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[Paisley Hedgehog]

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[Orthodox6]

I always thought one of my sons had dysgraphia, but it turned out to be nonverbal learning disorder.

 

Is there a "children's hospital" where you live? We had our dd's educational testing performed through the local Children's Hospital [Dallas].

 

It would be so helpful to you as teacher (and your child as student) to have a specialist work with you to determine what the actual problem(s) is/are.

 

Many people whose children struggle with handwriting, for whatever reason(s), happily and successfully use the "Handwriting Without Tears" program, which was developed by an occupational therapist. Here is the link:

 

http://www.hwtears.com/

 

Do cross-post over on Special Needs. There is steady "traffic" there. I never wait long for a reply when I post a question.

[momtotkbb]

Are you talking about primarily difficulty with the fine motor skill involved in handwriting? Or are you also referring to the difficulty in taking his thoughts and putting them in writing?

 

An evaluation for a learning disability through a Children's Hosp would help to rule out or in exactly where the break-down is occurring. If it's only fine-motor then an OT would be a good place to start for an eval. There is also vision therapy to look at ---a good eval by a Dev Optometrist would let you know if VT would be a good option which can help to improve fine-motor skills.

 

HWT that was previously mentioned has offered a lot of success for kids with fine-motor skill deficits. http://www.callirbobics.com is another program that is really good ---I like to use it before HWT.

 

I don't know the age of your dc but there are a number of "fine-motor skill" things you can do at home. Lite-brite is good, using push pins around a stencil is another good option, mazes, play-doh, finger painting, excerises with hands/fingers using things like a squishy ball, finger push-ups, writing with chalk, etc.

 

If the problem is not just fine-motor skills but also involves the process of getting his thoughts onto paper --then allowing him to dictate his responses, using a computer, taping his responses, etc. will benefit him.

[Renee in NC]

I am just starting the remediation for dysgraphia with my 11yo. I always just thought he had bad handwriting - now I know better. My son's problem is that formation of the letters is not automatic in his brain. He sees the letters or words as "pictures" to be "drawn" instead of letters and he is not a gifted artist. The Gillingham Manual (teaches the Orton-Gillingham method) recommends a few things:

 

*Have the child write the letter in the air using the whole arm.

*Have the child write the letter with his/her finger on sandpaper, shaving cream, sugar, etc.

*Follow this process:

Teacher forms letter while child watches, talking through the formation

Child traces letter that the teacher wrote, talking through the formation

Child copies letter that teacher wrote, talking through formation

Child writes letter while not looking at paper (not with the eyes closed, but rather looking across the room.

 

Multi-sensory is the key - they see it, hear it, and feel it. The "looking away" is to imprint it on their brain.

 

As far as the writing process, my ds can verbalize his thoughts coherently, but he cannot put what he says down on paper. This is because it requires so much effort for him to think about letter formation, spelling, capitalization/punctuation rules that he cannot get his thoughts on the paper. Typing helps alot, so one accomodation he will receive this year is that he will be allowed to type everything except for handwriting practice and his tutoring for dyslexia.

[Paisley Hedgehog]

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[Orthodox6]

I'm not the poster of whom you enquired, but I was in your position last spring. My dd's psychiatrist (on staff at the same children's hospital) worked with the psychologist (of that hospital) to ensure that the wording for the paperwork included the right "lingo" to have insurance coverage from the medical slant. I don't know whether this was because dd already was a psychiatric patient, or whether this always can be done.

 

It is well worth asking about this issue. What they told you is correct, but we found an avenue that worked. In our case, we knew that we wanted LD evaluation, so asked dd's psychiatrist whether any affiliated staff were available and suited to the task. (which they were)

 

I guess I would contact the children's hospital and ask to meet with someone about scheduling LD testing. Ask outright if it is possible to "write up" the testing to reflect a medical need. Of course you do not want to do anything illegal or unethical ! You just have nothing to lose by asking.

 

It is both the physical act of writing and the difficulty of getting words from brain to paper.

 

When you contacted the children's hospital what exactly did you ask for? A psychaitric eval? Clinical services? I have been told by my pediatrician (and by insurance) that LD's are not medical disorders unless they are result of other problems or trauma (i.e. mental retardation, birth defects, fetal alcohol syndrome, etc).

 

I don't know where to turn :confused:

[siloam]

I would recommend Right Start Math. It is very strong in concepts, includes multi-sensory learning, and has a minimum of worksheets. That combo should work well for a dysgraphic student. (I do have one who I suspect is dysgraphic, but haven't had tested, and she loves RS.)

 

Heather

[Mom22ns]

My son has dysgraphia. I would have answered on the special needs board too :001_smile:

 

For an evaluation and diagnosis, you need an occupational therapist (OT). You can get a referral from your pediatrician. Depending on what state you are in, you may be able to get this free from an OT in the public schools if you want to go that route.

