Some examples of how my dysgraphic ds uses accommodations for dysgraphia for his math classes (note: he's in high school, currently taking Algebra II, and doing well). I've listed the challenge first, then the accommodation, and listed the challenges roughly in order of larger challenge to lesser challenge in terms of impact.

1) Amount of time it takes to finish homework. This is one challenge that he can't entirely get around, so he lives with it. That said, when the amount of time has been so significant that it cut into his time to complete other work and also have a semblance of a life, he's used typing to turn in his work and he's also had an accommodation to do every other problem in the assignment or in one class was allowed to do just one problem of each type. That worked great for him, but he also had no issues at the time with understanding the concept and "getting it" on the first try. Re typing assignments, there are software solutions. The best is the Efofex software, and the Efofex folks will give students with a disability a 10-year free license to all of their software modules. There are also math formula apps and graphing apps on the iPad, as well as other solutions for computer keyboarding of for writing formulas.

2) Keeping track of assignments and making sure they are turned in. This includes simple (to nt folks) things like putting his name and assignment on the paper. He's had this issue in most of his classes, and math class in many ways was the one class that helped him learn how to deal with it because there is so much repeated structure in math - the paper always has the same heading with just a change in assignment number, and homework is usually daily so he knows to expect it etc, and his math teachers are usually good about either listing the assignment on the board or on a website daily so he can reliably find the assignment and he can easily repeat the same step of looking in the same place each class period. And this is an excellent example of where knowing for certain what the diagnosis is can help - dysgraphia isn't just about handwriting - it's about a lack of automaticity which can extend into other things, such as remembering to check the board to see what your assignment for the day is. Dysgraphic kids take a lot longer to have things such as this that seem straightforward become "automatic" (some of these things never do become automatic) - so it's important to be able to see where the challenge is impacting, and to understand that it's not as easy as telling a student "look at the board" - you have to give some type of repeated support until it really does become something the student knows to do on his/her own.

3) Challenges with taking notes - ds is so challenged with speed of handwriting combined with sloppiness of it combined with errors made while copying that he can't use handwriting at all for taking notes. His default accommodation for years has been to just remember everything. He still relies on that a lot, but he has an official accommodation where his teacher gives him a copy of her class notes which he prints out and keeps in his notebook. If his teacher hadn't been willing to give him a copy of her notes, he would have been able to get a copy of another students' notes per his 504 plan. Some schools will also let students audio record lectures (our high school will not).

4) Switching numbers when copying or making what look like silly mistakes when copying. This happens frequently to my ds, and it's something that happens even when he's typing. The only way to get "around" it is to check his work, and if he checks his work just by doing the problem over again, he sometimes makes mistakes the second time around on problems he had correct the first time around. The thing he's done over the years is to look for ways to "check" problems for accuracy that aren't just repeating the same process. Look for ways to see that the answer you have makes sense. And all of this checking leads to the next big challenge:

5) Running out of time on tests. DS has an official accommodation for extended time on in-class tests and on standardized tests. In our experience, this is an *easy* accommodation to get if you have an official diagnosis and can show that your student has run out of time on previous testing.

Again, if you want accommodations in place, you'll need the diagnosis and you'll need to work through which accommodations are needed and how to implement them.

Hope some of this helps!

Best wishes,

polarbear