Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Spelling/Grammar Issues - Dyslexia or Dysgraphia?

Ethinx- I just I would share some apps that my DSs were given from our district. WordQ, Capti
BBC Dance Mat Typing http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z3c6tfr
Typeracer http://play.typeracer.com/
Typing Test http://www.typingtest.com/
FreeTyping Games http://www.freetypinggame.net/
Power Typing http://www.powertyping.com/
Tux Typing https://tux4kids.alioth.debian.org/tuxtype/
Learn 2 Type http://www.learn2type.com/

All 3 of my DSs have language disorders and automaticity issues. 2 have dysgraphia. We were able to get OT and assistive technology district evaluations that helped better understand the specific fine motor weakness for one DS and get district trial macbooks.

There might be a connection - you might want to pay attention to and think through what types of situations lead to easy flow of conversation vs lack of conversation with him (same for written work). Our ds didn't appear to have an expressive language issue because there were things he could talk about, and when he talked he sounded like the highly intelligent kid that he is - but if you paid close attention, those conversations where the words flowed easily were conversations that centered on factual information or ideas he could put together with facts he knew, such as how he might want to build a better roadway etc. When he was asked to answer an open-ended question he struggled. This was impacting his writing at school from day one, but the difference in ability to respond to different types of prompts wasn't that apparent until he was around 4th grade and the level of writing assignment in the classroom increased past basic learn-to-write exercises. It was around the same age that he began to be able to explain to us that he was having trouble answering questions during conversations. When he was younger, he seemed to be intimidated when talking to teachers - he'd be very quiet, and want either myself or my dh to talk for him - we attributed this to his age, but really it was due to lack of having a clue what to say or how to carry on the conversation. DS went through around 4-5 years of speech therapy for expressive language once we realized there was a challenge, and that helped tremendously... but now that he's a teen we can still see signs of the same type of challenges, and expressing what he's thinking and feeling don't come naturally to him, he has to work at it.

polarbear

Thank you for all the advice. We plan to get additional testing in the near future to help us understand what is going on.

I've been looking around for a short video to help explain DCD/dyspraxia to the school as well as family. I have found the ones that talk about the obvious difficulties around fine motor/gross motor. However I'm looking for something that talks about some of the other struggles someone with DCD/dysgraphia might face - increased frustration/emotions, needing tasks broken up into smaller steps, easily distracted/fidgety, etc. Does anyone have a favorite?

Also are there any books you can recommend? DS's school doesn't understand DCD, so I'm trying to put together some quick, easy to understand info for them as I know they aren't going to want to read lots of articles or books.

I'm not at home at the moment, so can't send you any links... but fwiw, when we've advocated at school we've found teachers/staff aren't really terribly interested in learning about DCD/dyspraxia in general, but more focused on how it specifically our ds is impacted - hence the most helpful thing we have shared wasn't links to videos or articles or scholarly research etc, but rather a list of how our ds was impacted academically and accommodations/etc that helped limit the impact.

We also found it easiest to receive (without a lot of questions and without a need to link the "why" to the diagnosis) accommodations that are fairly widely used ("typical"). Accommodations such as breaking tasks up into smaller steps are accommodations that span a range of diagnoses. Our state's Special Ed website contains a handbook with "typical" accommodations, and the same list is also available in our school district's Sped Policy handbook - anything we requested off of this list was an easy ask; anything we requested that wasn't on this list required a bit of lobbying - that's where being able to say "this is a typical need" or challenge for students with dyspraxia helped, but rather than being interested in documentation on dyspraxia, our teachers/staff were usually more interested in having us explain and demonstrate how the requested accommodation would help our ds. Hope that makes sense!

Best wishes,

polarbear

I'll look thru the links/etc I have when I'm back home.

Hi there: You might find this website helpful. There are a number of "flyers" you can print out for educations/ phys ed teachers etc.

https://canchild.ca/en/diagnoses/developmental-coordination-disorder

polarbear - yes, I agree they aren't going to be that interested in the details. However I think it would help them better appreciate what is hard for him if they had a high-level understanding. Simple things like not only will his handwriting be hard to read, but his artwork may look like a preschooler's. When he is spacing out it isn't because he isn't trying... those kinds of things.

Hi again BlessedMommy --- I just noticed that the link I included in my earlier post wasn't working, so I fixed it. I really commend that website to you, as it has all sorts of great information on it. For example, there is this 2007 paper about teachers' perceptions of the motor skills issues of kids with DCD.

https://canchild.ca/system/tenon/as...D_Understanding_Teachers_Perceptions.pdf

Ethinx, your DC is actually too young for the TOWL. I would suggest the OWLS-II (Oral and Written Language Scales) instead, or the PAL-II (Process Assessment of the Learner - Reading & Writing). If both the written and oral portions of the OWLS are given, that will also give you some information on how much is language per se, and how much is specific to writing.

For pure expressive language, the slp may also choose to give the CELF-5 (this tests oral language only). The auditory processing (I assume) eval he's undergoing will not assess expressive language (though it may find other notable features).