Date published: 2/15/23

Listen to the full podcast here

In this podcast, Dr. Levy discusses ways parents can advocate for their special education child to help them thrive in school.

Special education students often have many gifts, but they also have unique and individual needs. Some thrive in math but struggle with reading and writing. Others have strong academic skills but have difficulty with their executive functioning skills, including organization, planning, prioritizing, and time management. Students might have autism, dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, ADHD, or a combination of diagnoses. As a parent, it is important that you consistently advocate for your child, year after year.

Many different services and accommodations are available to special education students based on their needs, as defined by their IEP or 504 plan. Students may qualify for extra time, preferential seating, a scribe, speech therapy, occupational therapy, pull-out special education tutoring, or other related services. You might find that your child is thriving in school one year with a certain set of services and accommodations only to find that the following year – or even partially through the current school year – their performance begins to sink. 

As a parent, you should always be advocating for your child. At the beginning of the school year, schedule a meeting with your child’s teacher and any other service providers. Tell them about your child and what has or hasn’t worked in the past and try to make sure they read your child’s evaluation reports, IEPs, or 504 plans if available. Then stay in touch with them throughout the school year. Schedule periodic calls or meetings; don’t wait until the end of the school year to find out about any struggles or challenges. Be active in constantly evaluating and reevaluating the services and support your child is receiving to make sure they are consistently getting what they need. Learn more about strategies for helping your special education child at Strategies For Your Child with a Learning Disability or ADHD – EBL Coaching.

With the right support, students with special education needs have the potential to thrive academically.

Read more at Navigating the special education process | LD OnLine.

The post Dr. Emily Levy on the My Child Will Thrive Podcast: Tips for Advocating for Your Special Needs Child appeared first on EBL Coaching.

Dysgraphia affects a child’s ability to form words and letters, space words properly, and express thoughts in writing. These apps can help.

Many students with dysgraphia struggle with spelling, handwriting, and expressing their thoughts on paper when writing. ‎While an individualized, multi-sensory instructional plan is most ideal for remedying these academic challenges, there are many tech tools that can help kids with dysgraphia build these key skills. Try some of the apps detailed below.

iTrace
‎Handwriting, letter spacing, and fine motor skills are all areas that are typically challenging for kids with dygraphia. iTrace is a great tool for helping students build these important skills. With this app, children as young as age 3 can practice letter, number, and word formation, and can even work on spelling their name properly. An animated “hand” demonstrates tracing each letter before the child writes it, serving as a helpful model for proper formation. Parents can even add their own words, select background music, and receive progress reports on the status of their child’s writing. iTrace is a useful tool for helping your child master these key writing skills.

ABC Pocket Phonics
This is another great app for teaching students in grades pre-K-1 proper letter formation when writing, along with letter/sound recognition and how to blend sounds together when spelling. Kids are introduced to various phonemes, starting with basic consonants and short vowels and gradually increasing to more complex sounds, and are asked to say each phoneme, write it, and apply it to a word. At the end of each unit, they are awarded with stars based on selecting the correct phonemes to complete certain words and accurately tracing letters. This app is Orton Gillingham–based and much more fun for most kids than traditional pen-and-paper phonics activities.

Montessori Crosswords
Montessori Crosswords is another great app for building spelling skills. Preschool and elementary-aged students learn to spell words by dragging letters into a crossword frame that is associated with selected pictures. Students start with basic CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words and drag letters to spell simple words like can‎, dog, and mat, and later progress to words containing blends (like flag, plug, and glad), words with consonant and vowel digraphs (like ship, bath, and feet), and multi-syllabic words. When they correctly spell a word, colorful confetti fills the screen, providing children with a fun and engaging experience.

Dragon Dictation
Many kids with dysgraphia have intelligent and creative ideas but struggle to express them on paper when writing. Dragon Dictation is a voice recognition app that allows students to dictate their ideas orally and have them presented on a screen, rather than transcribing them. ‎ To use the app, students hit “record” and begin speaking, then hit “stop” when they are done. They can then cut and paste their text and save it elsewhere, or send it out via email, text, or social media. It’s important that kids speak clearly when using this app, and it’s helpful for an adult to check the text for accuracy after it has been dictated.

