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    Joined: Apr 2014
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    DS 7.5 has dyslexia/dysgraphia/dyspraxia with giftedness. We pulled out of public school at the beginning of first grade once I saw the writing on the wall with the "gifted" program there and lack of accommodations and remediation problems.

    We've been homeschooling and remediating with good improvement.

    There is a local public elementary school that is starting a full grade gifted program and I've applied for DS. IDK how it would go but I've heard accommodating in a full day gifted program is easier than a typical elementary school with just gifted pull out.

    Any experiences with public gifted full programs and disability accommodations? I have no problem continuing remediation (as long as DS has the energy for it) at home but I worry about his ability to be accommodated for significant dysgraphia. The dyslexia has improved greatly but still is well below his IQ. It seems that dyslexic accommodations would be easier to manage as audiobooks and ipads are so universal. Theoretically dysgraphia accommodations are around but dictation doesn't work well yet on ipads with DS, and currently I scribe everything we do except handwriting.

    Any thoughts appreciated smile


    Life is the hardest teacher. It gives the test first and then teaches the lesson.
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    That's true. I am going to try to schedule a meeting with the school to see how familiar they are with accommodations already. Unfortunately, I think most schools are trial and error as a lot of admin, teachers, or whomever can say the right things but then there's no real help available when students attend.


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    Originally Posted by Displaced
    I worry about his ability to be accommodated for significant dysgraphia. The dyslexia has improved greatly but still is well below his IQ. It seems that dyslexic accommodations would be easier to manage as audiobooks and ipads are so universal. Theoretically dysgraphia accommodations are around but dictation doesn't work well yet on ipads with DS, and currently I scribe everything we do except handwriting.

    It's not too early to teach him to touch-type and see if that makes it easier for him to do his work independently. It improves things for some dysgraphics, doesn't for others-- but worth a shot. And it is a relatively easy accommodation to provide.

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    Dictation can be tough with kid voices (though I do find my daughter's getting a lot better IF she has the patience to practice - and will actually listen to advice about how she needs to to speak if she wants her words recognized - smile ). We've found word prediction a big help at age 7-8, when voice recognition was too frustrating. And it's easier to use in a classroom full of other people.

    In your meeting, it might be helpful to ask them what they would suggest as alternative ways to demonstrate his knowledge - and to what extent and how often they would expect to let him use them.

    There are several threads which discuss all sorts of potential dysgraphia accommodations in detail; if you have trouble finding them in a search, I'm sure we can help track them down. Good luck!

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    Originally Posted by DeeDee
    Originally Posted by Displaced
    I worry about his ability to be accommodated for significant dysgraphia. The dyslexia has improved greatly but still is well below his IQ. It seems that dyslexic accommodations would be easier to manage as audiobooks and ipads are so universal. Theoretically dysgraphia accommodations are around but dictation doesn't work well yet on ipads with DS, and currently I scribe everything we do except handwriting.

    It's not too early to teach him to touch-type and see if that makes it easier for him to do his work independently. It improves things for some dysgraphics, doesn't for others-- but worth a shot. And it is a relatively easy accommodation to provide.

    Thanks. It's become a high priority to teach typing now. I tried some last year but the programs were not great for DS. Now there are more options, ironically because the dyslexia is better. And I'm giving him more free reign with the ipad to use the keyboard so he's getting a little more used to where the letters are.


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    Originally Posted by Platypus101
    Dictation can be tough with kid voices (though I do find my daughter's getting a lot better IF she has the patience to practice - and will actually listen to advice about how she needs to to speak if she wants her words recognized - smile ). We've found word prediction a big help at age 7-8, when voice recognition was too frustrating. And it's easier to use in a classroom full of other people.

    In your meeting, it might be helpful to ask them what they would suggest as alternative ways to demonstrate his knowledge - and to what extent and how often they would expect to let him use them.

    There are several threads which discuss all sorts of potential dysgraphia accommodations in detail; if you have trouble finding them in a search, I'm sure we can help track them down. Good luck!

    Thanks! It will probably be necessary to do word recognition in a quiet setting. I'm concerned about longer output expectations as we're looking into a gifted program (not just pull out but whole day) and I'm worried that compared with a bunch of gifted kids, there may be a ton of writing expected.

