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My almost 11 year old son has motor dyspraxia and has trouble doing a lot of writing, but he is able, so far, to do math quickly and easily if I let him do it his way which often means writing no more than he has to to get the answer--sometimes writing down only one or two numbers and doing the rest in his head or using a calculator. He is working from an 8th grade math workbook and is able to do the work quickly and accurately but he isn't showing his work.

For example, when using the Pythagorean Theorem to find the unknown length of a side of a right triangle when the other two lengths are known: I would have written everything out, including the formula, but then I didn't have handwriting issues and could do it quickly. He does it by remembering the formula, writing only two numbers and then using the calculator to get the final answer. On easy ones he doesn't even use the calculator, he just does mental math. I know that most people think writing everything out and showing your work is very important, but what if he is able to do the whole problem over again with the shortcut that he came up with that works for him to check his answer? Do I need to worry about this? Will it cause problems later? I think it might be useful to take shortcuts on timed math tests if he ever has to take one.

I sometimes find where other people have asked about dyspraxia and timed math tests like this one at www.addforums.com/forums//showthread.php?t=24031 and the child sounds like mine but was dealing with these issues in school. The teachers didn't understand and gave him a D when he couldn't do the writing fast enough. There were no answers to the question and it was posted years ago. I wonder if people just give up asking when they can't find answers and think they are the only ones dealing with this.

I asked my younger sister who took a lot more math than I did when she was working toward an engineering degree. She took calculus III when I didn't even know there was a calculus III. I only took college algebra. I thought she might be able to answer my questions. She said she always wrote everything out.

So I thought I would try asking some of these questions here. Is it okay to let my son with handwriting issues do math his own way if he can get the right answer faster than he could by writing everything out?

He seems to be able to remember the formulas for things like surface area of a cylinder without any trouble and doesn't see why he would need to do so much writing if he can do some of it with mental math.

I would love to find someone who is good in math but also has handwriting issues, but so far I have not found anyone.

My answer is yes and no. Yes, it is okay to continue to let him do math without turning every bit of it into a handwriting exercise. Dictating, using math software on the computer or writing out only a select number of problems would all be possibilities. I personally do not think it is an option though to just say he's got handwriting issues, so forget about it because over the long term it would benefit him to get as close to being able to write out problems as possible for him. If he is interested in upper level mathematics he will have to have way to communicate his answers.

I don't think math is the place where his handwriting needs to be taught but handwriting does need to be dealt with. I'm not sure what he's done up until now, but it takes very regular, structured consistent practice to try to build and improve the efficiency of those neural pathways. It can be frustrating difficult work but in time it does make a difference. Also, we found working hard to work on the core and improve upper body and hand strength did as much for handwriting as handwriting specific exercises.

Thanks. I have decided to let him do what he has been doing until it no longer works for him. I do have him do the first few problems by writing everything out but after that I let him solve the problems his own way, but then I started worrying about it because I know that there are a lot of teachers who would tell me not to let him do it his way. I used to lurk on the teachers.net math message board.

I saw something yesterday that helped me decide to let my son continue to do it his own way. We watched one of the Kahn Academy math videos together where they used proportion to find the answer. The problem was y/6 = 2/5 and instead of writing out the 5y = 12 and then dividing each side by 5, he just went straight to the y = 12/5. This is the kind of thing my son does. I think my son does all the steps mentally, he just doesn't write every little thing down if he doesn't find it necessary to get the answer. He doesn't see why he needs to do it the way I was taught years ago, the way everyone else I know was taught, if it is easier and faster to do things his way--and that kind of makes sense to me.

A few days ago, my son showed his sister how he could answer addition and subtraction pre-algebra equations using mental math without even looking at the problems. I gave him the problems while he was playing a video game and he gave me the answers without even looking at the problems. The problems only contained double digit numbers though, so they weren't that hard as far as mental math goes, but the fact that he can do the steps and calculate the answer in his head while simultaneously playing a video game just seems crazy to me and it is one of those things that I haven't seen any of his friends doing. My son, who doesn't usually volunteer to do math, will actually volunteer to do math if I let him do it his way.

Right before he turned 5 and started Kindergarten he used a weird way of doing subtraction using negative numbers instead of borrowing, for example 34-18 he would have said 4 minus 8 is -4 and -4 and 20 is 16. When he showed me how to do this, I found that I could do it faster that way than writing it down.

Math has always been his least favorite subject, unless I leave him alone and let him do things his way so he can think of the problems as a puzzle.

I have noticed that in the last year he has been able to write his numbers smaller and a little faster, a little more legibly, but I think because of the hypotonia his hands might always get tired a little faster than most people's. So I think it might be a reasonable accommodation to allow him to do math his way.

If you can get him in to the developmental pediatrician this may be a good thing to ask about. What are reasonable long term goals for handwriting for him? While it is true that hypotonia may mean he gets more tired, it may be something he can learn to work with especially if he gets on a plan of increasing his muscular strength and has plenty of practice to improve those neural connections.

While I'm guessing most of us can see the problem with timed tests or putting kids in elementary under pressure to write out tons of problems, I would be cautious about generalizing from that to simply deciding it is an accommodation not to require written work for middle or high school. Even kids who are very gifted in math generally find once the work is appropriately challenging they need to write out work in order to solve problems. If he plans to do high school math or go to college he will certainly need to write out answers at that point.

