Dyspraxic ds2(5) - thanks, an update, and yet another request for your input

[LargeLatte]

So I haven't been to this board for a while.

It's been about 8 months since ds was diagnosed as dyspraxic. At the time I got a lot of support and advice from this board. Thanks to recommendation from someone here I got a referal to the local NHS Visual Training team, who also deal with retained reflexes. We have been working on exericeses and activities from them, and also given to us by his Occ Therapist, and he is making great progress.

He also gets lots of support at school - they really have been great, and I know I am lucky in this respect.

He has a lot of sensory issues which I only figured out because of help from this board - but we seem to be coping pretty well with those to.

So I wanted to make this post for 3 reasons.

1 - Thanks so much for all the information, help and support that is on this board. It has made a massive difference to ds and me.

2 - I wanted to share a tip, so I feel I have contributed a little - ds have weak grip, so we put a chin up bar in a doorway for him to swing on, then timed how long he could cling on for as a measure of how it was improving - seemed a lot more fun than squeezing a stress ball, and also helped with some of his sensory issues.

3 - I have another question. He has progressed so much in all areas except one. His pen control is still very poor for his age. His pencil grip is fine. He looks to be moving his fingers to control the pencil rather than moving at the wrist. But the pressure is still to weak on the paper and the letters huge and spidery. I guess this will just improve with time, but he does a lot of handwriting practice. And I was wondering if there might be anything I have missed?

I read about an exercise for writing using carbon paper. I haven't tried it , though. It was something like using lots of sheets of carbon paper in a pile and trying to get the writing you do on the top sheet to show all the way to the bottom, halfway, just to the second sheet etc....so playing around with pressure.

I haven't heard of that one. Just 6 minutes after posting and there's another good idea for me to try. Thanks.

Try with him leaning on a A4 file (put a pad of paper inside for support) make sure he is sat on a chair properly with feet flat on the floor. Also with dyspraxia they find it hard to judge where to start and how to fit letters and words, pictures etc visually onto a page so using lined or squared paper may help even if under the paper he is writing on.

When he wrote yesterday he used a felt pen, and I can see from the number of dots where he has stopped during each letter - it's not very fluid at all.

Latte at 5 I would probably be concentrating less on the production of fine writing and focus more on learning the fluidity and shape of letters IYKWIM.

If he has difficulties with muscle strength, I would probably be getting him to do large and multi-sensory writing .

E.g. large sheets of paper blu-tacked to the wall to do letter formation. Using a paintbrush and bucket of water to 'paint letters' on an outside wall (not so great in this weather but later on...). At the beach, using a stick to draw letters on sand, or drawing them in mud. Even pinning a sheet of paper under the dining table and getting him to draw over his head. These all help with stabilising his shoulder and re-inforcing letter formation at the same time.

Multi-sensory: can of shaving foam, smear it on the table/piece of oilcloth and draw on it. Baking tray full of salt/sand and draw using a chopstick.
Playdough rolled out and get him to make letters from the roll.

If you want to work on hand strength, at this stage, from what you've described I would probably focus on whole hand work.
E.g. tearing long strips of paper, cutting out large shapes- first in paper, then from cardboard. Scrunching up sheets of newspaper to make a ball. Weightbearing through his hands by crawling through spaces/ walking wheelbarrow style.

My ds has a lot of dyspraxic traits, including problems with handwriting.

His school used the techniques LIZS suggests. He had a sloped writing board on his table. He also had a wedge cushion on his chair to keep his body in a better position. It meant he could concentrate on writing rather than on trying to stay upright.

Exercises to strengthen his hands were also helpful, including things like squeezing and shaping playdough.

For actual letter formation he was encouraged to make the letter shapes using his fingers, eg tracing the shapes in flour sprinkled on a table.

The OT also suggested that it would be helpful if he learned how to play a musical instrument, especially if it was keyboard-based. It helped to build up his strength, co-ordination and dexterity.

As he got older he began using other ways to record his written work. He uses a laptop to type with, but an Alphasmart is probably better for a younger child.

My ds(7) is diagnosed with dyspraxia, and I have to say we've pretty much given up on handwriting. This year he's learned to touch type and is using a laptop in school. It's made a massive difference to him, and I'd recommend it any day. We did endless handwriting practice, tried Write From the Start, which is recommended for dyspraxia, but I could see that nothing was really making a difference. And it was unbelievably hard and frustrating for him. I'm thinking that we might be able to come back and try again with handwriting when he's older, but by letting him type we've removed a massive barrier to learning for him right now.

He can trace with his finger on a touch screen really easily. A big part of me wants to abandon pencils and ask for him use one of the school's tablets because the effort in controlling the pencil is really undermining his ability to learn the letter formation.

On the other hand he has just started showing an interest in writing and drawing as a fun thing to do rather than work so I'm not sure. Parent's evening next week and we have a review meeting shortly after that.

Thanks for all the other tips - some we use already, some will be good to try out.

Went to a talk by an OT (well respected in SI etc) who said that if writing is not mastered by 7/8, then don't flog a dead horse, use touch typing.
From mastered she meant legible.
Makes sense as DS1 (10) can write fine (legibly) now, but for such a short amount, he wouldn't be able to manage to cope with the work in Y5.
DS3(5) is being assessed, and homework this weekend, I had to de-code for the teacher. DS3 had copied it from work I had written, and I still couldn't work out what mark meant what.
DS1 was at a similar point at that age, so it can be worth persevering so they can write, but then say "now you can type it all'

Thanks auntevil that is really helpful to know. ds is nearly 6 and what he writes is just about legible. No spacing yet but we still struggle with ds1 (7) for that so I think its a bit early. A few weeks ago it was really getting him down, but he seems to have got a new enthusiasm so we will perservere (sp?). Paed had said he would need to use a computer at secondary school. In 5 years time when he starts, I wouldn't be surprised if all the kids are using them anyway.

That's pretty much what the OT said.
DS1 is Y5 and he types anything longer than a few paragraphs.
A lot of his homework is on the school blog, or some other system.
The majority of secondary school work is not hand written. In fact, think realistically how many times that you do large pieces of hand written work.
Teaching touch typing early as an addition to learning to write, might actually give him an advantage when everyone starts to type their work as he will have had more practise.

Thanks. You have really reassured me. He's very good with a computer and typing.

Do you have a Wii console?

there is the Wii Draw game

What laozi said - we threw in the towel re handwriting when DS2 was 9 or so. He touch-types at astonishing speed now, and it meant he could actually focus on the quality of the writing content, IYSWIM, rather than hours getting frustrated by his lack of fine motor skills.

Have got a wii - not heard of wii draw so will look into it thanks.

Hassled - I am already noticing it holding him back. He can spell well, tells great stories, and is good at maths - but struggles to write the answers down.

ds found wii fit really useful for coordination exercise.

I would second the suggestion of learning a musical instrument. Ds1 hated playdough and the like, but learning to play the piano made a colossal difference to his hand strength (hanging from bars not a good idea for him, as he has muscle weakness and extreme hypermobility in all his joints, so would dislocate his shoulder so do that!!!!). His handwriting is pretty good at age 8, but then formation of letters was never really the issue for him, it was strength and stability - unless he used felt tip pens when he was little, you could barely see what he wrote as he applied so little pressure, and he had a hard time building up the strength to pull up his own trousers, open doors, flush toilets or do up his own seatbelt. All helped by learning the piano... ds1 is not keen on wiis etc, because he can see how hopeless he is at computer games, reacting quickly and co-ordinating unexpected rather than pre-planned actions compared to his peers, but he can play the piano beautifully and read music and most of his peers can't do that, so it's a huge self esteem thing, too.