Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional More 504 fun

Does she have difficulty with reading?

I'm coming in to this a bit late, but just saw your reply under another post asking about dysgraphia. Before I read this reply (with the mention of reading difficulty) I was going to mention that writing challenges sometimes go hand-in-hand with ADHD. My dysgraphic ds was once diagnosed with ADHD (which he doesn't have) but at the time I spent a considerable amount of time reading about how writing can be a challenge for kids with ADHD (thinking that might be his challenge!) (and clearly I have a challenge with run-on sentences lol).

Anyway, if you're wondering about dysgraphia there are a few things you can look for just to see if there's anything obvious going on (there are different ways dysgraphia presents, so if these *don't* sound like your dd, that doesn't mean she's not dysgraphic... I'm posting them more so you can see if anything matches what you see in your dd, which might be reason to move forward and check out your concerns re it.

* Does she have odd posture or pencil grip when writing?
* Does she tire quickly when using handwriting?
* Does she reverse letters/numbers?
* Does she have uneven spacing of letters/words on the page when she writes?
* Does she drop words or switch numbers/drop signs when copying?
* Does she have uneven pencil pressure when writing?
* Does she hold either her arm or wrist while writing?
* Is there a noticeable difference in the quantity of words and complexity of thought when your dd answers a question verbally vs writing down the answer?

Those are things you can look for at home as red flags for dysgraphia.

Another thing you can do is measure her handwriting speed - have her write the full alphabet, upper and lower case for each letter, and time her. Then divide to get the measure of # of letters per minute. You can find "letters per minute vs grade level" info online - the numbers will vary, but you can get a sense if she's relatively slow from just looking at this in a general way. Also look at the letters she's written - is she forming letters consistently top to bottom, does she stop and think before she writes a letter, etc.

Best wishes,

polarbear

polarbear,
You asked about trouble reading. In what manner? DD tends to read lots of graphic novels or Horrible History books that are well below her reading level. I posted about this before because she stated that all the heavy text in a book without illustrations bothered her. I was going to give her some large font books to see what they were like for her. Her regular eye exams have not indicated any problems.
I thought that I read something about a connection with ADHD and writing challenges. Thanks for mentioning that. I just wonder sometimes about DD. She brings home her agenda, and even she can't read the words. She was famous in grade school for her teeny horrible handwriting (unless she really worked on it). I plan to pull one of her many journals and really look at the handwriting. The journals are mainly stories and illustrations that I can't read which is too bad because her writing is really funny and sarcastic. I can't wait to do the timed handwriting. I will let you know what I find out!

I would ask your DD's teachers if they have trouble reading her handwriting. I regularly complain about DS' handwriting but apparently all his teachers can read it fine, as it hadn't ever affected his grades. With my DS, he writes very fast, which aftects legibility considerably. See if your DD's handwriting improves if she slows down. You may also want to check how many assignments are done on the computer, at least the final graded product. Fortunately, at our middle school, it is standard to submit typed work for longer writings so it is mostly an issue of the short assignments.

As far as reading, it may be easier to have your DD compare reading the same novel using different font sizes on a e-reader.