Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional AT for Dysgraphia

Personally I don't think the let him go on his own and see where he is in 6th grade approach is a great idea. DD has been explicitly taught everything and it has been a long, arduous process to get where she is. Her comprehension is sky high but she totally lacks automaticity. Things that come naturally to other kids just don't happen that way for her. I think this is a processing issue so probably common in dysgraphic kids. We had a debate as to the best way to teach her to type (actually 'keyboard' as typing apparently implies using a formal home row/ 10 fingers approach...) and ended up encouraging her to use a home row system but still allowing her to do what worked best for her. Her visual processing was so bad they had to start with training her to scan the keyboard to find the correct letter. When she started I believe it could take almost a full minute to locate a particular letter key. She never would have become functional left to her own devices. But that's my DD - your kid could be a totally different story.

And one point I left out of the cursive discussion - it is sometimes easier because the pencil doesn't leave the page so spacing is less of an issue. Some dysgraphic kids eventually develop their own style of handwriting that's not quite printing, not quite script. I think that may be where DD is now which is why it has become easier for her to write short notes that are at least somewhat legible.

We started with oral responses, *no* copying and scribing. It was ok in 2nd grade when the work load was lower (and no one at the public really had any idea what to do with such an outside the box kid). However it is much better to allow them to move towards independence. At least with my DD it takes her so much longer to learn to do these things that we need to have a plan in place for several years in order for her to function as needed at higher grade levels. In other words working in 3rd and 4th grade on these skills allowed her to have a great year in 5th. 6th grade will be a year to see where she is and what needs to be added or changed so she will be able to function as well as possible in 7th.

DD's school implements things across the board. In other words her OT time may occur during computer lab or a writing block so the skills aren't developed in a vacuum. Just like its harder for her to learn these skills it's also harder for her to transfer them. Back to that lack of automaticity thing again...

Oh and one of the first things AT wise that DD learned to do independently was PowerPoint. Great entree that made her oh so much more comfortable with it all. She also does/did spelling through an app called Spelling City. She said the app that allowed her to photograph and write on worksheets using the iPad was called snap something - don't remember the exact name.

AT specialist (I believe) can come from an OT or spec Ed background. Check with your local university. Also your school district can direct you even if you are in a private.

I'm glad Polarbear and Spaghetti weighed in - their kids are older and they have many years of practical experience. Hopefully DeeDee will wander by too. Such great resources on this board!

I bought SnapType Pro for my phone and showed DS. He tried it on a worksheet and was SO excited. He really wants an iPad for school now.

Yup, got one of those. Can touch fingernails to elbows, it's quite disturbing. It's also dang hard to find velcro shoes in size 7

We're lucky in that he seems to be OK with typing, and by age 12 has developed some pretty decent speed via playing Minecraft and programming (though he definitely isn't using proper form). However, his dyslexic (and probably dysgraphic) sister (9) needs to bypass typing a lot more, and uses a combo of voice recognition and word prediction, which sounds more like what you need.

Like others, I definitely don't recommend waiting. The sooner AT becomes normal and natural for him, his classmates and his teachers, the better. They don't get less self-conscious as they get closer to middle school. It's also nice to have their technology use grow naturally along with their writing demands. In our experience, if it's always available, and easy to access, and the other kids are used to it being used, then it gets used with ever-increasing frequency. For DS, the laptop was occasional go-to-the-side-table-to-type for big projects in grade 3, evolving to carried to every class and used for every written word by the time he started grade 6.

That said, if typing doesn't solve the problem, skip it and move right on to voice recognition and word prediction. The latter is a good interim/ cross-over step, as voice to text takes time and practice, and it can be tough to get good accuracy with children's high-pitched voices. Also, word prediction is useful when the child just needs to write a sentence or two, and/ or it isn't convenient/ comfortable for them to find a place where they can dictate without disturbing/ being disturbed.

I think I'm just going to go ahead and get him an iPad. He wants to work on it at home for a while then take it to school once he knows how to use it for school work.

We'll see how that goes and talk to his doctor about a referral for an AT evaluation if it doesn't work.

And Keen's bungee lace sneakers are a big hit with him. They're currently on sale too.

For shoes, I personally use Hickies (I have the boring black ones, but you can get all kinds of cool colors) on the shoes I wear every day and I love them. They do gradually wear out and break, and occasionally one comes undone, but I love not having to mess around with tying my shoes all the time (I can't seem to tie them so they don't come undone several times a day). Do look at alternative lacing patterns if they are too tight instead of immediately deciding they are no good. Mine are laced in two overlapping loops of two with only the very bottom one being a single loop. Two non-overlapping loops would be even looser.