GL Education Exact Report - below average handwriting speed

[HerbertChops]

Hello! Just wondering if anyone has any knowledge of these reports? And how to read them? DS has just moved to independent school for Y7 from state primary and they’ve sent me the report. He’s never been assessed before.

Report confirms that DS has a below average handwriting speed, he’s on the 12th percentile, was age 11.10m when tested and this works out at age equivalent 10.0-10.3. So almost two years behind.

In contrast for reading comprehension, comprehension speed, word recognition and spelling he’s on the 97th percentile with an equivalent age of above 18.11.

Constantly tried to get help for DS with his handwriting right through primary school but he never got any as they said he wasn’t that bad, wasn’t the worst, and he always met the expected targets. In Y6 his teacher noticed during homeschooling his creative writing was better when typed and he moved straight to working at greater depth from expected the first piece he typed.

Am now wondering if this big difference between his abilities is what has really affected DS and made him feel so frustrated with written work? That he’d find reading and spelling easy but be massively slowed down by the writing speed, because the difference between the equivalent ages is so big 10.0-10.3 to over 18.11? Rather than just being two years behind he’s over 8 years behind? Does it work like that? Is that why he always felt he was struggling but his teachers thought he was average, as his reading/spelling masked the slow handwriting?

Anyone any thoughts?

I don't understand the UKs focus on handwriting. Some people are literally physically unable to write easily. I'm hypermobile but wasn't diagnosed until I was an adult, it makes writing by hand very hard for me. The idea you can have a grade level on handwriting is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. If he can type quickly, it isn't that he has a processing issue coming up with the words, right? So it isn't an intelligence issue, it's a backwards education system issue. Get the school to let him type and stop being so backwards. He can actually focus on his education and not some stupid obsession with wasting time trying to write 'well'.

You’ve misunderstood @EllieNBeeb

It’s not a grade level on handwriting it’s a test to see if you’re writing speed is holding you back. DS has sensory processing issues and has difficulty writing and holding a pen. Now that they’ve tested him and can see his handwriting is very slow he’ll be allowed to type in class and exams instead and where this is not possible he’ll get extra time to finish writing tasks and in exams where he is expected to write.

They test handwriting speed in order to give equal access to exam success. I’m glad they’ve tested him as he was never able to get extra time in class or exams as he was meeting all the standards previously but feeling frustrated as he couldn’t finish everything. He was being graded as average when he’s actually above average ability, just no one knew as he never got right the way through class work or exams.

Think I probably didn’t explain very well, it’s not about ds having beautiful cursive handwriting!! Ds has sensory processing disorder and difficulty holding a pen for any length of time, he also forms his letters weirdly so he can’t join them as pen finishes in the wrong place. So for a ‘r’ for example he’d do the curved top bit first, left to right, then the downward stroke second. Tried to get him help all through primary but as he was meeting expected targets no help with handwriting. His handwriting is slow as he writes weirdly and has to constantly lift his own from the page. This has now been picked up by the school in this assessment and they’ll put support in place so he meets his potential.

Was just asking whether the disparity between handwriting and other abilities are why he really feels that he’s struggling? And that the handwriting seems to have such an impact on him? (A’s for any teachers or parents with experience of these tests)

*lift his pen

*Qs for

The simple answer is to ask if your DS can switch to typing as his usual way of working for longer pieces of writing & exams.

I have a friend whose v. intelligent DC has dyspraxia. At primary before diagnosis he was sinking 'down' the tables in English as expressing himself writing was too hard. Once typing was introduced for him he shot back up again (and got 9s at GCSE).

I have a DD in Y8 with dyslexia and hypermobile finger joints. She's 98th centile for VR and NVR, 7th centile for working memory and did extremely badly on every single one of the handwriting speed tests.

Switching to a laptop and typing has been the difference between night and day. She still spells 'creatively' but she's finally producing a decent amount of content and her marks have shot up.

As a result she no longer thinks she's stupid and is trying harder and finding she's actually rather good at some subjects she had written off.

One of DD's friends was, I think, consistently underestimated by the primary school, due primarily to being a slow writer. After a lot of pressure from her mum (she was meeting expected standards, so they didn't think she needed help), they did put her in some intervention sessions which made a marked difference, but she was still quite slow.
At secondary, she has flourished, because they've looked at the output and not the time it took.

Thanks for replies.

I spoke to SENCO end of last week and ds is going to type in creative writing tasks from now on and be monitored in all other subjects. She said the disparity between the scores will make a bigger difference than if scores were low but consistent and probably why he feels so frustrated when handwriting. She's going to check in with all his teachers beginning of summer term and assess him prior to summer exams to see whether he'll need extra time.

He has a habit of rushing through tests when hand writing and I mentioned this on the phone in passing and she confirmed his reading comprehension and reading speed scores were actually underestimates as he rushed through the test and didn't use all the time. So she's going to keep an eye on that too, he's most likely above 97th percentile for those and 97th for spelling. Just so happy they're going to monitor him and offer him some proper help after 7 years of being told 'he's not the worst!'

Oh 'he's not the worst'. we had that for years at primary.
Yes of course she wasn't the worst because I put in a lot of effort to DD's reading and writing (suspect way more than most parents at DD's mixed catchment primary) . But the point was that compared to the effort put in she should by rights have been a lot better.

My dyslexic son was really slow with his handwriting, and had a processing disorder ( and still cannot read a train timetable- but I digress) He had a high reading/word recognition age and was top 2% for age adapted IQ tests.He was regarded as bright but lazy as he did not hand in a lot of written work. He was finally identified as dyslexic at 17, and didn;t want to change to typing in exams as he was year 13 and had done AS levels.
My advice is to get an Ed Pysch report, and go from there. The other thing that helped was getting a specialist optomotrist assessment that tracked his eye movements when reading. In addition, he found was that coloured filters didn't help, but coloured background on the computer was miraculous.
It is a myth that dyslexics read badly! With adaptations at A level and Uni he has a degree and Masters in a text heavy subject.

The other thing that helped was getting a specialist optomotrist assessment that tracked his eye movements when reading. In addition, he found was that coloured filters didn't help, but coloured background on the computer was miraculous.

Can you tell me more about this? Did the optomotrist do the coloured filer/background stuff. Where do you go for this?

Thanks

Sorry, that was for @RainingYetAgain

Yes, it will be the disparity causing frustration.
It will also be his high ability meaning he's not failing so ignored.

@TeenMinusTests
At the time the localish hospital had a Vision Training Clnic , called CPOC I think. Because he was over 14 we had to go privately but the assessment was the same. The Ed Psych recommended 2-3 practitioners, but our optician recommended that one.
Unfortunately, the NHS provision was scrapped a while ago. Last time I looked, the consultant , Dr Annette Grounds, was running a Multi Sensory training Centre in Colchester.

@TeenMinusTests
Pressed post too soon.
Dr Grounds tried the filters but they were not very sucessful. The computer programme was something that was identified when he had a DSA assessment when he was going to University.. I think the programme was called Read and Write Gold but I can check with him if you want.