Anyone else have a child who won't/can't write??

[llp479]

Oh boy can I relate! My dd's problems started in 2nd grade. She's now in 4th. Took me two long years, and outside testing for the school to finally listen to me. She has dysgraphia as well as a recall problem and sensory integration disorder. I've got an IEP with a list of accomodations a mile long!

I would also recommend the www.ldonline.org website. Lots of useful info.

The most important things is keep pushing the issue. My dd is an identical twin, and her sister wasn't having the same problems. If I heard "if she tried harder" one more time I was going to scream! Luckily, I came accross the info on dysgraphia and her third grade teacher agreed this might be the problem. She made modifications without the IEP, and tried different things, so that when our official "meeting" came, she was able to move us straight past the "let's try this" to the "OK - we need to do testing."

Hang in there - I know your pain! PM me if you want more info.

 

[tar heel]

Please, please don't punish your child or allow the school to punish him until you've gotten to the bottom of what the problem is. Our counselor set us up on a program developed by John Rosemond (columnist, pyschologist -- I would say quack) for our oldest child b/c he wasn't spending his time wisely in class in spite of his very high IQ. It was one of our absolute worst parenting mistakes. That poor child constantly lost his after-school play time and went to bed early. I felt like an ogre instead of a mother. We thought because the school was recommending it, we should do it. We did it about six months and I have no doubt it permanently damaged his attitude toward school but it had absolutely no effect on the problem being addressed.

Fortunately, we eventually got the real diagnosis of his problem, which is very real. He is going to struggle his entire life, but he also has had lots of great successes and is doing well in college.

 

[SoonerKate]

Toby's Friend, can you remember the name or publisher of that workbook? I have a 9-year-old nephew who can't seem to put any sort of description into his writing at all. It's killing his grades, and we're very worried about his FCATs, because he just doesn't put in the necessary detail to get a decent score.

He's always been fond of brevity, but it's not going to work on the FCATs.