Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy No differentiation--what do you tell your child?

No problem--my post wasn't clear.

She is saying she needs it done to show a record for his IEP (which I think is a bogus excuse). There are so many other things she could use, like his journal and any other writing activities in class. His math worksheets actually look pretty good in comparison to the other things he writes (like sentences).

This just seems like a great way to get DS to hate math, if it is way below his level and she is doing it just to get him to work on handwriting (or show a record of his handwriting).

Honestly, this doesn't sound like a good way to assess handwriting progress - it just doesn't make any kind of sense to me.... to assess handwriting progress you'd want a time-controlled writing sample that includes opportunities to evaluate spacing, upper-vs-lower case, letter formation, pencil grip and pressure on paper, spelling etc. I don't see how using writing examples from his math homework can be used for that... but hey.. maybe it's like word problems on steroids? For first graders???? (sorry for the sarcasm lol).


Does he already have an IEP and she's saying she's using this for measuring how well he's meeting IEP goals? If that's the case, I'd call an emergency IEP meeting and request that math worksheets not be used for a handwriting exercise or assessment tool. I'd also ask for clarity on handwriting improvement expectations - is it reasonable to expect improvement? Do you see signs of frustration with written assignments outside of the math that's sent home?

And I can't remember - has your ds had an outside eval? It sounds like it's going to be important to tease out specifically if this is dysgraphia, if you're dealing with having handwriting goals included in an IEP. I'd want to be sure they are appropriate and not reaching for something that's not realistic as an expectation, and I'd also want (if it is dysgraphia) to get accommodations in place for scribing/keyboarding/etc.

polarbear

ps - I was posting at the same time you were! Sorry if I asked anything that you had already answered in your reply!!

He has an IEP for speech at the moment and they are currently in the process of assessing him as "physically impaired". I think they are expecting that they will write the IEP (after I made a huge fuss and complained to the State, Special Ed director, etc). The next meeting is on the 19th when they will go through all the testing results.
The neuropsych diagnosed him with DCD but did not mention dysgraphia. When I mentioned dysgraphia to him later he just said that he doesn't think DS would qualify for services with a dysgraphia diagnosis. DS has another appt. tomorrow so I can ask about it again. I may also ask him to do the Pegboard test again so we can see if it's better. We didn't know if the awful results he had in May were due to the TBI and skull fractures or to the DCD.
I'm not sure if the school even knows what dysgraphia is. If it is dysgraphia, how would services/treatment be the same or different than if it's just a fine motor coordination issue?

He doesn't have homework other than math, but I'm sure he would fight me if I asked him to write more than a few sentences. I do try to work on Handwriting without Tears with him at home and he clearly does not enjoy it. He is getting private OT but they hardly work on handwriting at all. I'm debating just stopping those services.

Yes, this.

I would be just as concerned about the fact that they don't seem to be doing very reliable data collection for the purposes of evaluation as I would the lack of differentiation.

It seems a fairly slipshod way of conducting data collection-- they don't control anything about the conditions under which the writing sample was completed, YK?

My ds does not have the words "dysgraphia" as a diagnosis on his neuropsych evals either, just DCD, as well as a paragraph included in the findings stating that he has impaired fine motor function and that handwriting is a major barrier to success at school and suggestions of appropriate accommodations for handwriting. If you have that in your neuropsych eval (words that show handwriting is a challenge and suggested accommodations) you can put those accommodations into your ds' IEP - even if the IEP is written for something else entirely. The key is - it's a disability, and it's preventing him from showing his knowledge. If he didn't have the IEP for speech but still had the handwriting challenge - if the school didn't feel he needed an IEP (services) you would request a 504 plan. When a student has an IEP (here) *all* the accommodations (for whatever legitimate reason) are included in the IEP regardless of what the IEP is written to specifically address.


What I see as the difference is in the ability to remediate. If the fine motor issue is due to brain trauma that can be remediated, then you'd want to remediate. If it's dysgraphia, you want to try to remediate *up to a certain point* but for most kids, dysgraphia is something that isn't going to go away. It might get better in some ways at certain points in time, but most children with dysgraphia will never be able to show the full extent of their knowledge with their handwriting, and it's important to give them access to accommodations in place of focusing solely on remediation.

This is what was recommended for our ds in 2nd grade when he was first diagnosed with DCD:

1) Try a period of intense remediation with HWOT right away - only to focus on teaching him proper letter formation. (What happened: he couldn't do it, too much wrist pain and frustration - so we let it go).

