DD has been in a GT program since 1st grade. The school never has provided any instruction related to remediating her dyslexia or dysgrphia. Until we got a new prinicpal last year, the school did not offered much help in terms of accomodation either, beyond extra time - and getting that was a huge fight at first.
In second grade, I tried to get her Wilson instruction that the school offered to other dyslexic kids. Because I worked with her everyday at home, she was reading at grade level. They said that she was too far ahead of the kids in her grade that were getting Wilson instruction and that it was not appropriate. I actually had the special ed teacher say that if I hadn't worked with her, then they might have had a better idea of where she was at and could have provided more support (argh!). They also did an OT eval and found she had no automaticity in her letter formation, a non-conforming pencil grip and a myriad of other issues. They said that they did not provide OT through school unless she was more than 2 years behind and she still was within normal limts for a second grader. They recommended that I work with her at home. I already was focused on her reading at home and doing VT exercises, I couldn't fathom how I was supposed to do anything else at home at that point. I probably could have fought it but at the time I just didn't know enough.
Moving on to the mid-elementary years, prior principal prohibited us from supplying her with a computer even though we had testing and assessments indicating that she needed to start keyboarding ASAP. When we got a new principal last year, things improved somewhat. They had a computer "available for her use" meaning it was at the back of the classroom and she had to ask to use it. DD only used it for her math-related writing assignments. My theory at the time was that she didn't need to think about the math part (her strength area) so she could focus on the typing which was hard for her. Overall, it wasn't great. She didn't like calling attention to herself and her keyboarding skills were insufficient so it ended up taking more time and causing more frustration. We did try private keyboard instruction but, as we discussed in our PM, DD fought it for a variety of reasons.
This year (6th), her teacher is great and has worked to get DD around some of the roadblocks put up by the school and DD, herself. The teacher insisted that DD have a computer on her desk and powered up every morning at the start of school. The teacher has encouraged DD to type anything that will go through multiple revisions - less physical writing and DD gets help with her spelling from the "angry red lines." DD usually can pick out the correct word from the computer's list of suggestions. The teacher and I think that the consistent shape of the typewritten words help DD recognize the shape of familiar words when they are spelled correctly. Finally, the teacher arranged for DD to come in before school to work with the typing program that they use with special ed kids. (This hasn't been a huge success but that's not the teacher's fault.)
I agree with Pemberley, that in many ways, it has been the luck of the draw.
