never guess that they came from the same kid. So you could try teaching him cursive and seeing if he does better with that. Memoria Press New American Cursive is what I use for my kids.

[displace]

Thanks, I have read that and I'll look into that curriculum.  I've also heard about loops and ... something program.  I have started him on keyboarding without tears, and because of some reading errors I'm not sure if there may be dyslexia too.  I think we will start with OT (we're seeing PT for HWT assistance but IDK if it's been helping too much for his independent work). 

[Lecka]

It is not too early to try things that might help his handwriting.  Locally they would not diagnose and would want to try things.  It is after they try things and don't see much result that they will talk about it.

 

On the bright side -- I have seen kids have their handwriting improve just with time.  I have also seen kids make good progress with OT or with going back to more basic skills.  

 

It got brought up to me after my son worked hard in OT and made progress, but then they said they did not think he would go a lot farther at present.  They said there is still improvement with age and maturity and to expect him to still improve over time, too.  

 

But to get info from the horse's mouth -- you can just ask if they would be able to diagnoses "disorder of written expression" or dysgraphia.  I looked into it when my son was 8 and the place I looked at would have been able to give him a diagnosis of "disorder of written expression" if that was what the results showed.  It was easy for me to find out by talking to the receptionist -- I called, she asked, I called back, she had the info.  E-mailing might have worked even better.  

 

But personally I would lean towards starting with an OT eval if it is an option.  It is more to the point with a 6-year-old I think.  Maybe you could get recommendations even if you didn't do sessions all the time -- some things can be home exercises. 

 

I have also heard that kids can have a muscular weakness -- and OT is good for finding that out.  It was not the case with my son, but I have heard that when it is the case, they can have great results.  

[Lecka]

I am the one who talks about Loops and Other Groups here :)

 

It was picked for my son b/c he had a strength in motor memory and weaknesses in kind-of everything else.  But an OT can pick a program that will be best for a child, depending on their own strengths and weaknesses.  He did more in OT than just that program, too.  

 

I have a great impression of it, though, if you have it recommended or go for it.  My son has visual perceptual delays -- that is who it is intended/designed for.  He has no kind of motor weakness.  So it would not be the same for a child who had different needs.  Oh, also when you see the blurb it says "works in 6 weeks" and that is just not true.  I would IGNORE that totally.  OT never said anything like that to me -- I just google everything.  

 

He also does still have poor handwriting.  But it is so much better than it used to be!  

 

He also writes in print now even though it is a cursive program.  It helped him to get his letter formations down (much better than before), but cursive is just kind-of confusing to him.  He can copy well now (a skill that improved 100% with OT) but he cannot really do it from memory -- he gets lost.  But it has transferred to his print and that is a good thing and what the OT was going for.  It really, really helped him.  It is a great improvement for him -- he is still writing kind-of illegibly etc. but he can write onto paper a lot easier, it is a lot more functional for him.  He still does not have really functional handwriting for his grade level, but it is a lot better, and it is enough for him to jot things down and write a little here and there, which is a big improvement over not being able to do those things without a lot of heartache and difficulty.    

 

But I have heard of quite a few kids who have done better with cursive, too.  

 

I think there are a lot of options:)

[displace]

Thanks for all the recs!

[Heathermomster]

Well, my 6 yo went through a one hour OT evaluation, and we discovered weak pincer grasp, a couple of other super weak muscles, and motor planning issues. My DD performed exercises for a few weeks and has only recently started writing more than one sentence. The OT eval was good because it assessed multiple things including visual processing, dominant handed-ness, and balance/vestibular. For hw practice, I really like software StartWrite, which is a New American Cursive copy sheet generator. The sw contains a generic manuscript font. My DD writes her first name in cursive.

 

My DS was diagnosed with dysgraphia at the beginning of 2nd grade.

[displace]

Well, my 6 yo went through a one hour OT evaluation, and we discovered weak pincer grasp, a couple of other super weak muscles, and motor planning issues. My DD performed exercises for a few weeks and has only recently started writing more than one sentence. The OT eval was good because it assessed multiple things including visual processing, dominant handed-ness, and balance/vestibular. For hw practice, I really like software StartWrite, which is a New American Cursive copy sheet generator. The sw contains a generic manuscript font. My DD writes her first name in cursive.

 

My DS was diagnosed with dysgraphia at the beginning of 2nd grade.

 

We're working with a PT but I think we'll end up likely switching to OT instead.  She's just doing handwriting and I think we'd benefit from something more comprehensive.

 

[FairProspects]

Both my kids were diagnosed at 7 by the neuropsych, but the OT had suspected dysgraphia in my older son since age 5, so I don't think 6 is too early to get a diagnosis from a professional (OTs cannot diagnose).

[Heathermomster]

We're working with a PT but I think we'll end up likely switching to OT instead.  She's just doing handwriting and I think we'd benefit from something more comprehensive.

 

Was there a specific purpose for the PT?

[displace]

Was there a specific purpose for the PT?

She's trained in HWT. I thought since I wasn't getting great results it would help to have a professional. She did recommend some specific techniques with paper and letter sizing. Also DS and I tend to not work great together for handwriting so I thought an outside face would benefit our dynamic. But his problems seem to revert to the beginning when we're not there to guide him. Another PT last year wanted to work more generally with him, strengthening him in general but we deferred to work just on handwriting.

 

Last year we focused a ton on reading. This year will be writing and maybe typing I suspect.