2) Handwriting OT starting right away to address posture, pencil grip, letter formation, legibility etc. DS went through 9 months of handwriting OT and he made what I call "surface" gains - he learned a correct pencil grip, corrected his posture while writing, overcame wrist and hand pain while writing, and his legibility improved tremendously (he also no longer had uneven pencil pressure and crumpled up papers). What he *didn't* gain through OT is more subtle - his handwriting speed was still incredibly slow. The effort it took to produce handwriting still soaked up all of his working memory so there was nothing left over to focus on correct spelling, capital letters etc. Proper letter formation didn't really stick, even though he knew what he was supposed to do. Those are challenges that aren't easily seen just by looking at a writing sample, but those are the key challenges of dysgraphia.

3) Have someone scribe at school and at home starting immediately. I scribed all of his homework until he was ready to start typing it. He had a scribing accommodation at school for 3rd grade and oral response accommodation for fluency tests in 4th-5th grade.

4) Start learning keyboarding as soon as he'd finished up his remediation with HWOT. We started keyboarding right away, and began advocating for it at school right away. He really *really* needed (and still does) access to keyboarding full-time at school and at home, and starting early was a good thing. Whether or not a child is dysgraphic, if they have a fine motor challenge impacting handwriting, I'd think it would be important to have a scribing/keyboarding accommodation in place early simply to avoid the frustration and limitations of the challenge. If it's not dysgraphia but something that can improve with remediation (or be "cured") then the keyboard accommodation will eventually go away, and if it's dysgraphia, you've laid the groundwork for your student to be successful long-term instead of suddenly trying to have them learn how to type and get used to an accommodation that requires "equipment" that makes them look different when they are farther along in school, older and more worried about how they are different from peers, and when the workload has increased at school.

I'm guessing that given your ds' circumstances you might not really know for a few years if it's dysgraphia or a potentially remediable (is that a word lol?) challenge with his handwriting, but you can work on the remediation and put accommodations in place at the same time.

Hope that makes sense!

polarbear

ps - also meant to mention - our neuropsych never used the word "dysgraphia" in either her report or in our post-testing parent review session when ds was first diagnosed. I found dysgraphia online when I was doing research after the actual eval, so I went back to her with that and a few other questions. When I asked her if his symptoms indicated dysgraphia she said absolutely - but it's not the terminology that is used among psychologists and it's not the terminology that's used by schools in identifying students with needs. I have a dd with a dyslexia diagnosis from a reading professional, but she's not recognized as dyslexic at school. The differences in terminology can be very confusing - but the key thing is that what's being done to help your child fits what's going on with symptoms and the root cause of the challenge.

HowlerKarma--I don't get it either--he doesn't have an IEP yet for handwriting issues so what is she trying to measure? Or just planning in advance, expecting that she will need handwriting samples eventually? All that the math homework entails in terms of writing is writing random numbers. She says that since it is "mindless" he can focus just on the writing.
I am saving all of his spelling tests from week to week to show no progress is being made. If she wanted a weekly "sample" she could be making copies of those. But she has so many other things, like his journals.

polarbear--Thanks for your thoughtful, helpful reply (as usual). I think I am torn in terms of accommodations because I fear if I scribe for him, or have him use a keyboard, it might slow him down in terms of learning how to write properly. If I knew that this is something that he's always going to struggle with, I wouldn't have a problem with it--but I'm just not sure. Right now, it seems like his handwriting is getting worse, not better, and I am very frustrated. Between trying to struggle with him on my own and dealing with an inept school (and even private OT services that don't seem effective!), I just don't know what to do.

In children with dysgraphia or other issues with writing that can not be "cured" (my DS has Ehlers Danlos and dysgraphia) sometimes you need to 'give up' on writing. Best thing we ever did is get scribes and have my son do keyboarding and do as much of his writing on the computer as possible. Best decision. He is so much happier, much more confident... Sometimes you need to stop spending so much time and energy to fix something that can not be fixed (it really gets demoralizing for the dysgraphic child) and simply remove the obstacle.

If he doesn't have dysgraphia having a scribe for now doesn't mean it will always have to be that way and that by allowing for it will mean he will necessarily be dependent forever.

DS was diagnosed with a processing speed LD and his IEP allows for scribing. When all of this happened last year I admit I was hesitant because I was worried we were giving up on writing too easily. However the frustration that he was experiencing was making him hate school which also wasn't something I wanted to set up for life either so I listened to the experts and we scribed most of his homework (which was pretty much all of the work he was supposed to do during the day but didn't). We scribed a lot last year but this year it has been happening less and less. He is still has messy writing and is slow but it holding him back as much as it used to and more importantly it has allowed him to relax. Scribing seemed to remove some of the pressure and then he was more willing to try to do some of it which allowed him to improve. Every kid is different but I just wanted to throw it out there that maybe what seems like less practice is better in some cases since it keeps the door open a bit. He was more willing to do it when he knew it was going to be short and then we were able to do it more often which in the end added up.

Not sure if my rambling made much sense but I just wanted to address your fear since I felt the same way. Hopefully you can find something that works for your situation.