Our DD (FSIQ 146) has a handwriting disability, primarily ligament laxity related. At 5 we were told full time keyboarding by yr2-3 and to be happy if she could tick boxes and sign her name as an adult. I undertook a persistent therapy regime through yr1 (she was accelerated so she started yr1 at 5.5yrs). One year later she was 2yrs ahead of age and 1yr ahead of grade for handwriting speed and neatness, suddenly the OT thought she might make it all the way through the junior years with handwriting not keyboarding. Another year later, reduced but continued therapy, and she is no longer producing those sorts of massive gains and the other kids are developing normally (ie catching up and over taking). Her neatness is still very good for age but her speed is back down to the 25th and falling and we are back to expecting full time keyboarding very soon.
Essentially what we were seeing was a HG+ child with exceptional understanding of what we wanted her too do, given the right tools and therapy, applying everything she had to making her body do it. But there are limits...
Dyslexia is a different kettle of fish than a physical handwriting disability but keep in mind that this sort of thing can happen. My dyslexic child (different child) did not read well until yr4+, but once she started to crack the code she's gone from strength to strength and never dropped backwards, there have been some slow downs but not enough to lose ground. She's in yr7 and still has some odd issues but she's well above grade and increasing her gains not losing them.
Last edited by MumOfThree; 06/22/14 05:01 PM. Reason: clarity
