Dyspraxia and writing

[ChopsTheDuck]

ds1 has dyspraxia and hypermobility syndrome. He scored 5th percentile for motor control. I am concerened abotu the amount of time and effort he is having to put into writing.
His writing is still very poor, barely legible, no spacing, just rows of badly formed letters. They have said he may have dyslexia too.

I'm jsut wondering whether it is worthwhile him continuing to put so much work into trying to learn to write properly when it is detrimental to him learning anything else. He switches off when things involve writing because he finds it hard and hates doing it so much.

The school should be providing a scribe for his sats and I am jsut wondering if we should talk to them about a laptop for lessons. Is it realistically possible for children with such poor motor control/planning to ever learn to write efficiently? If he isn't ever going to be able to, it seems a waste of time and he is bright, and I don't want him held back by his inability to write.

ds' OT reckons it take as much motor control to use a laptop efficiently enough to make a difference Is he under an OT who could advise and how old is he? Have you tried the usual things first - various grips,soft pencil, writing slope , making sure he is seated correctly with feet flat on the floor. ds has had touch typing lessons for mroe than 2 years but it is still far more laboured than his spidery writing.

am watching with interest and bumping.

DD1 is in the exact same situation with regards to her dyspraxia - probably dyslexic and dysgraphic, too.

she's already been held back a year.

my ds didnt learn to write in any kind of satisfactory fashion until secondary school and it did distort his learning as well as dyspraxic he is also dyslexic

he is 20 now and still struggles with writing he holds the pen far too tight and finds it stressful..he can write two of three sentences at most in one session before the pain and stress gets too much..that would take him about 20 minutes probably so he can fill in a form tho he finds it hard and makes lots of mistakes

he was able to use a laptop plus extra time in school

his spelling is now not at all bad

he doesnt read except when absolutely necessary and cant read novels or long pieces of writing because he cant read and make sense of what he is reading

he is going back to university again next month to do a business studies degree i dont know if he will manage it and i think he will struggle but it is his decision

he knows how hard it because he has already been and done one year of a different course which he failed because he didnt understand some of the course and didnt pass exams

hopefully this time hew ill access more help and work harder

sorry long answer about ,my ds i think you need to listen to any professional advbice you can get and try to find a balance

in ds case i think it is good that he can write but i did find that some teachers even at his secondary with a third special needs were unable to make allowances heaven knows why

How old is he?

My DS2 is 10 and Dyspraxic. Through the school, he has applied for a laptop via a county council fund (Access Through Technology - just googled it and it does seem to be specific to my county, but other areas must have equivalent funds). We don't know if he will get it yet, but meanwhile he is being taught touch-typing at school and has almost constant access to a computer for literacy work etc.

It's a tough call because on the one hand they can get very demotivated when their writing can't possibly keep up with their thoughts, and then already poor concentration becomes worse etc., but on the other hand Dyspraxic children will always have to be able to write something - maths, for example, is hard to do on the laptop software that schools provide. Plus form filling in etc when they're older. With DS2 we're concentrating more on the typing, but I don't feel we can completely throw in the towel with the handwriting.

One more thing - DS2 saw an Ed Psych who referred him to a 6 week pencil control/handwriting course run by OT. There were 6 other Dyspraxic boys of a similar age and there was a huge improvement in DS2's speed/legibility etc. It might be worth researching something like that - you can self-refer to OT for an assessment.

yes he is no typist either but he finds the laptop less frustrating and hurts his hand less and he can correct mistakes and it looks neat of course

Funnily enough I have just got off the phone as DD's new teacher has just called me about something. We have also been discussing her writing (she's just started Middle School so it has stepped up a pace).

They do have lap tops that DD can use but she can't touch type yet. And I am actually keen that she does try to keep on with her writing as it has improved a lot over the last couple of years. She has had a go without a writing board which I think she needs again so are giving that a go. Her teacher suggested that maybe she could use her computer towards the end of the day when she was tired so might look at that.

