Please add me, too. Starting highschool next year.

I have a 13 yo significant dysgraphic, and a 10 yo mild/mod dysgraphic. For us, Writing 8 exercises did help with letter formation. It did not help with much else, but not having to tell them how to form each particular letter was worth the time we put into this. I've noticed that the 10 yo is making a few wonky letters so we might spend another 6 months on this in the Spring. After working on Writing 8 for about 6 months, I focused on making sure they could write their name/address/etc. legibly. Then we stopped worrying about handwriting. I was told during our testing that we could spend a great amount of effort on handwriting or a little time focused on it, but the end result would likely be about the same. This was 3 years ago. The 10 yo can take notes ( barely legibly) and type reasonably well. She will be able to use these tools. The 13 yo cannot do either of those tasks and has completely embraced technology to assist with writing tasks. I do have him work on typing daily, but typing will not likely be his mode of communication. This year we will work through 1 last handwriting book. I do not expect this to improve their handwriting or to have them learn to use cursive, but they both wanted to learn to read cursive. I will say that the dysgraphia piece of their individual learning profile has proven to be the most frustrating. Even though I've been homeschooling a really long time, knowing that I do not have a "back-up" plan (PS or any private school that I could afford) is unnerving.

I went through Scottish Rite with my 2 kids several years ago. Scottish Rite had different recommendations for each child regarding further evaluations, such as Speech therapy, etc. SR is an excellent staring point. Best of luck

Susan Barton will provide proof of eligibility. I was able to get access to LA prior to getting formal testing done through Susan Barton. She also responds quickly to emails. If the OP has questions regarding dc testing result, email her. Susan will be able to help you decide on the best way to proceed. Best of luck!

You could also look at free options for testing. For example, Scottish Rite in Texas does testing for free for residents of the state. I agree with OhElizabeth, if you are proceeding without testing, then use materials for dyslexia. Testing will give you a better picture of what is going on, give you access to resources such as Learning Ally (buying Barton new will also give you access to LA), and provide you documentation for accommodations for school and college. Best of luck!

I just wanted to add my family's experience to all the wonderful comments regarding remediation and the need to stop independent reading during this time. We started Barton at the beginning of last school year while waiting to get into Scottish Rite for testing. Both kids are moderate dyslexics. My now 9 yo daughter has fully caught up to her age mates in reading and writing ability. Stopping all independent reading for a year was difficult for me. However, she can now read everything that she wants with great accuracy. The pay off has been amazing. She can fully participate and benefit from a literature based curriculum. My now 12 year old son, who was reading ok, but unable to spell, has not caught up with his age mates. Watching and hopeful waiting for his reading and spelling to sort itself out has resulted in doing remediation in middle school. This has not yielded the improvements that I had hoped for in the timetable that I was expecting. He had many more years of bad habits and guessing to try to learn to undo. Had I been willing to modify my literature based curriculum and focus on remediation at a younger age, he could be focusing on other aspects of his education in these critical years leading to highschool.

I am so glad that my kids aren't the only ones who have issues with the sight word lists of Barton. I have completely dropped them because it was disheartening to be starting level 6 and working on Level 3 ( or 4) sight words. Instead I bought a list of 1000 sight words on cardstock. It's a crazy list. Make is a sight word? LOL. We work on these cards for spelling sight words. We read the Barton list and if there is a word they cannot read, we review it until they know it. The only reason we bother to read the list from barton is because those are the words that pop up in the stories.

Being formally Identified with a learning disability will not limit her in adult life. Formal identification allows you to teach her in the best way for her particular learning difference, which may or may not be dyslexia. It allows her the time to learn how to advocate for her learning difference. My kids embraced their formal diagnosis. It is much easier to say "I am dyslexic", then to think something must be terribly wrong with your brain since you cannot do something that the other kids can do easily. In college, formal identification means that accommodations must be offered. My dyslexic college age daughter gets time and half for all tests, which means she can earn an A instead of settling for a C or worse. If you are seeing something that worries you, get the testing. Peace of mind is priceless. Best of luck, Mama.

I'm using it with a 12 and 9 yo.

We are having the best luck with IEW's Fix it. Fix it has guided questions for each sentence, which gets my dyslexics talking and thinking about language. It includes vocabulary. It includes IEW's dress ups. We do not use IEW's writing, but the exposure of the dress up in Fix it has a positive impact on their writing. It includes cards of all concepts to use and review. We are only 1/2 way through the first book. They can label the parts of speech learned. Correctly use There/their/they're and to/two/too. Understanding pronoun antecedent agreement. Identify verbals, which is an advanced concept for this book. Understand when to start a new paragraph. Kind of amazing for two moderate dyslexics. The best part is......they like it. Easiest 15 minutes of our school day.