I remember you mentioned there is a problem getting OT. In case you aren't already familiar with it I wanted to mention the therabands and theraputty. Both are pretty inexpensive and easy to work with at home. They made a HUGE difference for our hypotonic chid's endurance and hand strength. A few links:
http://library.osfhealthcare.org/PatientEd/Rehabpdf/OTDocuments/NEWOT/Theraputty.pdf
http://www.ncpad.org/exercise/fact_sheet.php?sheet=259&view=all
http://www.ncpad.org/exercise/fact_sheet.php?sheet=258&view=all

I use math type and type almost everything I need to turn in to anyone. This is because I have horrible handwriting and I just want it understood. I have a laptop that I carry with me.

I found that at work, where we had a lot of formulas, my notes were being misunderstood (which could have caused lots of problems).

Thanks for the links. I'll have to check those out later. My son's piano teacher said my son's hand strength is a lot better than it was when he first started piano lessons at age 5, but she recently changed the fingering on one of the songs he is working on because he was having trouble and my son says it is because some of his fingers are weaker than others. The teacher told me that it worked better for him but if he played the song in front of judges he would have points deducted for the change. Trying to figure out when to make changes and when not to make changes is so hard for me. I told the piano teacher that I just wanted him to be able to play for his own enjoyment and to build strength and endurance.

He plays Guitar Hero and Rock Band and while I can see that he makes improvement in accuracy and endurance with lots of practice, he would have trouble doing it at the highest levels that his friends are capable of doing.

But it isn't just a hand strength and endurance issue that he deals with. His visual motor integration was lower than average both times he was tested and we were also told that he might need to work on visual memory with Where's Waldo type pictures, which didn't make sense to me because he can glance at a word and remember how it is spelled. But even now, at age 10 he still occasionally writes P backwards and when I asked him to write the symbol for line GH he wrote the GH on top instead of below the line like the book showed. It is little things like this that cause extra problems and one doctor will say he has dysgraphia, but an OT, after giving him another test, will say his handwriting is low normal. My son says there is just a glitch in his brain and some days it is there, especially when he is tired or stressed, and some days it isn't.

If he is having a glitch day, he will have more trouble at piano lessons, writing math problems out, anything motor related.

It is so hard for me to explain motor dyspraxia and hypotonia and "glitch" days to other people. I don't understand how those neural connections are working one day and not another.

This sounds like something I need to learn more about. Thanks.

Yes, we are dealing with the same disabilities (plus a couple more) you'll never get everyone to understand it. More important to help your son find ways to maximize the abilities he does have and to learn to use his gifts to compensate. Also, he's getting old enough that he might be able to start spotting patterns of what causes the bad days or what kinds of activities tend to help him feel more organized or back on track - for example for some kids with sensory problems on "bad days" they can get back on track with deep, calming joint-muscle input.

Lots of practice does two things. First, it will increase strength which can help compensate for low tone. Second, it should help with the motor planning part of it because the more he practices the stronger the neural pathways will be and the less effort it will take from him.

The OT we saw for such a short time told my son that she knew adults that had to do physical activities to feel more organized when we told her about the "glitch" happening on stage at the state pee wee spelling bee last year with all the judges looking at him as he incorrectly spelled a word that he had never gotten wrong before. I don't think it was stage fright because he has done musical theater since he was four years old. The OT recommended doing something like "wall push-ups" before he tries to do any kind of competition where he might feel stressed, but my son said this would be embarrassing and he doesn't want other people to see him do this. I think we will need to make time for him to do some kind of exercise before he ever attempts something like this again. He was doing more physical things at home before he did his first piano recital several months ago and I do think it helped. He didn't make any mistakes at all and I don't think anyone would have guessed that he has motor dyspraxia.

He knows he will need to practice physical things more than other kids because of this disability, but it is so hard to get him to practice as much as he should. I have noticed that he will practice if he knows that he has to do something in front of other people--like if there is a piano recital or he is performing in musical theater.

Unless he has a piano recital coming up he will not voluntarily practice piano, which reminds me, I need to tell him break time is over now. I will have to watch to make sure he does all of it and he will complain and try to talk me into letting him do something else instead.

He did practice in front of his sister a few days ago and he did well the first few times he played but then he had the glitch. My daughter told him that it has happened to her before and she calls it a "brain fart." She was a a very coordinated cheerleader and had no motor learning or muscle weakness issues and picked up new dance routines very quickly and I never would have guessed that she had ever experienced anything like this. I was glad she told him that it has happened to her before also.

I think he will need to do some kind of physical exercise if he ever has to take a test. I would really like for him to take the Explore test next year and I hope we can figure out a way for him to avoid the glitch.

Wallpushups are good but if it isn't a possibility he might try pushing his hands together hard, or carrying a stressball type thing in his pocket. Anxiety strategies like deep breathing or learning to tighten and then relax muscles may also help. There is quite a bit written about the "mental game" sports and how athletes can learn to focus for best performance. Maybe some of that information would be helpful to him.

I know parents vary in their approach to lessons. I am unwilling to pay for lessons unless the child practices consistently. I consider it a minimum responsibility.