high school dysgraphia issues

[Mahelle]

I've not worried much over the years about my son's dysgraphia. I've never done anything to have him evaluated or had any kind of therapy for him. For years we did math orally, and he learned to type for everything else, and it all seemed fine.

 

But now that we're starting high school I'm beginning to worry a bit. In the last couple months I feel like I've just become aware of how MUCH he still avoids writing. I'm afraid this could could hold him back.

 

For example, doing math, he tends to try to keep as much in his head as possible so he doesn't have to write anything. He's done pretty well, but now he's doing algebra and chemistry, and suddenly it's a problem sometimes because he doesn't write out all the steps.

 

Also, I'd like him to take an AP psychology class next year, and it suddenly struck me that you have to write BY HAND on AP tests!

 

I really would rather not deal with doing everything that it seems you need to do to get accommodations from the College Board and places like that. We don't have insurance coverage for any evaluation or OT. Isn't there something (easy) I can do with him to just "fix" his handwriting enough to do an AP essay or two? :tongue_smilie:

 

But seriously, if anyone has any suggestions for me I'm all ears. I'm feeling a little bad that I haven't taken this more seriously. (But I'm still feeling lazy, like I don't have the energy to go to extremes on this.)

[Tokyomarie]

Without knowing your son and the details of what he is actually capable of doing, it's hard to know whether anything you could do now would help his handwriting. Most OTs will not recommend remediation to a teenager. At least that's the way it was for us.

 

I avoided getting the full neuropsych evaluation for years for all kinds of reasons, including cost. My son had challenges that I understood, because of the knowledge base I had already developed on those topics over the years, were dyslexia and dysgraphia. I worked with my son diligently, but when he entered high school, I finally had to put my foot down and insist that he get evaluated because I had hit the proverbial wall with him and it.was.not.budging.

 

Yes, we have spent a lot of money in the last 2.5 years. But I will never regret getting the evaluation because I was finally able to understand my son's specific profile in a way I could not just by having general knowledge of the topic. Prior to the evaluation, he was headed in a very unsatisfactory direction for his future. Since the evaluation, things have changed for him and I feel optimistic about his future.

 

My son can now produce legible printing (but not cursive) if he takes his time and writes slowly. However, because of the time it takes, it is not functional for notetaking and writing timed essays. Because I had heard that the Collegeboard is very selective about who they will approve for the accommodation of using a computer for essays, I wasn't optimistic that my son would qualify. However, we recently received our decision in the mail and the Collegeboard agreed with various assessors and has approved us for computer use (which does not include grammar or spell check), as well as extra time (1.5x). In addition to the computer accommodation for Collegeboard tests, he is also approved to use a computer for essay tests at the community college as well as for any technology he wishes for taking notes. Many professors now allow students to use a computer for taking notes, but others do not unless the student has a formal accommodation. My son's official accommodation means he doesn't have to worry about each specific professor's policies.

Edited October 26, 2012 by Tokyomarie
additional info

[Mahelle]

Without knowing your son and the details of what he is actually capable of doing, it's hard to know whether anything you could do now would help his handwriting. Most OTs will not recommend remediation to a teenager. At least that's the way it was for us.

 

I avoided getting the full neuropsych evaluation for years for all kinds of reasons, including cost. My son had challenges that I understood, because of the knowledge base I had already developed on those topics over the years, were dyslexia and dysgraphia. I worked with my son diligently, but when he entered high school, I finally had to put my foot down and insist that he get evaluated because I had hit the proverbial wall with him and it.was.not.budging.

 

Yes, we have spent a lot of money in the last 2.5 years. But I will never regret getting the evaluation because I was finally able to understand my son's specific profile in a way I could not just by having general knowledge of the topic. Prior to the evaluation, he was headed in a very unsatisfactory direction for his future. Since the evaluation, things have changed for him and I feel optimistic about his future.

 

My son can now produce legible printing (but not cursive) if he takes his time and writes slowly. However, because of the time it takes, it is not functional for notetaking and writing timed essays. Because I had heard that the Collegeboard is very selective about who they will approve for the accommodation of using a computer for essays, I wasn't optimistic that my son would qualify. However, we recently received our decision in the mail and the Collegeboard agreed with various assessors and has approved us for computer use (which does not include grammar or spell check), as well as extra time (1.5x). In addition to the computer accommodation for Collegeboard tests, he is also approved to use a computer for essay tests at the community college as well as for any technology he wishes for taking notes. Many professors now allow students to use a computer for taking notes, but others do not unless the student has a formal accommodation. My son's official accommodation means he doesn't have to worry about each specific professor's policies.

