Who diagnosed your dd? Was it school, a neuropsych, other? Did she have any indication of dysgraphia in the testing, and if so, were there any follow-up tests to determine the cause of the potential dysgraphia symptoms? Did the person who did the evaluation look at any handwriting samples from school or during testing? <= I asked these questions because I think the first thing you need to do in order to answer your question below is to determine if your dd is or isn't dysgraphic.
So, my question is this: If dysgraphia doesn't really improve long term with more practice writing, at what age should we start accommodations?
Our ds was diagnosed at 8 (end of 2nd grade). His neuropsych recommended that we put accommodations in place immediately (scribing first, teach him to type, then move all his work to typing, then add in word substitution etc, then later on start voice-to-text, and assume from the start that as an adult he would never be able to rely on handwriting). We were also told to right away have him work on a program to learn how to print "to the best of his ability" and then *stop*, and he was referred for approximately 1 year of handwriting OT (which helped him quite a bit - it didn't make his dysgraphia disappear, but it gave him correct posture, correct grip, alleviated wrist pain, and helped him develop legible handwriting).
The first thing I'd do (if I was you) is ask my dd if her wrist or hand hurts when she has to write. This is a classic symptom of dysgraphia, and I think it happens because of odd posture, grip, squeezing on the pencil while writing etc. If this is happening it might or might not mean dysgraphia, but it most likely *does* mean she needs some help with pencil grip, posture etc - so an OT fine motor eval might be useful.
If you want to post some more details about her testing etc we might be able to tell you whether or not what is seen there is similar to what our dysgraphic children have as indications of dysgraphia on testing. You can also look at her handwriting samples - is her handwriting uneven (letter size, spacing, running into the edges of the paper etc), is her pencil pressure on paper uneven, does she have challenges with punctuation, does she mix capitals and lowercase, is she still reversing letters when she writes - those are all indications of potential dysgraphia.
Whether or not I'd rely on the reading specialist's advice depends a *lot* on the reading specialist's background - has she worked with children with dysgraphia before and does she understand what it is? Or has she solely focused on reading?
Re dyslexia and reading ahead of grade level - I have a dyslexic dd - reading challenges can be really diverse and complicated. It is possible to be reading ahead of grade level yet be struggling with one of the many skills required to be a good efficient reader with good comprehension. My dd had a really wide variety of tests when she was evaluated by a reading specialist, and some of them she scores really really high on, but there is one specific skill set hidden in among all the others that she is challenged with - and working with a reading specialist targeting that specific skill has really helped her improve her reading ability and self-confidence.
I am not an expert, so take this with a grain of salt, but I believe that dysgraphia and dyslexia are somewhat related. My dh's family has a smattering of cousins (and most likely adult relatives) who have one or the other or both co-occurring with each other. The flip side of that though is... it's possible that what looks like dysgraphia in a young child *might* be dyslexia or some other reading challenge. My dyslexic dd did not like to write when she was in early elementary and her handwriting looked somewhat dysgraphic with a lot of reversals and huge challenges with spelling. She's not dysgraphic though - she doesn't have the same types of indications in neuropsych testing that would indicate dysgraphia that my ds has, and her letter reversals decreased and eventually disappeared as moved from 1st-3rd grade. She is still challenged with spelling but that's related to her reading challenge, not dysgraphia. And yes, she's a kid who would scream and shout and refuse to write when she was younger. So did my dysgraphic ds. I think just starting with that question "does it hurt your hand (wrist) when you write?" might help you flesh out whether or not it's related to a reading challenge or dysgraphia. Just a thought!
Best wishes,
polarbear
ps - 1mom, you might want to post your question again as a separate thread just in case folks are looking here only if they are interested in apps.
