Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Confused...What to do, if anything?

Hi all. A few months ago I requested an Assistive Technology Consultation from the school district for 2e DS. As many of you may recall, he is gifted with dysgraphia and Ehlers Danlos. Basically, I strongly, strongly suspect he is gifted with Dyspraxia/DCD (albeit his dyspraxia isn't very severe, more on the mild side) and the dysgraphia (which is pretty severe) is a part of the dyspraxia. We are on the route for getting that quantified and identified for the school (and for us - once and for all!). But, as far as the school knows right now, DS is gifted and has Ehlers Danlos and his writing is a huge issue - he has scribes and when he does write he writes things backwards, etc. He can't write in small spaces, very poor fine motor. So basically the kid can't write. We have writing accommodations based on the EDS dx (joints in hands fatiguing, pain, discomfort) and the school (at my insistence) is currently specifically evaluating him to identify him with Learning Disorder of Written Expression (last time he was evaluated by them, psych did put in report he was "at risk" for it). He also has some executive functioning issues due to poor motor planning, problems with sequencing, not being able to hold several steps in his head while completing motor tasks (basically can not muti-task well). This is very, very common with dyspraxia.

Okay, so anyway. After a request for AT evaluation, our district does a "SETT Framework" eval. The teachers and parents are given forms to fill out, which ask things like, for the teachers: "Does the student have any communication difficulties that impeded his or her learning in the school?" "Does the student exhibit any behaviors that inhibit his/her learning." For the parents, some questions were "What weaknesses does your child exhibit that impeded his ability to function?" and "What tasks and activities does your child struggle with or is unable to do that affect his progress?"

So the wording is a bit different and perhaps that accounts for the discrepancy between my form and the teacher's form, I don't know. But, I wrote that he has significant fine motor problems, can't complete assignments that involve writing or drawing. Basically, I put in the form that he struggles excessively to write - letters or numbers. I mean, it is and *Assistive Technology Eval*! AND my kid clearly can not write. We all know DS struggles so hard to write and needs scribes to get any kind of writing done in a reasonable time. So, what did the teacher put on her form? She put his problems are all executive function, distractability and that he can sometimes be oppositional and argumentative. She put not one thing about his struggles with writing! Seriously? WTF? This is an assistive technology eval. And, how can she have had him as a student all year and not even mention that the fact that my DS can NOT write affects his functioning in class and affects his learning? What was she trying to accomplish with that? I am really confused!

So, the form is a draft. And the meeting went well. Although seemed slightly ridiculous to go through all that for them to decide he needs an Ipad (duh) but I guess it's a beauractratic thing too). Anyway, all that for them to say they are going to get him an ipad and get these apps where they can scan in his worksheets and he can do them on the iPad, and something about a blue tooth key board (my husband took over with the tech stuff and I was more than happy to see him finally get really involved). Oh, and the most recent co-writer is suppose to be quite good so we are trying that. And it's a process so they are going to do trials and help train and ramp up and see how apps and technologies are working and we will continue to meet to monitor, discuss, tweek. Great.

But as I sit here looking at the this draft I wonder - should I be concerned the teacher's section does not mention his issues with writing (the whole reason we had the meeting)? Should I say something?

It just seems we are of two completely different mindsets. Teacher thinks DS's only problem is ADHD - not that she specifically uses the acronym "ADHD" ('cause she can't) but she uses all of the specific ADHD buzzwords, etc. and every chance she gets is pushing that DS is a litany of ADHD characteristics. My position is DS does have some executive functioning issues due to poor motor planning BUT the big problem that is the most pressing right now, impacting his school learning is the fact that he CAN NOT write or communicate effectively via writing. It disrupts everything! Him needing scribes, him having to go around asking for scribes (until recently), him getting frustrated, him arguing with them when they tell him to type instead of giving him scribe (until recently). I mean it is a HUGE issue.

So what do I do? Or do I just ignore it? The AT lady came right out and said at the meeting "the focus of this meeting is to get him on technology that will allow him to "write" and participate fully and independently eventually without a scribe (eventually without a scribe)." So it was fine as that was my goal as well. I am just disappointed that the teacher seems to use every opportunity to paint this picture of DS as this very ADHD, impulsive, completely distracted kid who probably can write but just doesn't have the attention span for it. Whereas, my picture of DS is more like this is a very, very bright kid who actually loves a challenge but is very frustrated b/c he simply CAN NOT write, struggles tremendously with fine motor tasks, struggles with and motor planning and he has also has some executive functioning challenges.

