early signs of dysgraphia?

[caedmyn]

My 6 YO K'er appears to have dyslexia like his older siblings.  I know he is very young, but some things just seem off about his handwriting.  He reverses...a ton...even if he has a model to look at.  It's better if he has a model, but he still reverses.  Numbers are especially bad.  Today he wrote two 4's upside down even with numbers at the top of the page to look at.  I pointed them out and he corrected them, and the next answer was a 4 also and he promptly wrote that one upside down.  He's been using HWOT to learn his letters but he still tends to want to start them in weird spots like bottom to top or right to left, make b's in one motion instead of with two strokes, stuff like that.  It also seems like he holds his pencil really tightly.  His grip looks ok (it's a quadripod grip which his siblings have also) and his letters are fairly neat for a 6 YO.  He doesn't have any particular trouble staying on a line when writing.  Does this sound normal for a young kid with dyslexia, or should I be concerned?  My 8 YO with dyslexia also reversed a lot but if he had a model he didn't reverse, and he didn't start his letters at weird spots.

[PeterPan]

Has he had OT or vision evals? Technically the reversals are more an OT issue.

 

For my ds, the SLD Writing at that age was not something I could pin down. It was more like I was having to make excuses for why it wasn't working for me to teach him writing, for him to get anything out at all. Like 45 minutes for 4-5 short cvc words on a line for a sentence. And that was unscrambling words already in front of him. So when I got the diagnosis, it was a relief.

 

And yes, ds starts at the wrong places. Honestly, I blame that on a lazy worker who supervises his writing now. I'm not saying it's not hard or not an issue, but she hasn't been attentive to it to make whatever attention COULD have been made. You can print pages with a traceable font with starting dots.

Edited March 15, 2017 by OhElizabeth

[Storygirl]

DD11 was diagnosed SLD written expression by the school but not by the NP. She has dyslexia.

 

DS12 was diagnosed SLD written expression by the NP but not the school. He does not have dyslexia but has fine motor and processing issues (among other things).

 

They both have sloppy writing, but for completely different reasons. Well, not completely. They both rush (both have ADHD).

 

So in my experience, deciding whether it is dysgraphia or not seems to be somewhat subjective, depending on the evaluator.

 

Regardless, they both get help for writing in their IEPs. Since you homeschool, I would say to use techniques designed to help dysgraphia and document them as you go along, in case you ever enroll him in school. And consider OT if it is feasible.

[geodob]

He is writing that way, because that is the way that he sees letters and numbers.

With vision, the image that forms on the back of eyes, is actually reversed and upside down.

Because of the way that light passes through the curved lenses of our eyes.

At birth, babies see the world upside down and reversed left to right.

Though typically after about 4 to 6 weeks, as babies brain has developed the ability to rotate the image and see the world correctly.

 

While this occurs with seeing the 'real world'.  The ability to symbols, such as letters and numbers correctly?

Is a later developmental process.  Which doesn't naturally occur in about 1 in 20 children.

So that they will write the way that they see letters and numbers.

Which is why he will look at the numbers at the top of the page, and still write them upside down.

 

You also wrote that he tends to write letters from 'bottom to top', and 'right to left'.

But in fact, this is the correct way to write letters/numbers upside down and reversed.

 

To 'fix' this, his vision needs to be helped, so that his brain develops the ability to see letters/ numbers the 'normal' way.

Which involves understanding the way that he is currently seeing letters/numbers.

Where you ask him to write all of his letters/ numbers, upside and reversed.

Also writing from the right side of the page to the left. Rather than left to right.

Which you can use a mirror to check his accuracy.

 

Though I've been involved in research into this, with an international research team and 3 universities.

Where we have been conducting trials in various elementary schools.  

With children with this 'difficulty'.

Where importantly, we have found that by encouraging children to do all of their writing upside down and reversed?

That with nearly all children.   After between 4 to 6 weeks.

Without prompting, each child will one day pick up a pen and write the 'normal way'.

As this switch has naturally occurred in their brain.

 

But something else that you could try?  Is to simply give him a page of text to read. But turn the page upside down, and observe whether he can actually read better this way?

Which is typical of these children.

Where most children in our studies, have been also diagnosed as Dyslexic. With significant reading difficulties.

Though they are able to read at their grade level, when the page is turned upside down.

 

So that perhaps you could try this?  

Then wait to see whether he goes through a developmental process after about 4 to 6 weeks?

[caedmyn]

I think I did have him try reading upside down once and he couldn't do it.  But that is interesting about the cause of writing reversals...I will have to try that when I get enough free brain space to implement it.