Inspiration Maps
Inspiration Maps helps students with dysgraphia organize their ideas into visual maps. Children can create organized mind maps using a touch screen as a means of brainstorming before writing a paragraph, essay, or speech. They can add colors, icons, pictures, and photos to their mind maps, making the process fun and engaging. Once completed, they can convert their map to a linear outline, or can print it, share it via email, or save it to DropBox, iTunes, or the app itself. Templates are available, or students can create their own maps.

Students with dysgraphia typically face continued spelling and writing challenges as they progress through school. These apps can help ease these struggles and set them up for academic success.

The post Best Apps For Your Child With Dysgraphia appeared first on EBL Coaching.

Children with dysgraphia often struggle with forming letters and words correctly, spacing words properly on a page, and generally have difficulty expressing their thoughts on paper.

Your child struggles to properly hold a pencil. His handwriting is messy and he has trouble with letter spacing and spelling. Writing a paragraph is a completely daunting task. If your child experiences these challenges, he may have dysgraphia.

Dysgraphia is defined as a specific learning disability that affects writing. Children with dysgraphia often struggle with forming letters and words correctly, have ‎trouble spacing words properly on a page, and generally have difficulty expressing their thoughts on paper when writing. Yet with the right strategies and tools, your child can learn to tackle the increasing writing demands of school. Try the ideas detailed below:

Feel the letters!
Many kids with dysgraphia have trouble learning to form letters and numbers properly when writing. To build this skill, try creating a multi-sensory experience. Have your child trace letters in a tray of salt or colored sand while she says the formation of each letter aloud. For instance, as she traces the letter “A,” she might say “around, up, and down,” or “down, up, and around” for p. You might also have her trace letters on your back or palm, or you can do the same to her while she closes her eyes to better experience the sensation of each letter’s formation. For gross motor exercises, try having her sky-write each letter or number while standing up, or squirt some foam on the shower door and have her write letters and numbers, using large hand formations.

Practice storytelling!
Children with dysgraphia often struggle to organize their ideas into well-constructed stories and paragraphs. To help build this skill, teach your child to tell stories aloud in an organized fashion. For instance, when you return from a vacation, ask him for an opening line by saying, “We did so many fun activities on our vacation!” and then ask him ‎to discuss his three favorite activities and why he loved each one. He might say one of his favorite activities was playing on the beach, since he built a giant sand castle, jumped the waves, and swam in the ocean. He may say another favorite activity was eating every meal with his family and enjoying special treats, like Belgian waffles, chocolate ice cream, and frozen lemonade. Finally, he may say that his third favorite activity was spending time with his cousins, which included swimming with them, sharing stories, and laughing. Then have him end his story with his overall thoughts on the vacation, like “I had so much fun on my vacation and can’t wait for the next one!” You can try this exercise with just about any experience—a day at school, a play date, or a meal he just ate. The more you practice helping him organize his ideas orally, the easier it will become when writing.

Learn to type
The physical act of writing involves so many components: Letter and word formation, spacing, spelling, sentence construction, written organization, and so many other challenging tasks, especially for kids with dysgraphia. Typing can ease some of these challenges. It eliminates letter formation and spacing challenges, and computers can help with spelling with the use of spell check. When the physical challenges of writing are reduced, ideas often flow much more easily. ‎ If typing is not an option, though, learning to write in cursive, rather than print, can help your child with letter reversals, spelling, spacing, and the overall flow of writing.

Brainstorm!
Many kids—even those who don’t have dysgraphia—have trouble getting started with their writing. Brainstorming can be very helpful in easing this challenge. Encourage your child to start by creating a brainstorm web with her ideas. If she wants to write about why she loves math, for instance, before she begins writing, she should draw a bubble in the middle of the page and write “why I love math.” Then, branching out from the middle bubble, she can add details on why she loves math, like “It helps with problem solving,” “It’s fun!” and “It plays a role in everyday life.” Then branching out of those detail bubbles, she may even add supporting details on why each of those reasons make her love math so much. Once her brainstorm web is complete, it becomes a much easier process to translate that information into an organized written format. Computer programs like Inspiration and Kidspiration are great tools for creating electronic versions of these brainstorm webs.