She has had the TA acting as a scribe in the earlier years in first school when she used to get very frustrated in not being able to get down what she wanted to. And it is only a couple of years since the SENCO said she didn't think her writing would improve any further, but she was wrong and it has, so I'm glad she has kept on at it. It maybe that ultimately she will need to use a lap top but I'm not prepared to go down that route until she absolutely has to.

What was complete music to my ears was to hear that they are very pleased with her and she is has just slotted in with the other children and her dyspraxia isn't making her stand out at all atm, which is fantastic and was utterly unbelievable to think of previously.

So in DD's case, yes they can improve a lot, even when it doesn't seem possible.

He is only 6, so whereas there is still plenty of time, I am jsut concerned about the amount of time he is spending writing because he has x amount to do and it takes him four times as long as anyone else. Plus it was mentioned about the possibility of a laptop this year.

He has been working on seating position, has been using grips on top of grips to help and it does help, but only a little. His pevic position is still wrong when writing, and he still has to have the paper square on, probably because of the HMS. If he isn't ever going to get there it seems pointless keep trying to force it.

zippi, it is great that your ds is attempting uni, and good luck to him. ds also holds it too tight, one of his problems.

He is under an OT, i need to discuss it a bit more with them. They recommended the scribe for his sats.

i also have a dyspraxic daughter and was really down about her never being able to write, sit on a chair etc.

Went to a dyspraxia foundation talk by Amanda Kirby from the Discovery centre. She was amazing and opened my eyes (she went into research in the whole dyspraxia field when her son was diagnosed and is now one of the foremost professors). What she said was something that helped me loads - she said that as parents we want our child to be able to fit in with his/her peers and do as they do / perform well etc. But your role as a parent is not to get your dyspraxic child to write perfectly or anything else - it is to prepare your child to live as an independant adult. In the adult world, most people use computers so handwriting is not as key as it was 20 years ago. So it doesn't matter that my 5 year old cannot colour a picture or write anything other than her name (untidily).

She also said that in most people, the brain is 98% formed by late teens but still matures in the early 20's. However, in dyspraxic people, the brain formation is slower and their brain may only be 75% formed in late teens BUT by mid 20's is the same as other people. I.e. it is just later.

I am not good at explaining but she gave me hope and made me feel under less pressure to help my daughter have "neat" work. I think some of the research info she spoke about is on the discovery centre website.

I think by adulthood my son will be texting, typing, emailing, Blackberrying (or whatever fab gizmos they'll have in 10+ years time) and nobody will ever know he has awful handwriting. I hope to get him into a touch typing course when he is older to speed things up.

i alsdo think that all things being equal other skills develop to compensate

eg charm politeness gift iof the gab

has the OT got a programme for school to follow? ie write from the start? (teodorescu and addy) around here laptops are routinely introduced at secondary for similar kids, but certainly during infants they are expected to continue working towards handwriting skills (alongside other measures to prevent frustration ie scribe/ laptop etc)
it would be unusual here for definitive decisions to be made wrt to handwriting before juniors at the earliest, as loads of kids seriously struggle with handwriting before 7.
can you get OT to put a programme in place as IEP targets?

that is really interesting regarding brain developement. I agree very strongly that the important thing is preparing them for adult life rather than fitting in, which is why I am concerned about him spending so much time on writing, especially when it's things liek copying targets where he could jsut be given a printout. . It does make me sad that his writing is so awful considering he probably puts in so much more effort than his peers.

I will pursue the IEP thing. The last IEP was written while he was still ont he waiting list for the OT assessment (2 years!) so that's def worth a try.

Your child should have a current IEP - you have a right to have an IEP and that should be updated at LEAST every 6 months (better every term). YOu have a right to ask the SENCO / teacher for a review meeting to update the IEP.

hi my son has been told he needs a ot assesment as they think he is dyspraxic the report came back in dec and am still waiting for the refferal as the senco has not done it yet!!!! he was told he could borrow a laptop and i am still waiting for that too!!!! also i have not been called in to see his iep although it was supposed to happen in january nothing has happened and I have now involved the head to try and et things goind is this only my problem or does it happen often???

what is ds1 and ds2 and dd s mean????????