 

I really appreciate hearing your story! I'm glad that you were able to get accommodation from the Collegeboard. That's good news! I guess I'm starting to wonder if I need to go the route you ended up going, but it sounds so overwhelming (and expensive).

 

My son can produce mostly legible writing (printing) though he does do some weird letters. I did have him do a couple of the Handwriting Without Tears books, including one cursive one, when he was younger. I'm trying to think what's the most I've seen him write. Hmmm, He once wrote a paragraph (slowly) for scouts. He wrote a list recently of which screws and nuts he needed from a specialty hardware store. (50 10mm, 1 2.5mm etc.) So he does write some if necessary, but he definitely tries to avoid it.

 

So I'm assuming that since most OT don't recommend therapy for teens that means they aren't likely to improve much more in their abilities? (I'm feeling guilty for not doing more when he was younger.) If so then maybe I need to start looking at evaluations. I'd love to hear more of your experience if you don't mind sharing. (Or you've probably posted about it before.)

Thanks for hearing me!

[FairProspects]

IMHO, having been down this road for only a couple of years now, dysgraphia is really difficult to remediate even for young kids. That is likely why OT is not recommended for teenagers. We had 3 years of OT and remediation and we just hit a point where despite very strong hands, ds's automaticity was just not there in his brain and we had diminishing returns with more therapy. Accommodation seems to be pretty significant for dysgraphia since it is so hard to remediate, and then the evaluations become crucial despite their expense.

[Tokyomarie]

We started with the full-on neuropsych eval. Now, my son had also had speech therapy when he was pre-school and early elementary, but other than that, he had no evaluation prior to age 15. In addition to reading, spelling, composition, and physical handwriting challenges, we were also having behavioral challenges which I had assumed were attention-based. I decided, given that ds was already in high school and struggling, that it was best to start with the neuropsych eval. The only other evals that the NP recommended were OT for handwriting and a good medical checkup with the doctor. The neuropsych eval included medical and academic history reviews, cognitive, academic achievement, phonemic awareness, visual motor assessment, as well as specifically neuropsych testing to elicit information on attention, memory, problem-solving abilities, etc.

 

We saw the OT shortly after getting the NP report. The OT mostly recommended accommodations, such as computer use, Livescribe pen, and so on. Ds also had O-G based therapy for reading and spelling difficulties as well as work on composition with an educational therapist. Later, he was assessed through the high school program we enrolled him in. The person who did that assessment gave him his formal dysgraphia label. He also had further assessment for dyslexia through a university-based program. All of those reports, which included a large number of the tests that the Collegeboard lists as acceptable tests to demonstrate need for accommodations were sent to the Collegeboard. His scores on the tests, and the universal recommendations for technology-based accommodations supported our request for computer use on essays.

 

I do think the reason ds's handwriting is as good as it is when he takes his time is that we did daily handwriting practice all the way through 8th grade. I might have continued beyond that, but honestly, we were too busy with high school content to make time.

[Mahelle]

IMHO, having been down this road for only a couple of years now, dysgraphia is really difficult to remediate even for young kids. That is likely why OT is not recommended for teenagers. We had 3 years of OT and remediation and we just hit a point where despite very strong hands, ds's automaticity was just not there in his brain and we had diminishing returns with more therapy. Accommodation seems to be pretty significant for dysgraphia since it is so hard to remediate, and then the evaluations become crucial despite their expense.

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experience. It's somewhat comforting to think that perhaps even if we had done more at a younger age it might not have made a huge improvement. That is what I mostly heard when I looked for advice when he was younger. Most people suggested letting him learn to type.

[Mahelle]

We started with the full-on neuropsych eval. Now, my son had also had speech therapy when he was pre-school and early elementary, but other than that, he had no evaluation prior to age 15. In addition to reading, spelling, composition, and physical handwriting challenges, we were also having behavioral challenges which I had assumed were attention-based. I decided, given that ds was already in high school and struggling, that it was best to start with the neuropsych eval. The only other evals that the NP recommended were OT for handwriting and a good medical checkup with the doctor. The neuropsych eval included medical and academic history reviews, cognitive, academic achievement, phonemic awareness, visual motor assessment, as well as specifically neuropsych testing to elicit information on attention, memory, problem-solving abilities, etc.