 

As far as how to help... with dysgraphia the answer is avoid writing. Teach them to type as early as possible. Writing with dry erase makers on a white board is far easier and usually less painful than pencil on paper. Handwriting without tears is considered the best program for special needs kids and was recommended by our OT too. Recognize that handwriting for a child with dysgraphia isn't just something they don't like - it is painful. They can't build up to it or get over it. Work within their limitations.

 

My ds does handwriting practice every day, but it is short and it is copywork. I never make him think and write at the same time. For math, He uses graph paper to help things stay legible and a white board instead of scrap paper. Any other written work beyond one word answers are typed or given verbally. Ds was a straight A student in ps, and is in hs. However, he will always have to carry a laptop or handheld device for written communication. It is just the necessary accommodation for his disability.

[momtotkbb]

It is both the physical act of writing and the difficulty of getting words from brain to paper.

 

When you contacted the children's hospital what exactly did you ask for? A psychaitric eval? Clinical services? I have been told by my pediatrician (and by insurance) that LD's are not medical disorders unless they are result of other problems or trauma (i.e. mental retardation, birth defects, fetal alcohol syndrome, etc).

 

I don't know where to turn :confused:

 

It is true that the majority of health insurance programs will not cover an eval for a LD. However, there are some that will and some will even originally say they won't and then they will. I've decided over the years it's the nature of the beast with insurance companies.

 

Anyway, in our area it is necessary to have the family prac Dr. or the pediatrician request a referral to the children's hosp for an eval bec the children's hosp is sooooo booked. Our ped. requests a psycho-educational evaluation to determine the presence of LD's and ADD/ADHD to begin with. The Children's hosp then sends mountains of paperwork for parent's and teachers to complete --the forms are then returned to the Children's hosp and an intake team looks through all the paper work and then makes an ititial determination of what type of testing would be most appropriate. This generally begins with an IQ test and achievement testing to rule out or in a LD ---they might also refer to an OT if the paperwork gives evidence that there might be fine-motor issues or SPD, they might refer for a Speech/hearing eval if it looks like there are some auditory probs. For the ADD/ADHD that part of the testing is done after the IQ/achievement and is done by a Dev Ped/Behavioral psychiatrist.

 

Other options for testing can be through the local public school system, and through private psychologists. Part of our testing we have done by a psychologist that works at the Univ hosp system but on the side for hs families provides evals at a significantly reduced fee---he only does psycho-ed evals and will make suggestions if he believes there is the presence of ADD/ADHD, SPD, other psychiatric issues, etc. for further evals. HSLDA has listings of individuals in many states that work with hs families for reduced fees.

 

Our oldest ds still has fairly poor handwriting --he uses a computer for all his college papers --writes in print for in-class exams --learned short-cuts for notetaking that works for him. Our middle ds was the most severe but he has made extreme strides through using callirobics, HWT, and an O-G based reading/spelling program. One of the greatest improvements for him came with doing vision therapy ---I was very skeptical but the changes have been incredible. I also start my kids learning to keyboard early so that they can type responses. He happens to also be ADHD though and we noticed another huge jump when he began taking meds.

[gingersmom]

I would take him for an OT evaluation.

 

My son started in OT when he was 18 months old. His fingers were so fat, he had trouble getting cheerios in his mouth.

 

After nearly 8 years of OT he has the most beautiful handwriting (print) and cursive.

 

His OT used Handwriting without Tears and we used it at home for cursive.

 

I would check with your insurance company and see if they cover it. I am not a big fan of hospital occupational therapists for evaluations. In my experience they deal with more gross motor skills then a fine motor skill.

[leaird]

I have the same problems with my son and also suspect dysgraphia. We have used Handwriting Without Tears. However, he reverts back to his bad handwriting habits when he is not "doing handwriting." Ugh! When it comes to getting ideas down on paper, he prefers to use Microsoft Word. It makes it so much easier for him to edit his writing without having to rewrite everything.

[Peela]

I just want to say that my son, who is also probabyl dysgraphic, CAN do beautiful handwriting, after year of practice, but he still reverts to chicken scratch when he has to think of content at teh same time. It is a little more readable chicken scratch than it used to be, though.

I have accepted with him that he can write neatly enoguh to fill out a form if he needs to, but he will never, most likely, have beautiful handwriting generally speaking. However, when he does try, he does take pride in his writing.

I have kept him doing some sort of handwriting practice (copywork and handwriting books) for 6 years now, since he was 7, and will probably continue through his teenage years. I decided not to use HWT because I had already tried to get him to change handwriting styles, from our Australian VIctorian Cursive to Italics, and it didnt help that his brain had to rethink all those letters.