My curriculum choices for my dysgraphic child

[5hskids]

**side-note/back story**I picked all these because I was her scribe last year when using Christian Light math, Reading, and L.A. which was a little rough considering she couldn't practice independence with the 'we remember' sections and so that took a little time away when I was hoping to work with other children but anyways we made it to this year and there is so much writing in level 300 as much as we absolutely love this curriculum it's just not fitting us right now.😢😢 I have tried to find things that have very little writing but keep her moving forward until we can get the OT she needs which will hopefully be soon.**

 

 

All about Spelling because on the website when talking about dysgraphia it says using AAS to learn spelling can be done without any writing.

 

Writing With Ease level 1: because after looking at all the samples I feel like this is a gentle way to introduce handwriting again while also building on writing skills and reading comprehension.(All the prompting and focus on answering with complete sentences has really grabbed My attention) My daughter is extremely bright. She has a memory like no other, she is a Good reader, but she does struggle comprehending what she reads sometimes reading a sentence several times before it registers in her mind. Also When trying to construct a sentence ,especially if she has to write it down, it would end up being very simple ex. The dog ran fast. Instead of adding in words she knows would fluff up the sentence like ' The large black dog ran quickly into the woods' When just conversing with people she actually speaks well and intelligently so that people always compliment us on how smart the kids are how mature her conversation skills are for her age.So I'm hoping this curriculum because of it's style will help her build that written expression very very gently at her pace.

 

First Language Lessons level 2 or 3-again although she does well with cle grammar there's just so much writing,not composition just writing in general. This program from the samples looks like about a page of a few problems a lesson I'm confident she would place in level 3 because of all she learned from CLE l.a. and reading last year but I'm leary of doing so because she can't apply so much of what she learned because of her dysgraphia *I'm going to be asking about stealth dyslexia also* I want to build her sentence construction skills up to at least 2 to 3 paragraphs by the end of our school year and I am afraid if I put her in 3 it would be putting the building ahead of the foundation if that makes sense....Anyone have experience or thoughts on this please let me know I am up for any advice....

 

Math u see because the 1 worksheet a day with just a few problems and I hope to help her become more independent and focused this year bless her little heart she tries so hard.

 

Anyway thanks for reading my crazy ramblings any input on the curriculum is graciously accepted....p.s. I know there are people on this the board that will go directly to "What are you doing about the dysgraphia and learning issues we will be discussing our options and plan of action with our pediatrician soon and will hopefully get some good therapy going! So no answers there yet.

[Pen]

How old is she? What grade?

 

I suggest separating physical penmanship writing issues from composition concerns.

 

I think a lot of us with dysgraphic dc get them typing.

 

WWE often does not seem a good fit for dyslexia/dysgraphia dc, but in your dd's case perhaps it would be.

 

MUS worked well for my son at least for a few years.

[PeterPan]

Are you asking a question or just sharing? Just asking so we don't go a direction you didn't want.

 

Personally, i think SWB's stuff is insane for that. It's not meant for an SLD dc. I think the reading comprehension issues you mentioned are very, very significant, and I would focus on those. I'm doing a series called Spotlight on Reading by Carson Dellosa that are EXCELLENT. There are 4 workbooks in the series (compare/contrast, summarizing, cause/effect, inferencing), and my guess is your dd would benefit from doing all of them.

 

I would not have her doing any handwriting longer than one sentence, and personally I would let that writing be something she really ENJOYS and WANTS to say, not the nasty crap, working memory torture device of WWE. And somebody else can come along and say they did it and it was super stellar for their kid with SLDs. My ds has all three, and no way in the WORLD am I going to kill his pleasure in communication by spending what meager ability he DOES have and wasting it on dictation, bleh. Do dictation with typing. Save what she can write by hand for something SHE finds interesting or wants to write. Writing by hand is very special, intimate, her secret super power to pull out when she REALLY wants to communicate something on paper. Save it for that. Worthless, common, boring stuff can be typed. Worksheets can be imported into Claro and she can type on them. There's just no need to waste her energy on handwriting dictation, yuck. I look for worksheets that have multiple choice. The Success in Grammar workbooks from Scholastic allow for multiple choice answers.

 

Obviously you'd like a psych eval, since you suspect SLDs. If money is holding you back, another in-between thing to do would be an eval by a good SLP. You might find some issues turn up that are really actionable. Her reading comprehension issues could indicate underlying language issues that an SLP can test for very affordably compared to a psych. Around here a neuropsych is $350 an hour and they'll run the CELF (a really standard language testing tool) and give you crap little help in how to interpret it. An SLP will typically be under $100 around here, and they too will run the CELF. They'll give you tons of help in how to APPLY the results, and they'll have some other really good tests you'd like (auditory processing, writing/narration, etc. etc.). So an SLP eval would be something to talk with your ped about as an inbetween option, especially if your insurance will cover that but not the psych. You might get a lot of really actionable help from it.

