CP: Talk to me about dysgraphia

[garddwr]

Originally posted on the general board, someone pointed me over here. I'm hoping some people can share experiences with me:

 

I'm wondering if some of dd8's struggles are caused by dysgraphia. Handwriting has always been difficult and stressful for her, and her writing isn't pretty in spite of her perfectionist tendencies. In particular, she has always struggled with reversals--which I just took as normal when she is younger, but it seems they should have resolved by now. I don't see her reversing letters much anymore, but she does it all the time with numbers--they are at least as likely to face backwards as forwards, and I don't think she recognizes the difference. She can even be looking at a model of the number and copy it backwards. She likes to type, but resists any kind of handwriting. She reads very well.

 

The thing is, I've never been good at handwriting myself--and I've done a lot of it! When we lived in France school classes mostly consisted of teachers lecturing while writing their lectures on the board, and all the students copying exactly what was written. That made for a lot of writing, and I never could keep up. My handwriting is moderately legible but doesn't look nice. More interestingly, I have realized that even as an adult with 30+ years of writing experience I still have to think about individual letter formation when I write. It was something I had never really paid attention to until I was teaching dd handwriting, and decided to go with D'Nealian style. I felt I needed to learn that style myself so I could model it and make copywork for her, so I started using it whenever I wrote. I had expected writing to be more difficult/slower with a brand new font--and was surprised to find it wasn't any harder than it had been before. That's when I realized that no matter how I was writing I always had to think about how to form the letters. Is that normal??? It seems after a certain amount of practice it should just come automatically (like typing does!). Spelling was my worst subject in elementary school--at least after I learned to read, which didn't happen until I was 8. I also tend to leave things out when writing by hand--without realizing I am doing it. Most often it is the last letter of a word, sometimes multiple times in a single sentence. Other times I will leave out an entire word. I don't catch it unless I go back and read what I wrote.

I suspect I suffer from some degree of dyslexia as well, although reading is not difficult for me now. It took me a long time to learn, and my mom tells me it was as if I couldn't tell the difference between one word and another when I was young. I still say every word in my mind when I read, and from what I understand it is more common for mature readers to visualize what they are reading without actually being aware of every word (I can't even imagine that). I have also struggled immensely with learning any new alphabet or writing system, I just can't remember the characters--although other aspects of foreign language learning seem to be relatively easy for me.

 

Does any of this sound familiar? What should I do to help dd?

 

--Sarah

[Julie of KY]

Some handwriting issues cross over with dyslexia, so you might want to check that out. Handwriting issues can also be related to motor issues or they can occur in isolation.

 

I have a son that tests gifted, but has severe dysgraphia. He's been evaluated by OT's and they haven't been able to help. I keep asking what should I be doing and how hard should I push. Cognitive and nueropsych testing has helped understand him better and his capabilities. We've now come full-circle to evaluators saying he needs a scribe for anytime he wants... especially for SATs and college. He's been very difficult to teach typing as well as handwriting. He has diffiuculty writing his name, but I push some writing in language arts. I scribe most all his math as I don't want to hold him back in math (his passion) just because he can't write it.

 

Given the fact that he's fabulous in math and reading comprehension, the discrepancies in his abilities are hard to understand.

 

I think mom instinct are usually correct in noting that something is off. It may take exploring various paths to sort it out, but if it is a mojor interference, then I would start asking questions and testing.

[Laura in MI]

:lurk5:

[Heathermomster]

DS is diagnosed dysgraphia and learning to write was horrible. He tested with a Neurologist on his 8th birthday and received the official diagnosis.

 

So what did we do prior to and after the diagnosis? Prior to, I took a cookie sheet and spread out shaving creme. My son practiced lettering in shaving creme and it was fun and messy. DS practiced with really large lettering and decreased the lettering size as he improved. Secondly, I purchased a chalk board and hung it in the hallway. We used the board quite a bit. Purchased pencil grips and insisted he write with bigger letters (think writing height 2 lines high, up and down on college rule paper).

 

Purchased a NEO AlphaSmart for typing. They are simple word processors that are durable and have a long battery life. It comes with a simple spell checker that may be turned off. DS types on AlphaSmart and prints his work directly to an All in One HP printer using a USB cable. Tried HWT and had no success, mostly because DS was still in a PC school and the school stressed Zaner-Bloser.

 

To date, DS writes legibly on normal sized paper. He prefers to write; however, I insist that he type anything over a paragraph. I taught DS to type using BBC's Dance Mat typing (free and on-line) and a little of Mavis Beacon, but we mostly used another program called Typing Instructor for Kids Platinum. DS practiced 20 minutes per day. I timed the lessons and he practiced even when he was sick or it was a snow day. I'd like to add here that I had concerns about his ability to type. I only stressed accuracy and never speed. We are blessed that learning to type was mostly easy going.

 

While learning to type, DS started using Getty-Dubay cursive italics. G-D contains no loops or weird flourishes. Print and cursive are practically identical. DS claims he never liked G-B but his HW today looks curiously similar.

 

Never hired an OT. Between his reading specialist and PCS tuition, we chose not to pursue that route. Of all my son's learning challenges, dysgraphia is my least favorite one.

 

Blessings, Heather

Edited January 22, 2012 by Heathermomster
girl can't spell or type

[laundrycrisis]

DS1 has both handwriting issues and general written expression difficulties. I used a program called First Strokes Handwriting to help him get functional with handwriting (because I really could not stand HWOT). I had him do Dance Mat first for typing, followed by Type to Learn 4 Agents of Information. Then I had him to Click'n Spell. Then he did Wordy Qwerty, which has some cloze activities. Now he just finished WWE1, which I did a week at a time, and had him type his copywork. The narrating and sentence dictating was really very helpful for him. He is also doing the RFP Aesop's workbooks, where he reads the story, looks at a picture and writes one sentence (I skip all the other activities) and colors the picture if he wants to. That writing one sentence has also been very helpful for him. He is also doing some editing in Evan Moor's Daily Language Review..starting with the grade 1 book. I am also having him do some simple (Flash Skills) workbooks for reading comprehension and main idea and introducing him to how paragraphs are structured, to take some baby steps toward him actually writing more than one sentence in a row soon.

Edited January 23, 2012 by laundrycrisis