Great discussion! Coming in late, but thought I would add. My son has a dysgraphia diagnosis. It fell under Developmental Coordination Disorder. He also has a SLD-Written expression which is different. My dd's handwriting is terrible but she didn't get a DCD diagnosis. I didn't really agree with one child getting the diagnosis and the other not, since both have terrible handwriting. However, yesterday they both had to take notes off a board for an art class. My son could not do this. He got about 2 names and a few dates and it is barely readable. We have been working on handwriting for at least 7 years. My daughter was able to do this. She got most of the notes and it is readable. NOT neat by any means, but you can read what she wrote. She is 3 years younger than her brother. I get the difference now. I really liked the Ben Foss book. My take away is that we will eventually reach a point of diminishing return on remediation. At that point, it is better to focus time and energy on learning the tools that the person will need long term to reach their full potential. For my son's dysgraphia, we have reached the point of diminishing return on remediation. He can write his name, complete a writing assignment that is not time sensitive and short ( job application type stuff), and make a list. However, he is going to be best served by learning and mastering other tools for writing that do not include handwriting. Typing ( which is difficult for him and he has not mastered) or Dragon Naturally Speaking will to be used for time sensitive writing assignments. We need to develop ways for him to get notes from a class. In college, having a note-taker or a copy of notes from the professor will be extremely important. I have to help him get to the point that he "owns" his dysgraphia so that he can be an advocate for himself and for others. I'm glad I read Ben Foss's book so that I could recognize and respect the point of diminishing return.

I was in the "too scared to try group". Now I'm in the 3rd group with PinkyandtheBrains of "wish I'd tried it sooner".

I use a "regular" writing curriculum, but provide accommodations. If your child can type, then that would be an appropriate accommodation. My child is still working on learning to type, so I either scribe for him or he uses Dragon Naturally Speaking. In addition to dysgraphia, my child is a moderate dyslexic. We've decided to use IEW's SWI-A this year. I cannot recommend it since we haven't started yet. My child works well with explicit instructions so I'm hoping this will be a good fit for him.

Absolutely, scribe for him. My 12 yo is dysgraphic. In addition to handwriting issues, typing is coming extremely slow for him. Other than handwriting work needed for spelling ( he is dyslexic as well) and typing practice, I either scribe for him for small projects and he is learning to use a speech-to-text software for longer written assignments. We did not introduce the speech -to-text software until this year, so lots of scribing by me has been done in the past. He was formally evaluated this past year. Prior to this testing, I was having him dictate a written narration to me than having him re-write it. I thought this would help him with his writing or help him learn to get his thoughts on paper. His neuropsych told me that I should stop this nonsense, busywork for him! She also told me that I should stop handwriting practice (since this is a good as it will get), use handwriting for specific tasks ( like spelling related to his dyslexia), and focus on typing. She also told me that his dysgraphia is significant enough that typing might not be an option for writing for him. She said to spend a year of daily practice on typing, then to be willing to become fully invested in speech to text if his typing speed remains slow. I have a much happier kid since starting to use these recommendations. He writes non-stop and enjoys composing stories. Best of luck!

My bad! UH .....UT, same thing, right? :lol: google search for Children's Learning Institute Houston if the link doesn't work. www.childrenslearninginstitute.org This was the one I was checking out before I decided to go with Scottish Rite, which did the exact same testing.

Scottish Rite in Dallas offers no cost testing for Texas students through age 14. I had 2 of my kids tested through them this past spring. Both kids were scheduled together and we only had to stay in Dallas for 1 night. UH offers testing for about $1700 but I have not used them. Let me know what you find out. My kids are still young, but I have a tentative plan to have them re-tested in late highschool through UH for testing/ college accommodations. It seems that college/SAT boards like current testing before they provide accommodations.

Glad to see it all worked out! FWIW, I didn't micromanage my ADHD-inattentive at 16/17 regarding clothing choices, when the laundry was done, picking clothes off the floor, etc. It's going to be OK to just let go of this part of his life at this time. Focus your energy and interventions on academic skills, and getting him off his butt and exercising!

Do you use Dragon for math? Curious how that works. Does graph paper help? My dysgrahic used TT and has started with Dragon but not together. With TT, you still need to work the problem on paper. I re-write the problems on 1cm graph paper with blue lines and this works OK. He's slow but accurate. I'm still waiting on our formal evaluation results to know what accommodations will be an option for him. There is an app called ModMath. I don't own an Ipad so cannot try it out. Looks interesting.

Math Victory day! Bravo on memorizing the multiplication facts! ( my dyslexics are still unable to do this) BRAVO!

I am just going to echo the comments that you really need to be at this appointment. My dh just wouldn't paint a clear enough picture of the difficulties that my children were experiencing. Since future testing will be based on this interview, it would be beneficial for the parent who is the more willing, better witness to be present. Our paperwork was substantial. Best of luck!