Sending you a big hug Irena! Meetings like that were always so difficult for me to sit through - but it sounds like you've made really good progress with getting AT for your ds - that's great! Please keep us updated re how he likes Co:Writer on the iPad and re what other apps he tries.

Re the teacher - we've had a teacher like that. I am not sure that anything I could have done, in that time (2nd grade for our ds) - would have changed her mind that our ds wasn't lazy, wasn't trying, and most likely had ADHD. The key is to take your mind off the teacher (I know - it' s tough!). Your ds will only be with her for the rest of this year. Keep your eye on the longer-term goals - clearly identifying challenges and finding the correct remediation, accommodations and AT. Just like you've been doing all along. You have the evaluations and data that you need to show what your ds' true challenges are - and you've shown that you can use that and keep a meeting on track and accomplish what you need to accomplish.

Sadly our 2nd grade teacher wasn't the only person we've bumped into along our journey who also thought ds' writing challenges were either laziness, not trying, ADHD, or just whiny parents. On the upside, it was never as bad as it was (in terms of perception) in 2nd grade because once we had appropriate accommodations in place it was just that much more obvious that dysgraphia and dyspraxia *were* the issues. (Warning - not always obvious to everyone - you'll most likely encounter someone who will say something like "Well, everyone can write faster and better with word prediction" - which is true - but not everyone will have the same obvious gains).

Another thing that will help make things clearer (dysgraphia etc vs ADHD) as your child matures is that the differences caused by his challenge will become more obvious. For example, it's likely his handwriting will *not* continue to improve at the rate his classmates' handwriting will etc. My ds' had a big improvement in handwriting legibility in 3rd grade when he went through OT, and he also learned how to write in cursive in 4th/5th grade when his class was practicing it every day. So at that point in time, his teachers were very quick to try to tell us his handwriting was "ok". By the time he was in 6th grade, his printing still looked like it did at the end of his 3rd grade OT - good enough for 3rd grade, but very obviously not a 6th graders typical printing when you compared it to his peers. And all that cursive - he totally forgot how to do it over summer break - and he's never relearned it. Those things are NOT typical of either neurotypical kids or students with ADHD and no other challenges. So my gut feeling is you'll eventually see that type of thing - more obvious symptoms, and easier to identify as clearly dysgraphia etc symptoms. It's not that the symptoms are getting worse, just that they become easier to identify and understand as your child matures.

I hope that doesn't sound discouraging - it's not meant to be. And keep in mind, at the same time the symptoms are becoming more obvious, he's going to be making progress because he has access to AT and because as he matures he'll begin to understand himself so much more and begin to figure out for himself what works and what doesn't work - and eventually he'll have his own voice to advocate with.

One thing that's been helpful for us to do along the way is to continue to keep samples of ds' writing with and without accommodations. When a teacher insists on bringing up things such as lack of focus, distractibility etc in a meeting like you've just experienced, I just ignore those points and pull out the examples which show there is clearly an issue with dysgraphia.

It also might be helpful to show the chart I used to have (and really need to find again lol!) that shows the overlap in symptoms between DCD, ADHD, and ASD. I will try to find that for you as soon as school gets out (I'm busy up to my gills until then!).

Best wishes,

polarbear

Not long ago I remember you were asking about the road to OOD. I can tell you that our 2nd grade teacher who *did not get it* really paved the way for DD's OOD. She was not as forthright as yours, or the ones described by Polarbear or MON, though. She just did nothing. I mean really, truly nothing to accommodate DD. She did nothing specified in the IEP. Nothing. By the end of the year I stopped trying to protect her feelings and called her out on every single violation. I came to every meeting with work product that showed the violations. The district could not deny it was occurring and after trying to increase the role of the spec Ed teacher, then provide a full time para, then use more and more exact language in the IEP they had to acknowledge her needs were not being met in the mainstream classroom. So second grade was a completely wasted year but in the end I think that teacher may have done us a favor.

I guess all of that is my way of saying to keep a long range view. Maybe there is a reason we all are reporting 2nd grade as being the time we had teachers who really didn't get it. The good news is 2nd grade is almost over, you have your diagnoses and you have an AT person who seems to be focusing on the right things. These are all good things. You are vigilant and they know it. Hopefully they will provide a better match for third grade. If not? I am guessing your tolerance for not meeting his needs will get lower and lower each passing year. Eventually I bet they will either find a way to meet his needs or do what my district did and out place him. Either way his needs will eventually be met. It's just very difficult going through the process to get there.

{{hugs}} and good luck!