Hi
I've been following the Writing Fluency thread with interest. DS6.5 is in grade 1 (regular class with a gifted IEP) and in many ways seems similar to what was described in that thread:
Inconsistent printing: sometimes tiny, sometimes huge, sometimes fancy bubble letters??; mostly it is hard to read. Some letters and numbers are backwards - which I understand is normal for age. It seems to take him a long time to write a sentence. I've asked his teachers several times about his printing, and they assure me it's age-appropriate. Also, apparently the wait-time for a school OT assessment is ~2yrs.
Fluency: He resists any task that involves writing, whether it is printing, or if I scribe for him on a computer. He seems to have a hard time thinking of something to write and if I do get something out of him it is lacking in any detail. However, verbally (in conversation) he is very fluent with a large vocabulary and constantly corrects my grammar ;-)
Spelling: Generally seems to be good, although thinking about how a word is spelled sometimes slows him down in writing
Reading: He can read and sound out just about any word he sees, but he reads very slowly and has trouble keeping his place in long passages of text. Reading aloud, he also does slowly but he seems to be trying to get the inflection just right before moving on (i.e. he'll read a sentence, than re-read it until it sounds just right - especially for sentence constructions that are unfamiliar). He also sometimes substitutes words based on context, so it seems like he's not actually reading every single word. Comprehension is good though.
So here's my question - should we try to get him assessed privately? Is it better to wait and see if some of this is developmental and just gets better with age and practice? (Looking back at last year's work his printing has improved)
If we do get him assessed what kind of assessment are we looking for - OT assessment, psycho-ed assessment, other?
So far he's only had a school gifted assessment (WISC IV).
Thanks!
