Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Math Accommodations for Writing Disability?

My 9 year old 4th grader has been diagnosed with a writing disability that appears to be crossing over into her math performance. She struggles with copying the problems down correctly, checking her work (she's now been changing right answers to wrong because she refers back to the book incorrectly), lining things up, understanding how to show her work, and handwriting. We see zero issues in her understanding of the math. She knows it inside out, backwards, forwards, and standing on its head.

This year has been an absolute disaster. She's working independently in the back of a room of semi-controlled chaos. She's working out of a textbook, copying down all problems out of a book she may not mark in. As of this week, we have informal accommodations in place, many are focused on the specific situation of her current "learning" environment. These are changing on a daily basis at this point as the vice principal is learning the specifics of the arrangement and the struggles. I have a very clear ally in her, but she's still bound to support her teachers and administration.

I'm looking to next year, to get a sense of what kind of accommodations the school may offer when she reenters classroom instruction. It will be 7th grade math (Common Core 7, so pre-algebra 'lite') at the middle school across the street from the elementary school. Everyone is working on the assumption that she'll have an IEP by then.

The district is not used to offering accommodations for kids so far out of sync with the curriculum, and certainly not accelerated as far as she is. I suspect there's more experience here as to appropriate and effective accommodations and interventions than the schools have for kids like mine.

Once you get to middle school math learning environments, what effective interventions have people seen for disabilities such as my daughter's?

Our ds is in 6th grade, which is middle school here, and working ahead of grade level in math. These are his accommodations, which are very similar to MON's ds' accommodations:

* Does not have to re-write the problem on his answer sheet.
* Uses his laptop for all math assignments (there are occasional assignments or worksheets which he chooses to use handwriting for, but it's a *choice*.
* Uses Efofex software - in our ds' case, he is working on a Mac (personal laptop) and runs Efofex using Parallels/Windows, but is currently also using the one Efofex module which has been released for the Mac - it's still considered to be in "Beta" mode but it's worked essentially trouble-free for him. I apologize for the detail but wanted to add it in just in case someone is reading who is struggling with how to do math on a Mac!
* DS also has a new equation editor that runs on the Mac that he likes as well as the Efofex equation editor, but I don't have his computer with me at the moment, and I don't remember the name of it! The downside to it is, it's not free, and it is only an equation editor.
* DS has time and a half on testing (but has never needed it for anything other than fluency tests
* DS is allowed to use his computer on tests for written essay questions (anything more than a short few-words answer
* DS is not graded on spelling, punctuation, etc for tests outside of those specific subjects
* DS is allowed to record class lectures (which he currently doesn't do but the math is still easy enough for him he probably wouldn't be taking notes even if he didn't have dysgraphia)
* He hasn't used it, but it was recommended by his neuropsych that ds be allowed to use a calculator to check his work on tests (not to do the work, but to check to make sure he hasn't made any dysgraphia-related errors in writing while working through problems - he makes this type of error even on the computer).
* Is allowed to take picture of the daily assignment written on the board rather than having to type it into his planner


That's all I can remember at the moment. I'll add though, that no matter how many accommodations are in place and how well we think we have it covered, dysgraphia still presents some major hurdles in math for our ds (hurdles that are completely unrelated to his understanding of the math concepts). We do what we can to give him ways to avoid copying, but he still will sometimes write down a number which is not the number that's in his head while doing an equation, or when working on a page that has another problem worked on it accidentally copy something from the other problem instead of the current problem as he works through solving an equation, or transposing numbers etc. I am certain the time it takes him to do his math homework is usually (for most topics) twice as long as it takes the other students in his class.

You mentioned that your school district isn't used to giving accommodations to students who are accelerated as your dd is - they may not, but I'm guessing they *have* had students in higher level math classes who have needed accommodations whether or not they are accelerated, and the accommodations for a writing disability should be the same, regardless of the student's age.

Best wishes,

polarbear

You've already received excellent advice. I just wanted to add that the same processing issues creating problems in reading will create problems in a lot of areas, not just math.

Midschool has been much more difficult for my son, especially graphing and geometry. He's had the same difficulty with maps in his history class.

You'll find some teachers quite accommodating and others resistant, so I've found the best approach has been to advocate for every accommodation that is reasonable and then apply them only as needed.

ps - there are two accommodations that our ds doesn't currently have that also I can see him using at some point in the future (he could have used them already but we haven't pushed for them... yet):

* reduced homework - ds usually only needs to do a problem once to get the concept. His homework last night had the same concept repeated again and again over 10+ problems - which would most likely be annoying to any gifted kid, but throw in the time sink and fatigue that goes along with dysgraphia, and the fatigue and time spent outweigh any learning benefits of the repeated work.

* extended time to turn in work - this can be important on days when there are after-school commitments etc - our ds spends so soooo much time on homework and also really needs extra time to recharge at night but the reality is his homework (across all subjects) takes longer than most kids due to his writing challenges and processing speed. The flip side of extended time in math is that the way his class works, kids are asked to work the problems before the class discusses them the next day, so it helps him to do his homework when it's assigned and to get it all done. So we haven't asked for extended time in math yet - but he gets it in other classes.

polarbear

I agree with ABQMOM make all the accomodations you can think of that may help in one class but maybe not another and use them as he needs to based on teacher and subject. My dysgraphia son has many accomodations that teachers state he does not use, he may use them in some classes and not in that one. One major accomodation is re-test required on all tests, quizes and exams. He can only not retest on semester exams but that may be changing as well. He is also getting a full grade if retest is higher that 70 instead of the standard make up standard of 70 MAX. This is the big one that makes the teachers bow their backs.

