Anyone with knowledge of dysgraphia?

[Swimswim82]

DD8 (year 4) has ASD and is awaiting ADHD assessment. Currently struggling with attending school, for which I believe there are a myriad of reasons, but one which she has articulated is not wanting to do writing or maths.

Academically, school has always said she is very bright and she is - incredible memory, very articulate, very perceptive. However, she does seem to struggle a bit. She learnt to read quickly and easily, and was previously greater depth, but went down to expected levels at the end of year 2. Currently loves reading and devours books.

Handwriting has always been a bit of an issue, but I'm wondering if there is more than it just being a deficit in fine motor skills. She has an awkward pencil grip (wraps her fingers around, rather than using tripod grip).

Spellings she again learns quickly, but she seems to rely solely on her visual memory, rather than thinking about the word as a whole. She often misses bits of the word out, uses incorrect endings and sometimes misses words out of sentences.

As I said, she is very articulate, has an amazing imagination and gets lost in small world play.... Her verbal skills seem way in excess of what she can get down on paper.

I've attached a few examples. The first two were a few months after she'd turned 8, the third from now (9 next month). 1) Missing off the 'ed' at the end of 'look', 2) 'Suddly' should be 'suddenly', 3) 'sumble' should be 'stumbled' - missing both the second consonant and the correct ending.

Images now should be visible.

What exactly is your question?

Have you considered an assessment by an educational psychologist? Does your DD have hypermobility? It’s commonly comorbid with ASD. It could make writing tiring or painful.

One of my DC had (and still has as an adult) similar issues with writing. It really affected their ability to work to their full potential because all their energy was going into trying to put what was in their head on the page. They were assessed by an educational psychologist and physiotherapist on the advice of their paediatrician at 8YO.

They have a spiky profile that didn’t perfectly fit the criteria for a specific diagnosis at primary school age. However, an assessment did give specific strategies for overcoming the issues eg using a laptop, recording creative writing, extra time in exams, exercises to improve fine motor skills, different learning strategies that suited them better.

@KnickerFolder Thanks... Just whether anyone considers those signs to be indicative of something wider than just an issue with fine motor skills (such as dysgraphia).

No, I'm pretty sure she doesn't have hypermobility.

I am definitely planning on an EP assessment.

I definitely do not think that she is reaching her potential, but because she does "okay", she's not really a priority at school.

I had no idea I had hypermobility until I was in my 40s!

Your DD is struggling with writing, she isn’t achieving as well as she was at school, and you have noticed that her verbal abilities seem better than written skills, and she has a diagnosis of ASD, possibly ADHD, both of which are often comorbid with SpLDs. Dysgraphia and working memory issues are linked. I would say those are definitely signs that she would definitely benefit from a professional assessment and advice. Dysgraphia has many causes, there is no one fit strategy that helps. She is going to be bored or frustrated if her writing can’t keep up with her intelligence and abilities. It could have a long term negative impact on her self esteem.

Primary school were useless for my DC until they were assessed. TBF, it is harder to assess SpLDs in younger children and they are often masked in bright kids when they are young because they are achieving at the expected level despite being capable of much more. Although the primary school still weren’t very supportive even after the assessment, secondary school and university were much more supportive.

Sounds a lot like my DS. Has she been screened for Cerebral Visual Impairments? It can explain problems with reading and writing.

It's hard to judge from small the samples given. The only thing that is really obvious is that the lines are far too narrow for the size of her writing.

@KnickerFolder Thanks, that's really helpful. I am actually hypermobile myself (as is my DSIS!), and I'm aware of the generic component, but she seems to take after DH in the physical side!

Yes, going to get a private EP assessment, but currently appealing an EHCNA refusal to assess and need to find the right one/get the timing right.

Yes, I think it's definitely masked by her general ability and so the school don't really care - or have an in-depth knowledge of specific SpLDs. They're just too busy with the kids years behind.

She has had an OT assessment (but it was mainly sensory-based). She did however pick up on a big discrepancy between her visual perception (87th centile) and her visual motor integration (19th centile).

We thought ds might have dysgraphia but it turns out it's dyspraxia (and maybe something as yet undiagnised). The OT and subsequent paediatrician said that dysgraphia is actually very unusual and tends to present as subset of dyspraxia. We also had a review with a behavioural ophthalmologist to see if/where there was a cognative processing issue, but for him there isn't. Ds has the claw grip when writing, fine motor skill issues and core strength and stability all feeding into his handwriting. We haven't worked out what is behind the spelling retention issues, but have decided to focus on dyspraxia supports first to see what impact that has. I would think an OT assessment would be useful for your dd.

You could be describing me. Never diagnosed but handwriting has been crap since childhood. But now everyone types at work so it's much less of an issue than it was.

I think it would be worth speaking to your SENco and asking for a referral to the LA Sensory team to rule out CVI. In our area, my DS was awaiting assessment for ASC, dyspraxia and ADHD, but all children on this Neurodevelopmental Pathway are seen by a Qualified Teacher of Visual Impairment as a matter of course. She picked up his CVI straight away. I had never heard of it so had never considered it, although he was having the same problems writing and reading as you have described in your DD. Does she struggle to write small? My DS was encouraged to write small to be "neat" but it turns out he could barely read back what he had written due to the size. He also has a lower visual field impairment as part of his CVI which makes writing on a table difficult. Does your DD read better if the book has a large clear font size, if it is raised up in front of her face as opposed to low down in her lap?

She may well not have CVI. But it is really worth considering as if she does it will be affecting all areas of her life.

And I would also add... Since I learnt about DS's visual problems I've taken all the pressure of writing. He used to get incredibly frustrated at not being able to write his stories but now he types or uses voice to text on the computer. He is so much happier this way. We also get large print books and his reading aloud is so much more fluent and confident.

I would say that this writing is fairly average for Year 4, bearing in mind she hates writing anyway. I certainly wouldn’t see it as dysgraphia. Ask the class teacher if she can use a laptop for longer pieces of writing to see how she does.