On the WJ achievement she scored an 89 for writing fluency, 100 for handwriting, 115 or 120 for writing samples, and maybe 112 for spelling. I don't remember the exact numbers. She was a lot higher for reading and math. The psych who assessed her said she doesn't have dysgraphia since none of those numbers are below the average range.
Does anyone have experience with WJ achievement scores being average but there still being dysgraphia or "disorder of written expression"?
FWIW, my dysgraphic ds' most recent scores on the WJ-III Achievement writing subtests were: Writing Samples, 123 (94th percentile), Spelling 94 (34th percentile), Writing Fluency 78 (7th percentile), Written Expression 91 (28th percentile) and Broad Written Language 92 (30th percentile).
We were able to successfully advocate for an IEP (qualified under SLD/written expression)... but not based on the WJ-III Achievement scores. The approach we took was to go to the school with a private neuropsych diagnosis of dysgraphia and Disorder of Written Expression, and provided samples of his timed handwriting, his written work (handwritten vs typing vs oral) as well as examples of struggles with answering open-ended questions. Most of our examples were things we'd specifically had him do at home so we could limit and control the circumstances to specifically illustrate how dysgraphia and DOWD were impacting his ability to do the type of work he needed to be able to do at school. We then requested that the school give him the Test of Written Language (TOWL), and due to his specific struggles with written expression, he could not complete the TOWL - and that's really the strongest evidence we had in terms of what the school couldn't argue.
I still don't have a report.
How long has it been since your dd was tested? Was it a private tester or through the school?
In my state a child can get an IEP for learning disabilities if there is a 1.75 standard deviation between their IQ and achievement scores
One caution - that may be the requirement for eligibility, but you're not (typically) guaranteed an IEP just because of meeting a bar such as this. You also have to be able to show that your dd's ability to perform academically is impacted.
DD now has a long term sub who is going to be there the rest of the year. The sub has been complaining about her and said that for writing in the morning she will write 2 sentences and the other kids write 1-2 pages. The teacher will tell them to write about a certain topic or put a "starter sentence" on the board along with an ending sentence. DD says that she has no idea what to write or how to construct a story that makes any sense with a prescribed starting and ending. She thinks it will be dumb, so simply does not do anything at all. She thinks she would do better typing but is scared to ask the teacher. I have mentioned it a couple times in emails that DD would probably do better typing, and those comments were dismissed.
blackcat, I think that the first thing you need to do is some detective work of your own at home. The first thing I'd want to dig into is - will typing really help, or is there a challenge with expressive language on top of your dd's handwriting challenge? I'd suggest giving her a few writing assignments at home - have her use handwriting on one, typing on another, oral response on another. Try this with a few different genres too - give her an assignment that is entirely open-ended in response vs another assignment that is clear-cut in terms of what is expected, such as writing a list of directions.
DD seems to have the hardest time with fictional stories. This doesn't really surprise me since she has never really played "pretend" so why would she be able to write pretend. I think she has a really hard time organizing her thoughts. Is there a graphic organizer of some sort that could help her construct a fictional story that has to start and end with certain sentences?
I think you might be combining two different issues here. The difficulty with creating a fiction story is not necessarily a challenge with organizing thoughts - rather it sounds like a challenge with generating the thoughts to begin with. A graphic organizer might help, but what will probably help more (if generating the ideas is the actual problem), is work on brainstorming ideas, giving very specific examples, and scaffolding writing assignments so that they are broken down into simple steps.
I see graphic organizers but they mostly have to do with essays, research papers, and that sort of thing. Not creative writing.
I've seen them but don't have any links to share at this point - we used to have links when ds was in elementary school. One thing that ds did use for organization was Inspiration software. It isn't a graphic organizer that's set up in a specific way, but it allows the student to brainstorm and connect ideas in separate circles, then you can switch the graphic that you've organized into outline form which makes it easier to transpose into paragraph form.
But he said that she does often struggle to get started on things or figure out what to write about.
blackcat, if you do go through the process of requesting an IEP eligibility review through the school, I'd request both the TOWL and an SLP eval as part of the eval. This may not be what's up with your dd at all, but fwiw, my dysgraphic ds also struggled to get started on writing assignments and had a tough time figuring out what to write about. An SLP eval revealed he had an expressive language disorder, and the single most beneficial thing we've done that has helped him with writing is SLP therapy.
Best wishes,
polarbear
