Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Dysgraphia, dyslexia and cursive

I just typed this up and it disappeared, so hopefully this isn't a double post.

DS9 has dysgraphia and stealth dyslexia. We started working with an OG tutor in September and he started learning cursive. They say that cursive is easier for kids with dyslexia because the letters start at the same place on the line every time. Well, I'm linking to a picture of his first 5 sentences written spontaneously (without a model to look at). I wish I had a before picture to show you what his printing looks like, but if you have a kid with dysgraphia, you know how bad it is. His cursive has looked this good almost from the beginning. It is truly amazing. BTW, he hasn't learned capital letters yet, hence the lower case i's.

WOW!!! DD9's cursive is better than her printing, but not by that much. Teaching her cursive was the trial of all trials. It was what started our journey to the dyslexia/dysgraphia diagnosis. Her psychologist at first thought it was related to anxiety and perfectionism (not saying they are not, but that did not explain her problems away).

Progress is an amazing thing! Keep that picture and take many, many more. I took a picture when DD wrote four three-letter words in cursive on the bathtub tiles with bath crayons. It was the first time she had ever wrote in cursive without a cattle prod. We framed it!

Wow my DD10 struggles greatly with cursive. Complains she can barely read it which is starting to cause problems in school since her teachers are starting to write mostly in cursive on the SmartBoards.

That's really awesome cursive!!! I totally get how wonderful it is to see too!

Our dysgraphic ds also has found cursive to be "easier" and his cursive is much more legible than his print - so legible in fact that it was one of the best-looking cursive scripts in his 4th grade class when the kids first learned cursive. It actually made things *more* difficult for him in school for awhile - and for me. His teachers saw that he could write in cursive, and they tried to use that to argue that he wasn't dysgraphic "anymore" and didn't need his keyboarding and other software accommodations. The thing is, no matter how great his cursive looked on paper, his speed is so extremely slow that it will never be functional for him, and he is still bogged down by the act of handwriting filling up his working memory which means in turn the content of what he writes is very limited compared to other means of expression. The other thing that happened with our ds is that as great as his cursive looked in 4th grade, it didn't improve and several years later still looks the same, while at the same time his classmates' cursive (and printing) continues to look better and better. So ds' cursive looked "normal" in 4th grade but no longer looks "normal" for his grade level.

Best wishes,

polarbear

If it matters,I am an adult with dyslexia who always found cursive even harder, despite all the assurances that there was "scientific proof" that I had to find it easier than print-writing.
There is research showing that the fastest, most legible handwriters avoid cursive but don't quite print, either: they skip the harder joins (so they're joining only some of the letters) and they tend to use print-like shapes for those letters whose cursive and printed shapes disagree. This is how most adults write, if they are rapid and legible at all -- so why not work toward that? There is some more info at a site called HandwritingThatWorks dot com.

Hmmm... interesting. The other day at dd6 IEP meeting I brought up that cursive is supposed to be better for some kids. The OT and teachers basically said "yes, for some" but then dropped it. You have me wondering if it's something I should pursue...

For kids with dysgraphia, may I suggest the use of a gel pen? They seem to offer less friction than a pencil. My son and many of the students I tutor all seem to really enjoy writing with a gel pen. It's hard to find, but there;s even an erasable one (Pilot Frixion) which seems to oversome many teachers' resistance to the use of a pen in early grades.

http://www.amazon.com/Pilot-FriXion-Point-Erasable-FX7-BLK/dp/B001GAOTLY

Yes, DS9 is extremely slow, too. It definitely is not something he is able to use for school work yet. I'm glad you replied because I was just expecting to see continued speed and improvement. Now I know not to expect too much, which is good, because sometimes my high expectations lead to a lot of frustration.

This is definitely the way I write...a mix of cursive and print...and I write very fast. I have explained to him, as has his teacher, that as time goes by, he will adjust his letter to write the way that suits him best.

HoneyBadger - we used gel pens for our kid with dysgraphia as well as pencils with insertable lead - and put fat, spongy grippers on both. It really helped when he was younger. Great advice!

perplexed - that's awesome writing! Cursive was not the magic bullet for our son, but I'd heard that it could be. Your sample is proof of that!

My son's mid school teachers have all banded together and decided that my son will have access to their classroom computers rather than doing his work on paper. His keyboarding skills are quite good, so he's much faster and accurate when typing.