No Improvement

[katiekat]

Sean has dyslexia and dysgraphia although I have been told by the "professionals" that they are not called by these names any more. He is in his 2nd year of OT and is in Special Ed. reading and writing daily(since Sept.). I am just wondering if you think it is reasonable for me to expect to have seen some improvement by now? I have seen none. His writing is still illegible, he does not write on the lines, does not use capitals where he should but uses them where he shouldnt, no punctuation, cannot copy writtien words correctly and is still reversing letters. His teacher really stresses the importance of these things, even writing them on top of each page. His IEP is coming up next month and I am wondering what more I could ask for. I don't think there should be perfection but just a little improvement though.

[misty]

I don't know. Shannon never could copy well from the board & she still just cannot write in cursive. I just pretty much gave up, as there were more important things to focus on in my mind, & in this world of computers, who needs to write in cursive anyway? I'd ask them exactly what they are doing to help him in these areas & see if maybe they could give you an answer as to why there has been no improvement.

[jj]

I know I have read that a lot of people ask their kids be allowed laptops as they do pretty well on computers. How does Sean do on typing things? I guess I'm kind of leaning with Misty that learning cursive may not be the most important thing in the world. Some of the other things you mentioned...yes, they are important but maybe with a computer he'd be able to do them correctly. Just a thought. (I'm very tired so I hope I made sense.)

[katiekat]

He has not even started with cursive yet. I am talking about printing. Honestly I think a computer would cause problems because he would view it more as a toy and it would be a huge distraction. Also we spend 2+ hours a night on homework and this would make it way longer. And the majority of his homework is in a workbook. It's pretty important to know the very basics of printing and grammar rules and if you dont know them while printing he will still have the same issues on a computer. I really want him to actually learn and know them.

[jj]

Well, maybe I should have read your post more carefully as you sure didn't say anything about cursive. (I guess when you said write (rather than print) I translated it to cursive and then Misty mentioned cursive and I ran with it. Sorry.)

I couldn't agree with you more, some of the things you mentioned he has to "get" or he'll have problems forever. I would, however, be curious to know if he could type things properly, that is, if he knows how to hold the shift key down for capitalizing letters, would he do it correctly then? I guess I wondering if it is him not wanting to take the time to think things through or is it a matter of him just not "getting it" or is his knowlege truly lost between his brain and making his hand put it to paper.

I'm going to try to do some searches to see what other parents have requested in their IEP's and if I find something that will be helpful I'll be sure to post.

I do think you should have seen some sort of improvements.

[jill]

Is there any kind of improvement? I would think there would be some small improvement or someone is not doing their job.

[charliegirl]

With dysgraphia, there are so many parts of your brain and body involved in creating even one letter, let alone writing out a word that everything else is lost. There is no continuity of thought.

The computer or a scribe works better when they are learning grammar and spelling, etc, because of this. They are able to think about what they are saying without the handicap of trying to write each letter individually.

Try scribing for him sometime and see how it goes.

[andrea]

Hi, I see that this thread is old, but I will still stand on my soap box regarding cursive and support its importance. I have struggled with handwriting skills all of my life, and thank god for catholic school, and cursive until the 8th grade. Don't get me wrong, I found my relief from spelling errors and cursive when spell check was invented. However, I am still very thankful to Sister Theodosia for pushing the cursive so long. I used it in college and was able to keep up nicely. Our school system today has abandoned the skill before writing has even taken off. How can we expect our third graders to use a system that the educational system has deemed a waist of time by the end of second grade? With any acquired skill...Practice makes perfect. Cursive allows for built in spacing , letter size, and endurance. If we abandon the skill before the kids get a chance to enjoy its effects we are greatly dis-serviceing our babies. If you want to see changes in handwriting place an emphasis on letter size, letter placement, and spacing (tall letters are tall, short are under the line, hangers dive below). Use a daily journal, and encourage your babies to decode your own messages in cursive. Practice cursive journaling. You will find untapped curiosity, and a zest for wanting to learn the skill.

For those of you who have children with significant difficulty writing it may not be an option....put them on the computer and get them typing ASAP.. I Promise you the " school system" is not reinforcing typing skills and home row finger placement. Their over sized classrooms and busy curriculum has no room for skill set.... Just test scores and a regurgitation of facts. I am praying for the day that we can just learn to enjoy our youngsters and get back to the basics.

For those of you interested in typing...Type master offers nice free typing games, lessons and test for home use.

[misty]

My daughter has been in a Christian school, cyber school, & now Charter school, with only a short stint in public school so pretty much all her school days have been spent in classrooms with no more than 15 kids. Thankfully, she learned typing & took to it very well. She's in 11th grade now & never did learn cursive except to write her name, which I taught her myself & made her practice until she had it down. I, myself never use cursive although of course, I learned it & can do it well enough. As an adult the only cursive I use is signing my name on checks & such. I guess its a good skill too learn, & I see your points Andrea, but it just frustrated my daughter so much that I abandoned it in favor of working on things I thought she's need more of in her future. She writes amazing stories, but its all on computer.

[jj]

I get where Andrea is coming from. I kind of feel the same way about students using calculators instead figuring it out with pencil and paper. But I do think you have to pick and choose what is most important when your child is struggling.

On a side note, the other day I ran across a letter wrtten to my grandpa and the hand writing was beautiful. It was an art way back when and it is kind of sad that very few people write in cursive anymore. I still do, but that is probably because I'm from an older generation.