    I like the idea of asking them how they allow students to show their knowledge. That's a great idea. And I've searched the forums for dysgraphia recommendations but for some reason can only search back a year. I will continue trying but if you know of some great threads or can recognize them that would be super awesome smile


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    Displaced, you can only search one year at a time, but you can search back more than one year. Tell it you want threads between 1 year old and 2 years old, or between 3 years old and 4 years old, or whatever.

    Good luck!

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    Originally Posted by spaghetti
    We don't have gifted schools here and my dysgraphic was always excluded from gifted programming in elementary, but I do have a severe dysgraphic here, 16 years old.

    First thing you need is a 504 or an IEP for public education which requires some official paperwork. With that, you create a document that specifies what school will do and how he will manage. You might need to have him enrolled first if you didn't already get this when he was in school before.

    We did dictation until I taught typing at 7. We worked every day for 10 minutes for 6 weeks. That got him up to about 15 words per minute which is not bad for the rate kids write in early elementary school. We got DS an alpha smart-- they are no longer made-- and he carried it around. The two biggest obstacles were: DS didn't want to appear different or answer questions from curious classmates. And Elementary teachers are much more focused on remediation vs accommodation so they didn't really buy in at first.

    However, once they saw the huge difference, they generally bought in.

    How it worked is that whenever DS was limited by inability to write, I had him dictate and I typed. I then handed it to him to read and tell me changes. That was an excellent habit that we lucked into! He proofread and edited his stuff from the get go.

    By 4th grade, he was up to about 45 WPM and a functional typist-- I believe because we started so early.

    And now, he's over 100 WPM.

    What I learned: Some say not to teach home row. We did home row and it worked, but keep it in mind if home row isn't working for your DS. Hunt and peck and "figure out your own way" can work too.

    Second: Writing needs to be taught with whatever your output is. Even waiting until 8 to output in typing in school required me to re-teach the writing process to DS. I suspect it's in the brain wiring.

    So, for now, I'd teach typing, but don't expect it to be functional for a couple of years. You'll need another method for a while-- and it might just be to not have to write more than a word or sentence.

    And don't forget maps and coloring and other "written" assignments when you ask for accommodations.

    Thanks. If we go to this public school we would need at least a 504 for both the dyslexia and dysgraphia. I'm of the mindset that unless they have an OG reading specialist then I will need to do remediation myself. If they throw in addition remediation that is helpful, plus accommodate, I'd be thrilled.

    You have motivated me to start again with typing with how fast you made progress. I've been putting it off since last year but I think it would be better to start immediately, as well as switch to cursive for a trial.

    I realize that accommodations may just be on paper and in reality not carried out, so I'm not going to get my hopes up (and we're still awaiting acceptance to the school even). But I've been homeschooling for 18 months now. I feel I do remediation well but the giftedness is tricky for me to accommodate sometimes and I'm wondering if a gifted school would be better for the family.

    It's a valid point to consider how DS would feel regarding differences. He's verbalized worry about his dyslexia and not reading like the other kids despite homeschooling for >1 year. If he is also concerned about writing and has problems again in school we would homeschool until he's older, has less "noticeable" differences, and more self-confidence.

    We would definitely need all written output accommodated. I have DS do coloring, drawing, mazes, cutting, etc as therapy daily. He would probably need twice the amount of time as other kids to accomplish the same tasks for anything requiring his hands. Artwork, musical instruments, you name it (from the dyspraxia co-diagnosis).


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    Originally Posted by ElizabethN
    Displaced, you can only search one year at a time, but you can search back more than one year. Tell it you want threads between 1 year old and 2 years old, or between 3 years old and 4 years old, or whatever.

    Good luck!

    Ooooooh! Now I know! cool


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    The built-in search engine often seems to have a hard time with multi-word searches. It's usually easier to google (go to "advanced" and limit the domain to "http://giftedissues.davidsongifted.org").

    Here's a couple of the more relevant threads I found searching "dysgraphia accommodations":

    http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....Dysgraphia_Interventions.html#Post168409
    http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....7636/Just_diagnosed_with_Dysgraphia.html
    http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....0682/School_Ipad_Apps_For_Dysgraphi.html
    http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....6455/Math_Accommodations_for_Writin.html
    http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....eschool_dysgraphia_advic.html#Post208976

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