Would you take this advice (OT says to stop handwriting practice)

[Smithie]

Soooo... as part of the saga of getting my son his first IEP, I took him to a new OT for an evaluation. She said his has dysgraphia and is not ready to learn to write. She wants to back off and works on gross motor skills.

 

I think my son has a relatively mild sensory processing disorder - he's clumsy, has a poor sense of spatial relationships, gets all freaked out in high-input situations, etc. I have been taking him to doctors and therapists since he was 20 months old, trying to get some sort of dx and a comprehensive action plan (oh, and to help him get better, too!). We signed up with K12 for kindergarten, largely so we could finally get an IEP in place and have his therapy covered under IDEA.

 

It looks like this is finally going to happen, and that's great - but do I actually want to implement a handwriting accommodation? His writing is awful, but he's 5.5 and willing to practice it every day - there's no resistance, and no negative reaction as long as I remain positive and encouraging (and I'm getting better at that every day). Those parents who have BTDT - what would you do? Is there anybody who stopped teaching handwriting to a five year old, took it up again when they were six, and is happy that they did so?

[Laura Corin]

I'll tell you a story. Calvin was very similar to your description at that age. I carried on working with him on handwriting and he had three years of OT, and about the age of eight, the writing came together. At eight he also started learning to write Chinese and it came extremely easily to him. To this day, he finds writing Chinese more pleasurable than writing English.

 

What does this mean? Either a) all the work I did on handwriting came together at 8, allowing him to learn Chinese easily at that time too, or b) he needed to grow into his body and develop the maturity which, along with the therapy, allowed his writing to work at 8, whether or not I had spent those three years working on it. I incline to b), but only you can decide.

 

When I say I worked on handwriting, I continued using HWT for a short time every day, but everything else he dictated to me. At eight, when it became easy for him, we ramped up the writing so that he is now, at twelve, writing a full load.

 

Best wishes

 

Laura

[NCW]

but she may have some very good reasons. Perhaps she sees him starting bad habits that she wants to prevent, etc...there are lots of pre-writing hand exercises and activities that you can and will want to be doing with him, and she should give you a robust home program of ideas like this. You can also tell her what you wrote here - that he likes writing, and you'd kind of like to keep up a small amount of practice each day. Ask her to show you just what kinds of implements and activities to use should he really want to write or draw. FWIW, as his overall sensory issues are addressed it's not uncommon for fine motor challenges to resolve as part of the package, even if the OT doesn't directly work on them with specific hand exercises.

 

hths,

NCW

[FO4UR]

You can keep teaching/reviewing the strokes with gross motor movement so he doesn't forget that aspect. I would definitely ask the OT about what things you should look for before adding handwriting back into the day....but I would tend to follow the OT's advice.

 

My ds6 was sent to an OT for fm delay at 4yo...I was advised to teach with gross motor movement until his fm skills caught up. I spent about 5-10 minutes a day just teaching/reviewing the strokes for the letters...reviewing the sounds while we at it;)...and one day he just started writing. Your ds is a different kid, of course, but I just wanted to say that avoiding the pencil/paper writing until the fm skill is there can work and work well. (the key is maintaining letter formation in gross motor movement)

[QueenCat]

Just don't make it a permanent move to a keyboard! We made the mistake of making handwriting minimal, and now it is an issue in college!!! Not all of ds professors allow laptops in their classrooms! And those that do, can't guarantee an outlet (and you know how long laptop batteries last!).

[Smithie]

Thanks for all the good advice! He's going back today for the Speech Eval - hopefully that therapist won't advise me to have him stop talking for a year or so :D

 

Next week we'll be in to see the OT who has been working with James weekly for eight months, and I'll run this new delaying-writing idea by her...

[TraceyS/FL]

Thanks for all the good advice! He's going back today for the Speech Eval - hopefully that therapist won't advise me to have him stop talking for a year or so :D

 

Next week we'll be in to see the OT who has been working with James weekly for eight months, and I'll run this new delaying-writing idea by her...

 

Hmmmm, i have a 13yo that has been referred for a Speech & Language Eval - i'm there tomorrow if that is the advice :tongue_smilie:

 

(i actually AM there tomorrow for another child! :lol: )

[Mom0012]

My son has had real trouble with handwriting. He saw an OT for a couple of years, but she never suggested that he stop writing. He was about 7/8 when he saw her though. Prior to seeing the OT, I worked with my son to develop large motor skills on the chalkboard. He did large figure 8's and large cursive-type writing on the board for about 10 minutes a day, 5 days a week. This completely changed his ability to write. He went from having no hand strength or control to being able to write fairly easily.

 

One thing I wish I had done differently would have been to start my son in cursive rather than print. He took years to master printing and was just becoming fluent in 3rd grade when I began cursive. It's been like starting all over again. My son actually does significantly better with cursive than printing (no reversals, better control, more fluency), so if I had started him in cursive in kindergarten, I think he would have been so much better off.

 

Lisa

Edited September 15, 2009 by LisaTheresa

[chaik76]

We basically just stopped doing handwriting altogether for a couple of years, with a handwriting page thrown in every once in a while. All of a sudden it has "clicked" this year...he still has atrocious printing (worse than a kindergartner), but I gave him cursive...and suddenly everything clicked in his head.

 

I don't see any problem with continuing if your son doesn't mind...but I also wouldn't be surprised if you don't see much improvement over the next couple of years, either.

[Smithie]

Well, the SLP administered the receptive language test until she got a full year beyond his chronological age in the questions. Then she administered the expressive language test, same result. Now she wants to do a pragmatics test next week, which is what she should have done in the first place. Why do they always think you're in denial when you say "my kid has X and Y problems, but is gifted in the area of Z?" Oh well, at least we'll have a slew on information for the IEP committee.

 

"One thing I wish I had done differently would have been to start my son in cursive rather than print."

 

I'm going to give him a beginning cursive sheet today, and see how he reacts. It really seems wrong to me on some fundamental level to have a kid who can read but not write at all (I know reading often develops FASTER, but I feel like writing should be emerging as part of the process) - and as a PP said, the danger of teaching him to type is that he'll decide that the entire enterprise of writing longhand is a waste of time!