My verbally gifted 11 year old son has dysgraphia and a sensory processing disorder. I think my son might have similar problems if he were in public school.
When my son types, he rarely makes spelling, punctuation or grammatical errors and he uses a much higher level vocabulary. In order to write legibly, he has to write slowly. He sometimes forgets punctuation. He sometimes writes the first several letters of a word and leaves off the rest in a futile attempt to write fast enough to keep up with his thoughts. When he is finished he realizes he took a long time to do the writing and he is in a hurry to turn it in to me (he is homeschooled) so he doesn't edit it and it looks like the work of a younger child with occasional letters reversed and punctuation ommited and some words not capitalized. When he types, it is a different story. Typing is automatic for him where writing never was. When he types his work, it looks more like the work of an older student, but he does sometimes have a little trouble organizing his thoughts, especially if he is having a bad day. Assistive technology (like the Livescribe Smartpen that someone else already mentioned) allows him to take notes and learn at the higher rate he has the right and a need to learn at. My husband was so impressed with the pen that he showed it to his coworkers and the IT guy is going to order it for everyone in the office. None of these people have a writing disability. It just makes things easier. It will help them take better notes at meetings. I don't see anything wrong with a sensitive gifted kid using it to compensate for a disability when it allows him to feel a little less different.
I know there are people who would say my child just needs to keep practicing writing until he can write as well as anyone else. He doesn't look like he has a disability, he doesn't talk like he has a disability, yet he has a very real disability. He does still practice writing but not to the point where he doesn't have time to learn what he wants to learn.
In math, I sometimes let him use a calculator but I have him do enough math problems without it that he can do multi-digit division and multiplication without using one. I don't think it is reasonable to expect my son to do as much writing in math as everyone else when it takes him twice as long and he has fatigue issues. He can finish his work in a reasonable amount of time by allowing a calculator for some things, using mental math part of the time, and writing only what he absolutely has to and he uses Life of Fred books that he enjoys. My son is learning to compensate for his disability. At the moment he does math in bed because that is the only place, other than in the shower, that he doesn't have to wear a scoliosis brace that distracts him and makes it harder for him to concentrate. We do what we have to do for him to continue learning no matter what anyone else thinks of it. Learning is the most important thing now. It is important for his mental health and self esteem. He is happy that he is still on track to start the Life of Fred algebra book in March even though he had to deal with a lot of physical pain the last several weeks.
I really struggled with letting him use assistive technology until I remembered someone I knew with cerebral palsy, a very bright person by the way, that used a motorized scooter. She could walk a little, but the scooter allowed her to keep up with everyone else. Should she have been made instead to walk with a walker and keep trying to walk better or just accept the fact that she had a disability and do what she needed to do to make her life easier and more productive and not worry about what everyone else thought? That is the way I have to look at it.