‎As students progress through school, they will inevitably be required to write longer and more complex stories, paragraphs, and essays. Help your child with dysgraphia build his writing skills with these ideas, and he will be well on his way to academic success!

The post Does Your Child Have Dysgraphia? appeared first on EBL Coaching.

As your child moves through school, the writing demands will increase rapidly. She’ll move from learning to scribble circles and lines to writing letters, numbers, and words, and before you know it, she’ll be asked to write multi-page essays and research papers. Some kids can easily rise to these challenges but for other students, especially those with dysgraphia, these increasing demands can feel completely insurmountable. Help your child with dysgraphia build stronger writing skills with the ideas detailed below.

Use Tactile Tools
Students with dysgraphia benefit from a multisensory approach to learning to write, including touching and feeling letters when forming them. When working on basic letter writing skills with your child, teach him the language for forming each letter (i.e. “down, up, and around” for p or “around, down, and across” for f), then have him practice writing each letter using tactile tools. For instance, pour some sugar or flour on a cookie tray and have him draw the letter with his finger, always saying its formation aloud as he writes it. He can also trace letters in sand at the beach, in dirt at the park (yes, it can be messy!), or on a plate filled with shaving cream at home. Have him practice these letter formations multiple times using these various multisensory tools before having him write them using pencil and paper.

Use Gross Motor Muscles
‎When learning to write, students with dysgraphia benefit from using their gross motor muscles rather than focusing exclusively on fine motor muscles–helping new information stick in their long-term memories. While working on letters and numbers with your young child, have her stand up and trace each letter or number in the sky using large motions with her entire arm. For instance, she might stand up when learning to write the number 1 and, using her entire arm, trace in the sky, “I go write down to reach the ground” as she forms the number 1 (using fun poems for number formations helps too!). Have her try this gross motor work with each letter or number and she will soon write them using correct top-to-bottom formations.

Use Clay or Dough
Try using clay as another multisensory tool for helping your child build his writing skills. For instance, have him create the letter A by rolling out two long thin strands and one short strand, then putting them together to correctly form the letter. He can do the same exercise for numbers, then down the road create short decodable words with clay (at, in, mop), sight words (the, for, she), or even basic math problems, like 2+2=4. Wikki Sticks also work well for these exercises, along with pizza dough or any type of modeling clay.

Use Cursive
While many schools and districts are starting to do away with cursive, this style of writing offers many benefits to students with dysgraphia. First, when writing in cursive, students lift their pencils only between words (not between letters), requiring less fine motor activity. Also, many kids with dysgraphia have trouble spacing words on a page when using print. ‎With cursive, however, spacing between words tends to be less of an issue, as students naturally feel the movement of lifting their pencils between words. Cursive also tends to minimize reversals when writing, since cursive letters typically have unique formations unlike print; with print, for instance, b’s and d’s look very similar to one another and create challenges for students with dysgraphia.

Use Technology
While technology should not necessarily take the place of learning to hand write, it offers many benefits to students with dysgraphia. Some students who have great ideas may struggle so much with the physical act of writing that they tend to avoid it entirely and struggle to express even a few words or sentences on paper. In such cases, learning to type on a keyboard can ease the physical challenges of writing and allow your child to express her thoughts much more effectively. Likewise, multiple speech-to-text tools now exist to help your child with written language, like Dragon Speak and Sound Notes, where she dictates her ideas and the tech tool writes them for her.

The increasing writing demands of school can be challenging for most students. Children with dysgraphia in particular often show significant challenges with this skill. Help your child express his thoughts more effectively when writing with these ideas and he will be well on his way to success at school.

The post Help Your Child With Dysgraphia Build Stronger Writing Skills appeared first on EBL Coaching.