DS12, 6th grade (middle school), severe fine motor dysgraphia due to dyspraxia, needs to use his laptop for all of his schoolwork. He's using it 100% of the time in his English & LA classes where the teachers have told all the kids that anyone who wants to can bring in their laptop from home to take notes - several kids do this. He opens it up at the start of class in two other classes to record his daily homework assignment, then closes the laptop and uses handwriting for the rest of the time in those classes, and he has yet to open it up once in science class. He also is not opening it up in the after-school homework "club" (study time for kids' whose parents don't pick them up immediately after school).
He really really REALLY needs to use his laptop for all of his work, but he's extremely distressed over imagining that some of the kids in his class and the other 7/8 grade classes (he's subject-accelerated) will make fun of him. He's had an experience of feeling like he was made fun of for being smart, but when I mentioned that to one of his advisors the problem was taken care of immediately, proactively, and by including ds - in a really good way - so I'm very certain that the staff will handle this situation well too - if we can get ds to let them.
DS wishes everyone knew he had dysgraphia and wishes they knew something about it, but doesn't want anyone to know at the same time. So far the best I've been able to do is talk through with him about his worries and tried to help him see them realistically, plus I've been having him read about dysgraphia and other LD himself. This has helped him talk to me about how his dysgraphia impacts him which is great - I didn't realize that his hand still hurts after a few minutes of writing - I thought his pain had disappeared years ago after handwriting OT.
So - I'm looking for suggestions - what would you do if this was your child? DS truly wants to use the laptop for his classes - he's starting to really feel the impact of *not* using it - but he's truly scared of looking different than the other kids and being made fun of. FWIW, my perception is he's in a small school with an extremely sensitive teaching staff who care about him, and surrounded by a relatively empathetic group of 6th grade peers, some of whom are just simply goofy 11-12 year old girls who are much more outgoing than he is - not mean-spirited at all. So I think if he can just get it out there and do it, and get past perhaps a little bit of initial girls-can-act-goofy over anything-ness, he'll be fine.
Ideas?
Thanks!
polarbear
