Bragging on my younger - his hard work to conquer dysgraphia

[lewelma]

We started 4 years ago when he was 12 years old with him writing at 8 words per minute regardless of typing or physically writing, and with him being unable to spell 70 out of the top 100 words. He could write for 3 minutes at a time tops. He had NO idea what a sentence was no matter how many grammar programs we did. He was still trying to remember how to write letters (yes, form them!) and he was still sounding out words like 'cat'. His phonics were fine, his phonemic skills were fine, he knew all the rules. He just could not encode his thoughts. Nothing was automated. It wasn't that I had not been working diligently on writing for all those years, but I think I just scaffolded so much, I just couldn't see it.  And I believed his work was age appropriate because when he dictated to me it was just so good. I actually didn't really realize he was having trouble until he was about 10. I just though he couldn't spell and that he was a slow writer. By the time he was 11,  I figured he had dysgraphia, and we had made a big naive push on spelling programs, copy work, and speed writing.  None of it did a thing to help him, and only left him stressed. I was ignorant, with my head in the sand. His amazing skill at composition had completely masked his dysgraphia.

At age 12, we started a new path. We abandoned physical writing and went full focus on typing. The goal was 40 words per minute before high school. This was wishful thinking.  Dysgraphia is an *encoding* problem, and typing did not make encoding much easier. The only thing it removed was the need to remember how to form the letters. But he still had to get some letters typed that were reasonably close to get spell check to fix them. This took 2.5 years -- to go from 8 words a minute to 25 words per minute typing speed took 2.5 years at more than a hour per day year round!! This was with me sitting right there with him, teaching him how to encode - sounds, thoughts, grammar, punctuation. All of it. After we got him up to 25 words per minute, we switched from dictation to high interest research papers in geography that I have described here before. The high interest meant they were heavily scaffolded but it also meant that he *loved* them, and was willing to work on his writing for 2 hours per day, typing 2 paragraphs every single day. In the past 1.5 years he has written with lots of help 8 research papers that are about 10ish pages long each.  And his typing speed is now at 40 words per minute, and he is only mis-spelling about 10% of words.  It is through is hard work and diligence that he is where he is at now.

So, the success that I want to share: In the past month, ds has independently written the most wonderful essay. He has modelled it off National Geographic essays. We spent 3 weeks 45 minutes per day studying this type of writing together. And then I helped him over 3 days to convert an experience he wanted to write about into a thesis of National Geographic quality. He started off my mimicking one Nat Geo essay paragraph-for-paragraph, but quickly abandoned this approach as he began to really get into his writing. The last paragraph where he brings it all together took him 3 hours over 4 days to write and rewrite and edit and re-edit, to try to bring the entire essay to a close. This paper was HARD for him to write, really really hard, but I think we have finally aligned his intellectual skill and his encoding skill. There is still much more to do, but we are now set on a good path to get him ready for university in 2 years. I am immensely proud of him, and have waited impatiently for the past week for him to finish his edits so I could post here.

PLEASE DON'T QUOTE deleted

Edited January 5, 2023 by lewelma

[maize]

Wonderful work!

[maize]

A friend recently asked me if I had any ideas to help her daughter who struggles with writing. I wanted to point her to some information on dysgraphia, have you found any helpful resources along the way?

[lewelma]

43 minutes ago, maize said:

A friend recently asked me if I had any ideas to help her daughter who struggles with writing. I wanted to point her to some information on dysgraphia, have you found any helpful resources along the way?

The Learning Challenges board has been my best resource. That and trial and error, and a hell of a lot of persistence. 

[lewelma]

Did you guys notice his sense of humor? I was just re-reading it. What caught my eye: Tintinnabulated mellifluously. Felled to feed the fires. Paws of the rabbits. Scrumptious little shoots of newly grown tussock, perfect for nibbling by the sheep. haha. LOVE IT. 

My favorite sentence: This brash escapade earned him five years of hard labor as well as the title of folk hero.

I also am pleased with his metaphor of the sapling. He didn't want to make it too obvious, but I actually encouraged it because I was not convinced he could write it in a subtle way. It was also only at the very end of writing the entire paper that he decided to bring in the 'wetlands' that we saw that was completely overrun with weedy pines. That was not in the original outline at all, but it ended up being the perfect way to end it. He wanted the piece to be positive, which I do think he pulled off.

Our trip to the South Island was our first trip without my older, and we wanted to celebrate all the work that my younger had done in his writing. He spent 15 weeks studying the history/sociology/science of the hydro-projects in the Mackenzie Basin and the multiple uses/perceptions of the economics/ecology of the Basin.  Then, it was after this trip that he decides to write even more on the Mackenzie -  an English paper with a focus on purpose and audience. Can you guys tell that I am just so PROUD! 

Edited November 28, 2019 by lewelma

[lewelma]

photos:

https://www.google.com/search?q=mackenzie+basin&safe=active&rlz=1CAIUCU_enNZ871&sxsrf=ACYBGNSHYmqe137esEvpguLJI-JN_66a2g:1574923590318&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi9wJjJp4zmAhUVA3IKHSwbAhgQ_AUoAnoECBIQBA&biw=1024&bih=417#imgrc=PSJat2QTS8RJQM:

Edited November 28, 2019 by lewelma

[maize]

5 hours ago, lewelma said:

photos:

https://www.google.com/search?q=mackenzie+basin&safe=active&rlz=1CAIUCU_enNZ871&sxsrf=ACYBGNSHYmqe137esEvpguLJI-JN_66a2g:1574923590318&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi9wJjJp4zmAhUVA3IKHSwbAhgQ_AUoAnoECBIQBA&biw=1024&bih=417#imgrc=PSJat2QTS8RJQM:

Beautiful!

Tell your son that I looked up tussock grasses after reading his piece, it made me curious.

[drjuliadc]

Wonderful job.  Beautiful writing. Even though he did the work to get that far, I would like to acknowledge the work you did too. What an amazing mother and teacher you are.

[ElizabethB]

Wow, that is a great job!! An amazing essay for any student, but especially your son given what he had to work through to accomplish that. I also looked up tussock.  

I have a question about the rabbits.  Did they give the rabbits RHD in NZ, too?  What do you think is the best way to get rid of rabbits?  When I told my kids about the rabbit problem in Australia, we did some more research about it and talked about what was the most humane way to solve the problem that was still effective.  My kids were appalled that the rabbits were given Rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD),  but also understood the big problem they were to the local ecology and economy, so agreed that something did need to be done. They felt bad about the poor rabbits being given "bunny ebola." You can start another thread if you have a lot of thoughts about this, I don't want to derail this one but am interested in the topic, my undergrad was biology and I saw a similar problem with the overpopulation of deer beyond the carrying capacity in certain areas of Colorado, resulting in sickly deer populations and destruction of massive amounts of vegetation.  

Also, there was a huge problem with jack rabbits in western states at one time, my FIL told me they had boy scouts and the local community round up, herd, and club the rabbits to death. My children were appalled at the clubbing, too.  Grandpa said that it would not go over well now but it was an accepted practice at the time, and people who grew up on farms thought nothing of it.