Wow, thank you all. Great suggestions. I'd never heard of Efofex. It looks really good, and we'll have to see if we go that far.

Master, indeed, copying will have to be addressed. It is our current flash point. Spelling lists are hard to master if you can't even copy the spelling word onto your list properly...

polarbear, thanks in particular for those accommodations. The calculator check in particular will help. I'll ask the vice principal if DD can do that immediately. DD doesn't need extra time, but we're seeing a need to encourage her to slow down. I hope that maybe doing an extra time accommodation will help achieve that.

Not being graded on spelling and capitalization has evidently been put into place for her, though it's not one of the accommodations the VP listed for me. DD didn't get marked wrong on a test this week where it would have been a week ago.

"when working on a page that has another problem worked on it accidentally copy something from the other problem instead of the current problem as he works through solving an equation, or transposing numbers etc. "

Goodness, yes.


There's some history here. The school district is on watch this year after a group of parents filed a complaint with the state. The state found in favor of the parents and told the district there was no appeals process. Previously, only the most severely learning disabled students had any accommodations. DD's issues until this year have been interpreted as her being lazy and sloppy. Nothing more. As such, the district teachers have little experience accommodating any students with LDs and have such abilities as DD has. Teachers have seen LD or gifted, no combination of the two, because the kids with LDs didn't qualify for gifted and gifted can't possibly have LDs.

ABQMom, yes, I'm assured that DD's IEP will cross all subjects. So far, she's in with a classroom teacher for all subjects except for math. Even with the IEP, the classroom teacher sees how these issues are crossing into other subjects, and she's aware of them, and accommodations and support are coming. The math is particularly severe this year on account of the screwy "learning" environment. Problems are then compounded by her being monitored by the gifted teacher, someone who has told me that in 25 years of teaching she has never encountered a kid in the gifted program with DD's struggles. Never.

The point you and polarbear make about additional accommodations in the IEP and applying only those that are necessary sounds very sound. Thank you.

Seconding what's above: Our IEPs have often included long lists of accommodations that "may be useful," with discretion left to the teacher about applying them judiciously. This works well if you get a classroom teacher who's willing to take things in hand and take responsibility for the learning.

DeeDee

This list is great! I wouldn't have thought of many of these ideas. Can I ask how a child is using typing in the classroom in middle school? Do they bring a laptop? That must stand out a bit. Thanks! Brownie

brownie - my son has access to the class computer in each class and also is allowed to email work from home. His math teacher allows him to do his homework at home on the computer - providing the answers to every other problem in typed form. His homework grades have improved immensely.

And, yes, it does stand out a bit. But so does failing all of your classes when you don't have the right accommodations. I've found out from another parent that my son has many nicknames - Einstein, MG (mental genius), and a few others. So his peers don't equate the accommodations with anything negative, and thanks to greater exposure to other historical and famous people who are 2E, it is holding far less stigma than it used to.

Hi Brownie,

My ds12 does all of his work on a personal laptop that belongs to us - he takes it to school, uses it during class, and brings it home each night. He has access to classroom computers and he works on those when the full class is using them for projects, but for the most part he prefers to have all of his work on his laptop, and since we own the laptop we can control the software that he has available to him (which is more of what he needs than he'd have access to on a school computer). He was also offered a school district laptop to use, but he wouldn't have been allowed to install any software on it, what the district offered was limited, the laptop was very old and wouldn't hold charge, and ... the district wanted us (parents) to sign an agreement to replace it at the cost of a new laptop if it was damaged while our ds was using it. Sooooo.... we decided it made better economic and academic sense to provide his laptop ourselves

I would say yes and no to the "standing out a bit" in class when using his laptop. Our ds absolutely feels like he stands out as being very different because of it. However... when he was in public school last year, there were at least 2 other kids on IEPs in his 4/5 grade classrooms using laptops, as well as the teacher had quite a few alphasmarts which any of the kids were allowed to use, and two classroom computers available for any kids to use. During writing workshop, at least 1/2 the kids in the classroom were using some kind of computer. There were other times during the day when only the kids with IEPs (ds included) used laptops. When he started this year at his current school, ds was worried about looking different - so his homeroom teacher told *all* of his class that anyone who wanted to could bring in their laptop to use and that resulted in about 4-5 other kids starting to bring their laptops to school. Next year he's required to use an iPad because all 7th graders have to use iPads. He may still have to use his laptop for some work, but so far it's looking like he'll be able to use the iPad most of the time.

Back at his old school, which we left for a number of reasons, once the kids are in middle school the language arts teachers use netbooks in quite a few of their classrooms. Soooo.... from the outside looking in, he doesn't really look all that out of place when he's using his laptop.

He will, however, always look different in one way because he is different in one way - his handwriting looks like something a 2nd grader with not-so-great handwriting might produce. It *really* stands out when you compare it to his classmates. He also has an expressive language disorder and it takes him a ton of effort to write certain types of assignments. Before he had his laptop he used to just sit and stare off into space because he had no clue how to write. His teachers saw that as *very* different, often for the wrong reasons. *He* saw himself as being different because while he sat around not knowing how to do the work, he saw his classmates easily coming up with things to write about. Once he was allowed to open up his laptop, he had tools that helped him get started with writing. It still doesn't flow, but he feels less conspicuous re what he's producing and he is able to put a more productive effort into it.

So yep, he stands out with the laptop in class. Sometimes it bothers him, but as he's gotten older he's also come to value having the laptop to do his work, and that's lessened the impact he feels from "standing out". He complains mostly about how he "stands out" because the girls in his class call him a "brainiac" (and not as a term of endearment!).

polarbear