 

I'm not clear how old the dc is, but I would focus on the reading comprehension (which is HUGE, significant), oral composition using dictation software, and then get some language work going when you have the results from the testing. I have language scores on my ds, so I know he has deficits. Until you have the scores, you don't know if she has vocabulary issues or what you should be targeting.

 

Does she also struggle with decoding? 

Edited August 26, 2017 by OhElizabeth

[PeterPan]

Scholastic Success With Writing: Grade 1 by

 

Scholastic Success With Grammar: Grade 1 by

 

Search Our Catalog | Carson-Dellosa Publishing  This is a link to the Spotlight on Reading series. Super, super series. It starts very concrete and moves forward. These are your foundational aspects of reading comprehension that could be missing and holding her back. If it's something more than this, you're talking vocabulary, auditory processing, things you really need an SLP eval to sort out. But I'm guessing if you just look at this series and back up you can find something.

 

12 Apps for Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, Dyscalculia That Parents and Teachers Will Love | Reading Rockets  Here's a link to get you started. One of our OTs was big on apps. Just my personal opinion, but I would put your money into TECH, not curriculum. Like if you don't have a piece of tech that can do dictation for her, it's time. Rather than putting money into WWE and money into CLE and money into... I would combine all those dollars, buy her ONE GOOD PIECE OF TECH, and then use, use, use it with free stuff you can get through the library.

 

Do you ever hit the teacher/curriculum resource room at your local community college? If they have education students, they probably have one. Ours will let homeschoolers check out stuff for FREE. That's how I got those Scholastic workbooks! Right now I've got tons of $$$ in really swanky stuff I got through them. I've got word tiles, Fountas & Pinnell books, tons of workbooks for LA, a nifty book I had never seen on c-rods...  So that's why I'm saying put your money into tech and maybe wing it for a semester using free resources. Tech is her friend and TECH is what she needs.

 

Curriculum often doesn't fit kids with SLDs. When you look at these individual workbooks, like the stuff I'm linking you, you're looking at things that Intervention Specialists in schools will use. There are tiers, and sure they can bump it up with more and more. But these workbooks are things teachers are going to pull out for kids who need more explicit instruction. Look at the reviews for that Spotlight series and see. I've had two Intervention Specialists come to my home to consult on my ds (he has an IEP and is complex), and they recognized that stuff and liked it. It's a level of intervention. You might need to move on from standard curriculum and put your money into things aimed at intervention if you know it's areas she's struggling in. SWB has no experience with that and wasn't trying to write to that. SWB's intentions and theories are still fine (that we need to build comfort and build foundations), but some kids need more steps, more breakdowns. So see if you can find materials more meant for intervention, things that will get in on the gaps you're seeing. I'd be *more* concerned about the reading comprehension issues right now than the writing, because you can work on oral language WHILE you work on the reading. 

[PeterPan]

My ds' kindle, around $100 on amazon, can do dictation. Do Chromebooks come with a touch screen? This does not have to be super expensive tech. The capability is coming to ALL devices now. 

[Cake and Pi]

WWE was a disaster for my (2e) dysgraphic kiddo.  It started out fine.  The copy work took foreeeeeeeeeeeever, but I, too was drawn by the answering in complete sentences and building reading comprehension.  The thing is, it's auditory memory, not reading comprehension, in the 1st 2 levels.  You read the passage to the child, then the child answers questions.  So it's not working on *reading* comprehension at all.  By the middle of level 2,  it was clear that WWE wasn't a good fit for my DS#1.  The dictations were impossible for him.  Even if I simplified the sentence down to 1/2 or 2/3 of the original length, even if I had him repeat back the sentence several times, he could not write the words in the same order with spaces, non-mixed caps, and anything close to correct spelling.  Every day was tears and soon he was saying that he hated writing.  So we ditched WEE when he was 8yo around the end of 2nd grade.

 

He did FLL 1 and 2 with his brothers and actually enjoyed them (also in 2nd grade).  We skipped all written assignments.  FLL3 didn't go over well at all and we dropped it after just a few weeks.  He learned many definitions for parts of speech, but could not apply any of it, and it certainly didn't help his writing in any way.

 

Of course, YMMV, just sharing our experience.