Placing a Child with Dysgraphia

[Marcee]

My son has not been professionally diagnosed, but it's quite obvious that he has dysgraphia. He is 10 and going into 5th grade (he is a very young 10). He writes his letters from the bottom up and has not mastered manuscript, let alone cursive. He forgets punctuation, spaces between words and often switches letters when spelling-he might write myabe instead of maybe. Writing is a huge struggle for him and often results in tears. Both of my kids went to a private homeschool last year and they were supposed to work with him on his writing, but didn't. In addition, it's really hard for him to organize thoughts and communicate them whether on paper or verbally. As far as reading, he's not interested. He loves to listen to stories and has great comprehension, but doesn't like to read, although he can read. I just don't know where to place him. Preparing looks good, but I'm afraid the extension for 5/6 would be to much independently. I know it's optional, but he has to be on level or my DH won't go for it.

And having said all that, any advice on how to make HOD work with a child that has dysgraphia? Work on handwriting (is that even necessary at this point?) and let him type dictation? Skip dictation? DITHOR-should I write for him? Should he do it and make the necessary corrections? Any advice would be very much appreciated

M~

[StephanieU]

Could he do Preparing as written? As written is for 8-10 year olds, so he is in the right age range without extensions. The two main history books (CHOW and Grandpa's Box) are definitely enough for a young 10. CHOW is listed as 4th grade through adult on many websites. Grandpa's Box is often listed as 9-12 year olds. The other two books in the history economy package are 8 and up for the Great Ice Age and 3rd-6th for Hero Tales. From what you said, I would not do extensions with your son.

[LynnH]

My child has dysgraphia due to very mild Cerebral Palsy. I brought him home at the end of fourth grade and he turned 10 at the end of May of that year. We did Preparing and it was a very good fit. Now he and I did make the decision later on to slow down middle school due to how young he was combined with the dysgraphia and some short term memory issues, so he is just now starting 9th grade having just turned 15.
Here are the ways I adjusted Preparing. He did do the copy work because cursive was actually much easier for him to do than manuscript. He typed his dictations(using word pad because that is the easiest way to turn off all spell and grammar checking), his written narrations and the writing assignments in the Poetry box. With things that were fill in the blank he sometimes filled them in and sometimes he dictated them to me to write. This is often what we did for DITHOR. Rod and Staff we do at least 2/3rds of it orally, and often times all of it orally. For Draw and Write Through History I allowed him to trace the picture when he was in Preparing, by CTC he was ready to try drawing according to the directions and it soon became his favorite part of the day. In fact in his neuropsychological eval the doctor couldn't believe how well he could draw and I know it was due to the drawing in Draw and Write Thru History as well as other activities in HOD.

I would not do the extensions with your son. Instead I would focus on making sure he is achieving the other skills such as oral and written narration and that he is independent with the independent boxes utilizing whatever adaptions for his writing he needs to allow him to be independent.

My blog has weeks in review going all the way back to Preparing if you want to see some examples of adaptations we have made through the years.

[my3sons]

Outstanding advice by the ladies here already! I'd print LynnH's suggestions and refer to them throughout the year. Having met Lynn's son and having seen his work, I can share he is an incredibly intelligent young man with a bright future. Lynn and he refuse to allow challenges to hold him back from all God has purposed him to do. Much of this is due to Lynn's knack for making modifications that do not in any way alter the integrity of the work or the purpose of the assignments. (Of course it helps ds has a heart of gold and the dedication to persevere diligently through difficulties - though I believe that too can be attributed somewhat to Lynn and her husband's Christian guidance. ) Any of Lynn's posts that can be found by searching under her user name would be excellent helps as you begin enjoying your Heart of Dakota journey with your ds as well!

In Christ,
Julie

[Nealewill]

I would also like to encourage you about not needing the extensions. They really aren't required and are only needed (or even used) for kids who are older than the age range or who are voracious readers. My youngest did Preparing last year and hated to read before that. However, the books with HOD are excellent! She now has a love for reading! I think your ds would probably be the same. The books really great, extremely diverse and very interesting. So for us, my dd loves the books and she wants to even read now just for fun

I think if you son doesn't really like to read too much, I would start with Preparing and the volume or writing and copywork will probably be better for him. In addition, it will get him prepared to begin working much more independently for future years.

And - as an encouragement about Preparing, my dd was tested last year and she scored 6th grade level for social studies and 9th grade level for science. So, it definitely is a variety to learn about and I think it is totally great for 5th grade.

[davisfam7]

Lynn has some great advice. I also have used Dragon on the computer with my oldest son. We found this around 6th grade. He would speak into the head set and the computer would type for him. He would then go back and fix spelling and punctuation/grammar as needed. He struggled with organizing his thoughts because he was still so focused on telling his hand how to write each letter in every word that he would lose his train of thought by the second word of the sentence. This helped him greatly. It also cut down on his frustration. He is currently a senior this year and requested to do a handwriting course this year along with his other studies to help improve his writing. I am seeing huge strides, I think it's because he initiated it and for whatever reason his brain is ready to tell his hand the appropriate way to write. We have taught him for years how to adapt so that he can be successful. That is the main goal. He is a very intelligent guy, he would just get so frustrated because he didn't appear that way on paper if he had to hand write it. He is proficient at typing now, but that too, took a while. That whole brain hand thing getting in the way. Just keep on keeping on and you'll figure out how to help him thrive!!