Dysgraphia?

[Shelsi]

I think I FINALLY figured it out! I don't know how I didn't find this before but this morning I just chanced upon an article about dysgraphia and it described my 8 yr old ds perfectly. The only thing that didn't coincide with the whole thing was his love of legos and ability to build lots of complex lego models.

 

He has always hated writing. As a toddler he refused to color or draw. He still cannot color in the lines and still hates every second of having to color something. He will on occassion draw something but it looks like something my dd drew when she was around 3 yrs old.

 

We have sat for hours at the table trying to write just a few sentences. Last year, he wept everytime I brought out HWOT. He'll have lots of good ideas but then will only write the absolute very least he needs to write on a paper.

 

He went to public kindy for half the year before I pulled him out and they told me he was behind in math skills. Turns out he was just getting marked wrong over and over again on his "number grids" where they were supposed to fill in boxes with 1 - 100. FTR, he's exceptional at math and was doing 2nd grade math work by the end of kindy.

 

When he does write, his letters float up off the line and he still does not space his words correctly.

 

The list goes on and on.

 

So now what?

[SilverFirefly]

I can't give you any advice on dysgraphia...but I would suggest posting this over on the special needs forum. I know there are many on that forum whose children have dysgraphia and could probably give you great advice.

HTH,

Elizabeth

[wapiti]

I think I FINALLY figured it out! I don't know how I didn't find this before but this morning I just chanced upon an article about dysgraphia and it described my 8 yr old ds perfectly. The only thing that didn't coincide with the whole thing was his love of legos and ability to build lots of complex lego models.

 

He has always hated writing. As a toddler he refused to color or draw. He still cannot color in the lines and still hates every second of having to color something. He will on occassion draw something but it looks like something my dd drew when she was around 3 yrs old.

 

We have sat for hours at the table trying to write just a few sentences. Last year, he wept everytime I brought out HWOT. He'll have lots of good ideas but then will only write the absolute very least he needs to write on a paper.

 

He went to public kindy for half the year before I pulled him out and they told me he was behind in math skills. Turns out he was just getting marked wrong over and over again on his "number grids" where they were supposed to fill in boxes with 1 - 100. FTR, he's exceptional at math and was doing 2nd grade math work by the end of kindy.

 

When he does write, his letters float up off the line and he still does not space his words correctly.

 

The list goes on and on.

 

So now what?

 

FWIW, I think of "dysgraphia" more as a catch-all term for writing disability symptoms, but the causes can vary. The problem you describe above could just as easily be a developmental vision problem (which can be ruled out by seeing a covd optometrist) as a motor problem (for which one might get some OT) - or both. There seem to be a variety of different possible weaknesses that pair with math strengths, though each kiddo may be slightly different.

 

I would suggest posting this over on the special needs forum.

:iagree:

[homefront]

Vision therapy was a blessing for my dd, who has dysgraphia. It doesn't solve everything but it did help the act of writing. We use Montessori movable alphabets, magnet words and now pocket chart with very large word banks. Learning to type as soon as possible is good too, or using a computerized speech to text program is also a possiblity.

[Shelsi]

What do you do if there aren't any vision places for him to be evaluated? We live in a small town that doesn't typically have many specialists of any sort. I did a search and the nearest one is almost a 4 hr drive from here.

[FairProspects]

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