Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Handwriting help?

At this time, I am unsure if DS5 has true 2E but I thought folks here might have suggestions for me. According to his kindergarten teacher he has met all kindergarten milestones as of last September. She did invite me to a parent conference last week to discuss DS's handwriting. His writing is difficult to see even when he presses hard. He is sloppy, but I don't think that is the only problem as his hand fatigues quickly. Also, as a baby he was left hand dominant but since preschool he has been writing with right hand. Attempts to correct this at home have not worked.

I am not sure how to help him. Teacher did not offer any help when asked. I see him gripping the pen hard and pressing down, but letters are shaky looking. Obviously his teacher is concerned, thus the meeting, but this does not mean she has any suggestions or has offered additional resources. Any types of pens/grippers that would help?

Jen

My son has dysgraphia (neuro-motor disorder which affects coordination, precision, and often mimics some symptoms of dyslexia). He was ambidextrous as a toddler but in Kindergarten was asked to pick a hand to learn to write with. He chose his right. Through third grade, his handwriting was illegible, did not follow the lines on the page, and often used a few letters rather than entire words. Things that helped him:

Initiating a reading program built for dyslexics (our speech therapist used Wilson)
Speech Therapy - learning to sound words correctly helped immensely
Physical Therapy - this helped most of all. Squeezing Koosh balls, manipulating clay, etc.
Mechanical pencils with soft grippers - I don't know what the difference is between mechanical and regular pencils, but it makes a big one.

If your school has a physical therapist, you may have to do some aggressive advocating to get your kiddo screened. They refused to test my son since, despite the challenges, he was performing either on grade level or slightly below. I took him to a private child psychologist who specialized in this area to get the actual diagnosis. Once I had that report, the diagnostician still had to meet on a district level to get the report accepted by the school before they would initiate therapy.

You are lucky that your son's teacher is astute and recognizes poor handwriting as a problem. As he gets older, dis-fluent, illegible handwriting can cause difficulties with the overall writing process and with math among other things.

As ABQmom suggests, there are interventions that can help - ranging from activities to improve strength, to explicit programs that address the issue head on. I believe the first step to addressing the problem is to get more data about is motor skills and visual processing skills so that the interventions can be well targeted.

If you are in the US and in a public school, you should write a letter to the Principal (and cc his teacher) stating your concerns about his writing. Ask for a special education evaluation in the area of OT and visual processing and visual motor integration (and any other area that you may be concerned with such as academics, organization etc if there are any concerns). The school MUST evaluate in all areas of suspected disability if a written referral is made by a parent, teacher or anyone else. This is covered by IDEA, Federal Special Education Law, in the Child Find provisions. Even if he is excelling in all academic areas, they must test.

The school should use a credentialed evaluator to look at his skills and to determine if he is eligible for services. An OT would help him with the exercises that ABQ mentions, perhaps teach him to write using an explicit handwriting program such as "Handwriting without Tears", work on his grip and core strength if this is an issue, help with other visual integration issues that may also be in play (near and far copying, crossing the mid-line, etc). Sometimes these fine motor issues come into play in art, music (finger plays), and gym and he may get extra support in these areas too. He may benefit from accommodations such as a slant board, having an alphabet strip on his desk, raised line paper.

He is young and extra support can make a huge difference at this point. Given that the teacher is concerns and is not able to address the problem, I think you would be wise to request the evaluation and to determine if he would benefit from special education. Best of luck.

Oh - and here is some info on testing in the area of OT: http://concordspedpac.org/TypesEvals.html (scroll down to #7 and you can click on the live links to get more info)

My son was/is the same way (age 6). He always flip=flopped back and forth and I wasn't sure if he was a righty or a lefty until about age 4. Then, it was his grip that kept switching, as if it wasn't comfortable. He has a come a LONG way, though still has a ways to go, but... your child, being 5, and a boy, the fine motor skills are still lagging compared to many girls at this age. While I wouldn't necessarily jump to the conclusion that there is a disability involved, but rather, the amount of time spent writing up until this age, hasn't been very much. One thing that is important is to sit down with the child and verbally talk through the writing technique. Make sure he isn't switching grips mid way through. Find a grip and stick with it. Then practice, practice, practice. Use the lined handwriting paper and remind him to make the letters touch the bottom line etc. Talk him through the strokes... go around, up, and back down, etc. Where a child starts forming his letters makes a huge difference in the outcome as well. If you can make sure, for example, that the letter A is started at the upper, slightly to the right part of the circle, go around and form the circle, then back down for the stick, it will eventually form well, where as some children at this age start at the bottom and go counter clockwise, then pick up and try to put on a stick and it's not attached, the circle isn't closed etc. Those little tricks can make a HUGE difference. Ask the teacher if she has a copy of one of the handwriting stroke pages and use that as a guide to talk the child through the letters. Hang in there!

Here is a little poem that can help when practicing (proper position always works too. My son tends to rest his head down when it's time to write because he gets so tired and when I remind him of this, he sits up)

http://www.aesd.net/ideas/1st/First_grade_handwriting_poem.pdf

Thanks for all the suggestions. I appreciate his teacher speaking with me regarding his handwriting, but I am truly baffled that she did not have suggestions or advice to give me. I will give mechanical pencils a try at home and send some to school if it helps. I will also look into other ideas mentioned here, thanks a bunch.

Earlier this year I asked for the speech therapist to assess DS's speech as he was assessed in preschool for early intervention. He did not qualify for services, but they recommended follow up in kindergarten. They noticed deficits this year and sent materials home for DS, but he does not receive any services at school. While it seems that school is proactive, I am not sure how eager they are to do more than this for us.

Jen

Jen - it may be that the standards for service are different for the school than what is actually best for him. In our school, a child has to be 2 full years below grade level in order to receive services. So a bright child who is making accommodations in the classroom will often not qualify for services that are obviously in need. Maybe it's a disability in your case, maybe not. But listen to your gut; if you think there is a need, don't wait for the school to decide it's bad enough to qualify for services. In this case, the squeaky wheel really will get more grease. At least that is what the case was for us.

Jen
I had similar issues with DS 4.5 and got some of the same great advice from the same great people, there was one more piece that was crucial for us but of course I can't find my own thread! Not sure what I am doing with that, anyhow, Grinity responded with a method of teaching the pencil grip. (anyone know how to find her description?) It never occurred to me that DS had not been properly shown it and needed coaching on it. He also was very very light, so light the WPPSI tester said she couldn't read some and probably depressed his score. I realized he did not put his arm on the table when he wrote. So now I frequently remind him on the grip and on keeping his arm down, that and some OT and he has made huge improvements. Most important for us, is he is now willing to do it, which he wasn't before, I think the lack of focus contributed to his inadequacies about it.

Good luck, and I second the mommy gut instinct, go with it!!!

DeHe

When DS was in preschool the teacher gave us some gripper things for pencils, and they still use those on occasion now that DD is in preschool, but they also recommended using a ball of clay that would form to the child's fingers. Maybe that would help, with all the other things people have mentioned.

You could request an OT evaluation. I know you requested a speech eval already, so they should be able to accommodate your request for the OT evaluation. DS7 has had OT in his IEP since K and it really has helped his handwriting a lot. Actually, even more than the OT, was that DS started getting interested in drawing things (road systems and mazes). All the OT in the world won't help if he doesn't practice it! Thankfully his obsession with roads and mazes had a beneficial outcome. Nan