Dysgraphia. Can you help?

[supermum98]

My youngest son has well formed handwriting, reads very well, reasonable spelling, but all the way through school, teachers very negative about written output. In a terrible state after school today, said teacher always implying his writing rubbish, missed his lunch-break because of pour output, missed an art session, too for same reason. Apparently teacher said she is worried about his future, which made him feel scared. Needless to say I am furious, about these comments. I had felt that he may flourish in the next class where the teacher is nurturing, and felt his lack of output in this class was because he was too worried about being shouted at. Now I am wondering if there is an underlying disability like dysgraphia. Can anyone help me?

Two sites here with info about Dysgraphia, they include some suggestions that may help.

www.readingrockets.org/atoz/writing
www.dyslexiaa2z.com/learning_difficulties/dysgraphia/dysgraphia_treatment%20_how_you_can_help.html

We found a Yoro pen helped DS a bit www.ru-lefthanded.co.uk/pages/yoropens.htm, we also tried a sloping board which he wasn't too happy with, (easy to make one before going to the expense of buying) www.healthyworkstations.com/writing_slopes.html.

DS was originally taught to write by printing, cursive script helped a bit though his writing is still messy and difficult to read. We ended up buying him an Alphasmart. He also used to have a stress ball at school to relieve tension in hand/arm.

Have you considered that he may be Dyslexic? As this can be associated with Dysgraphia, which could contribute to the poor output.

A friend of mine has just had her DD (15) diagnosed moderately Dyslexic, her reading, writing and spelling are ok, but she struggles with organisation, note taking, putting thoughts into writing etc.

Ditto, dyspraxic. Again affects organisation skills, can affect social skills, definitely affect writing.

I thought dysgraphia was about having badly formed handwriting?

You should make an appt with the SENCO and ask school what they think the problem is, and what they are going to do to help him....

marking my place

supermum - how old is your DS?

Thanks everybody, he is 9. Minx 179 thanks for links. Reading stuff beginning to lean more towards idea of mildly dyslexic, as when he does write it looks quite good. He has been teamed up on a computor in school with a boy who is dyspraxic. I think you are right IndigoBell I can't have the teacher shouting at him and knocking his confidence, when there could be an underlying reason, and they haven't done anything about it. I wonder if I should go for a BDA assessment as our school is slow to diagnose and don't seem to listen to parents gut instinct. I still should ask them what they are going to do about it. I will suggest she take a more nurturing approach as he said to me this morning that one of the problems is that he is worried about writing because teacher always gets cross with what he has done.
It's Friday, time to hit the bottle, have good w/e and thanks for thoughts.