Hypermobility

[Frostytiger87]

My child has been diagnosed with Hypermobility which means painful joints including wrists & fingers . The Dr has sent a letter to school asking for extra time during exams as my child struggles to finish the papers . The school have received the letter but have said they they have to do an assessment.
Has anyone got any advice please ?

Yes. School normally have to do their own assessments for exam concessions, though I don't know how it works for something that gets worse as time goes on.

The alternative could be to switch to typing as normal way of working? Is that easier on the joints?

What year group?

That all sounds fine so far. Yy to switching to typing. We've also found an ergonomic vertical mouse like this invaluable.

Thankyou for your replies my child is year 11 and preparing for GCSE
I’m wondering what the school assessment involves

The school should have (or be able to arrange a visit from) a qualified assessor for ‘Access Arrangements for Exams’. They should be able to assess your child in school and offer help such as use of a laptop for lessons and exams and/or extra time when needed.
You can ask the SENDCO to arrange the assessment.

If y11 they need to get a shift on!

Presumably they have evidence of failure to complete previous tests / exams? e.g. at the end of y10?

In our case it involved a chat with the deputy senco about what help was needed and what was possible. They also assessed DD typing speed and offered her on a touch typing course although they figured her times didnt merit it much as she typed at a reasonable speed anyway. But DD was diagnosed year 7/8 so there really wasnt much of a rush. Shes planning to type all her GCSEs except maths

My DD1 (dyspraxia) mixed and matched typing and handwritten.

She typed English & Humanities.
She handwrote Maths & Science.

She did 2 MFL for GCSE, in the time when there were controlled assessments. She typed the written CAs (with a crib card reminding her the shortcuts for letters with accents), but handwrote the reading & listening exams.

Thankyou , the school was notified months ago & received the Dr’s letter it’s only now so close to exams that they are looking further into it
Apparently they will be doing a CTOPP , dash & lucid test . The speed test understand but the other two I’m not sure about but guess it’s part of the assessment. I actually thought that a Dr’s diagnosis would be enough

My guess from memory (but I'm out of practice) is that they are handwriting speed tests. I think the dash test looks at how your handwriting deteriorates and slows over time. It will give some quantifiable numbers to justify the need for further time. Do check I'm right and that they are being carried out either by ot of someone OT trained. Nice to see a school doing things properly tbh

I have to say that they are on the ball & said it will be an experienced person doing the tests
Thankyou for your reply

Hi. What sort of Dr was the letter from. If the consultant then they don't need to do any assessment but can apply on medical grounds and write a long file note. This is all specified by JCQ Access Arrangements protocol. If it is just s GP letter then that won't count. Essentially the school need to establish a normal way of working for your daughter so really it all needs to be done before mocks.

It's interesting to me to hear that the school are doing an assessment. My daughter was at a 6th form college and based purely on correspondence from her medical team she was allowed extra time. rest breaks and the use of a laptop for her A levels.

Of course this could also be because she was given extra time (pre-typing) for her GCSEs due to chronic migraine.

Good luck in sorting it out.

@Frostytiger87

My child has been diagnosed with Hypermobility which means painful joints including wrists & fingers . The Dr has sent a letter to school asking for extra time during exams as my child struggles to finish the papers . The school have received the letter but have said they they have to do an assessment. Has anyone got any advice please ?

Your child won’t get extra time. Your child will get rest breaks where they can stop the clock break for however long they need and then restart.

Other conditions such as a learning difficulties might give extra time but at this stage in year 11 you also need to prove it is the normal way of working in tests etc

DS has this issue. Writing for more than a few minutes causes him pain in his hands and he has to grip the pen so hard that it sometimes goes through the paper.
The school asked for an OT assessment, which we got.
The only adjustment he was given for his GCSE exams was use of a word processor for about half of his subjects (the ones with extended writing). He had this for tests and mock exams in Y11, so the school was able to demonstrate that it was his normal way of working.

He is now at university and his work is mostly algebra and equations, so he has to handwrite, even in long exams.

He tried a range of pens to find which causes least pain, and he alternates between Lamy Safari and Stabilo Easy.

DASH is a hand writing test to test speed and legibility.
LUCID computer based and tests a few different areas including typing speed, spelling , reading comprehension. My DS did this when he started secondary school and we’re sent the results. My son has had the DASH test administered a few times but has never completed it as he gets so frustrated with handwriting (also hyper mobile).

The schools need to do standardised assessments to prove that DS does indeed have have needs which fit outside the norm.

Further assessment is not required when the candidate has a physical disability that hinders speed of working, and a Form 8 should not be completed. The letter from the doctor should be sufficient. However, rest breaks and the use of a word processor should be considered prior to extra time, and it needs to be their normal way of working. The JCQ guidance is here.

Ironoaks has DS got EquatIO?

@Imitatingdory - He doesn't have EquatIO. Would it work for Bachelor's / Master's level maths and physics?

He has Dragon voice recognition software which was provided by DSA, which he can use for writing long lab reports.

He is teaching himself LaTeX this term, but that's more for presenting work; it wouldn't be feasible for note-taking or exams.

For his first year exams, the university stipulated that the answers had to be handwritten (and then scanned within the time window).

Ironoaks yes, EquatIO can be useful for university level maths. As well as other features it includes LaTeX and has an exam mode. It isn't perfect, but then neither are handwriting or other software. It can be provided via DSA.

Thank you @Imitatingdory
I'll send him a link