 

We saw the OT shortly after getting the NP report. The OT mostly recommended accommodations, such as computer use, Livescribe pen, and so on. Ds also had O-G based therapy for reading and spelling difficulties as well as work on composition with an educational therapist. Later, he was assessed through the high school program we enrolled him in. The person who did that assessment gave him his formal dysgraphia label. He also had further assessment for dyslexia through a university-based program. All of those reports, which included a large number of the tests that the Collegeboard lists as acceptable tests to demonstrate need for accommodations were sent to the Collegeboard. His scores on the tests, and the universal recommendations for technology-based accommodations supported our request for computer use on essays.

Thanks for sharing more of your experience. You certainly went through a lot of evaluations! I'm so glad it bore fruit for you and your son. I'd not heard of the Livescribe pen. It sounds interesting.

 

I'm a little concerned that even if I did some evaluations, they wouldn't be enough for accommodations from Collegeboard. As far as I know the only learning issue ds has is dysgraphia. He didn't have speech problems, and I don't think he has struggled with dyslexia. I could be wrong though. He was a little later with reading, probably around 8 when it really clicked and another year or two before he read for fun. Spelling is not great, but not too bad.

 

I would personally be interested in evaluations. But I do wonder if they'd be worth it (meaning we'd actually get accommodation) in his case. I guess I need to start researching more.

 

 

I do think the reason ds's handwriting is as good as it is when he takes his time is that we did daily handwriting practice all the way through 8th grade. I might have continued beyond that, but honestly, we were too busy with high school content to make time.

I do wonder if I should make him do a bit more handwriting practice still. But yes, it would take time - at the expense of something else.

 

I do appreciate being able to learn from you!

[Tokyomarie]

I'm a little concerned that even if I did some evaluations, they wouldn't be enough for accommodations from Collegeboard. As far as I know the only learning issue ds has is dysgraphia. He didn't have speech problems, and I don't think he has struggled with dyslexia. I could be wrong though. He was a little later with reading, probably around 8 when it really clicked and another year or two before he read for fun. Spelling is not great, but not too bad.

 

I would personally be interested in evaluations. But I do wonder if they'd be worth it (meaning we'd actually get accommodation) in his case. I guess I need to start researching more.

 

You won't really know until you get the evaluations how the numbers and interpretation of those numbers will come out. For me, the tipping point in the decision to go for an evaluation was the fact that I was trying to bump up the requirements for writing (both handwritten material and the writing process) and my son COULD.NOT.DO.IT. I have another child who struggled, primarily with the writing process, but to some degree the amount of handwriting required but she kept progressing gradually and was also cooperative enough with me. My son was rapidly getting to the point of complete shutdown and I knew we had to do *something* different.

 

As for the number of evaluations, I would have been satisfied with the original neuropsych and the OT evals had we continued to homeschool. When we enrolled ds in his current program last year, the way things played out with getting recognition for his difficulties dictated that we get the additional evals- done 2 years after the original ones. Ultimately, it turned out to be helpful for our application to the Collegeboard, given that multiple assessors had come to the same conclusion.

[Mahelle]

You won't really know until you get the evaluations how the numbers and interpretation of those numbers will come out. For me, the tipping point in the decision to go for an evaluation was the fact that I was trying to bump up the requirements for writing (both handwritten material and the writing process) and my son COULD.NOT.DO.IT. I have another child who struggled, primarily with the writing process, but to some degree the amount of handwriting required but she kept progressing gradually and was also cooperative enough with me. My son was rapidly getting to the point of complete shutdown and I knew we had to do *something* different.

This seems like a good way to make the decision. I wonder if I need to try to bump things up a little and see what happens for ds. Perhaps part of my problem is that I don't really know exactly what his limits are because I haven't pushed.

 

 

As for the number of evaluations, I would have been satisfied with the original neuropsych and the OT evals had we continued to homeschool. When we enrolled ds in his current program last year, the way things played out with getting recognition for his difficulties dictated that we get the additional evals- done 2 years after the original ones. Ultimately, it turned out to be helpful for our application to the Collegeboard, given that multiple assessors had come to the same conclusion.

 

I have a lot of thinking and studying to do it seems. Thanks for getting me started.