I am coming late to this conversation! Amazon has a paid service called Kindle FreeTime Unlimited which I do not use. It adds content to Kindle FreeTime App for a fee. With just the FreeTime app. I can add content to each child's profile. I can haven't found anything that I cannot add to my Kindle that I cannot add to each child's individual's FreeTime content. I can set a limit of when they can access Freetime meaning, it turns off at a certain time at night and will not turn on until a certain time in the morning. I can set a time limit of how long the child can be on Freetime and how much time they can spend on the separate types of content. Books/Videos/Apps are the ways that it separates content. I can block entertainment content until educational goals (time-wise) are met. I can set the time limits to be unlimited for books, and limit videos and apps if I choose. I can also set different time limits for weekdays and weekends. I have many Immersion reading books and 3 current active Kindles Fires on the same account. I do not keep my Immersion reading books on all my Kindles, but download and remove them based on who is reading what on which Kindle. Content on Amazon works for all devices. I bought and rented movies and watched them on our TV and downloaded them to watch on the Kindles. Once we watched the movies on the Kindle, I just remove it from the device. I can always download it again for the next trip. My Kindles are 16gb which has worked for us. On the device in reach I have nearly 5gb of free-space with 28 audiobooks/countless books/countless photos/ about 40 apps and 1 movie. I also have full web access with the Kindle Fire and have all my photos on it. We watch Amazon Prime and Netflix on them. The only thing that I cannot do with the Kindle Fire is to listen to Learning Ally books. My kids much prefer Immersion reading on the Kindle over Learning Ally though it would be nice to be able to access our LA books on the Kindle. HTH

Is the scheduled language arts time in the daily schedule using other resources or using Barton? If you are planning on 30 minutes of possible distracted Barton lessons 3 days a week + focused Barton lessons of 45 minutes 2 times a week, then yes I think this is a good plan. The Barton website has a video on recommendations for using Barton in the homeschool setting which is very helpful. Barton's videos have provided me with all the training needed to teach the program. Watch the lesson, then teach a lesson. Susan Barton has also helped me when I hit a snag with my 8 yo and Level 4. Level 4 has been the most difficult level so far! I was seeing progress, but I am still glad that I had formal testing done. I wanted to start to create a paper-trail for college entrance exams and college accommodations.

My 8 yo, who was totally stuck at AAS/AAR 1, has been able to work through Barton level 4 lesson 7 since last September. She has gone from non-reading (might be able to get a cvc work correct one day, but not another) to reading multisyllable words with accuracy. We work with Barton at home for about 30 minutes a day- 4 days per week. We also add on reading with Barton's books and Spelling Success for a total time of about 45 minutes of Reading/Spelling/writing work per day. With this schedule, she went from poor reading at K level to almost grade level reading in 9 months. Susan Barton served as our resource for proof of a disability so that we were able to access Learning Ally. We used a discount code from homeschoolbuyersco-op.org for Learning Ally, and Learning Ally has helped make my dyslexic children become much more independent in their schoolwork. I suggest you follow up with the screening and get a full evaluation. We went through Scottish Rite since it was available for us. Cost was free other than the cost of an overnight hotel room. In addition to being formally identified as dyslexic ( the actual DSM codes is Specific Learning Disorder with impairment in reading and SLD-written expression), they both also were formally identified as SLD-mathematics (those pesky math facts really slowed down their ability to complete the math portion of their testing). One child was also ID as ADHD-hyperactive ( not a shock ) and another as Dysgraphia (which falls under a DSM code for Developmental Coordination Disorder). Whew! That sounds like a lot. However, they are both the sweet, wonderful kids that they were before this process. They just now know that their difficulties in certain aspects of their lives because of a specific neurological difference in their brain. Both were starting to feel "stupid" since they struggled with reading, but now know that they both have high normal IQs. Formal identification has relieved a lot of building anxiety in the kids. It has also helped me identify specific accommodations that are documented as appropriate for each child. Things like audiobooks, typing, and Dragon Naturally Speaking. One more thing to consider, dyslexia is hereditary. So the initial cost of Barton might pay off if your other children need an O-G program. I have 3 out of 4 kids who are dyslexic. Best of luck!

I went through Scottish Rite for evaluations. The focus of testing at Scottish rite is dyslexia, but we also got a formal diagnosis of dysgraphia . If Scottish Rite is an option for you, the cost is free.

Best of luck! We did our evaluations last week. Waiting was hard. That was the time that I had serious doubts about the whole process. What if these kids were just lazy or had a terrible teacher (me!)? Overall, it was a good experience. The kids have been formally identified with SLDs and I now have specific ways to help them. My only regret was not doing this sooner.