Writing Difficulty-Dysgraphia

“Does Spelling Matter?”

Let’s say your 12-year-old sixth grader spells the following words:

  •  (brief)  bref
  • (should) shood
  • (grown) gron
  • (success) susess
  •  (educate) edcccate
  •  (result) resolt
  • (kitchen) kicten  

Then  the child writes the following story to a prompt:

          “Once a o pon a time there was a kid that was a million air and he whated to buy a house   he look at so many house and finally found a house. but it needed a lot of work So the kid hierd lots of pepul to help him but after thay were all done the house went back  to it whent back to the way  it was.”

Or, perhaps you have an 8-year-old third grader who writes:

            “I hrd a son. It was funne. My dad was beyenfunne was he dats Wen he was in the cr  Wan we wr gown to the prck.”

(Translated as best I could  after the child tried to tell it to me –  “I heard a song.  It was funny.  My dad was being funny when he danced.  When he was in the car when we were going to the park.”)

When the parents raised the issue of their concerns about their child’s spelling and writing,  in each case the response was, “Well, spelling really doesn’t matter – they can use spell check. Teaching spelling is tedious and boring to children.  We much prefer that they were creative.”

For those of you following this blog for a while, I am sure that you will predict that I respectfully disagree.

A study conducted  where classroom teacher practices were observed, revealed that less than 5% of the language arts instructional block time is devoted to spelling or direct instruction in writing (compared with open-ended, as in “Write about your holiday.”)

For approximately 60% of the school population, this is not particularly relevant, as their skills develop along a natural trajectory.  Spelling and writing develop through a type of osmosis

For the rest, simply saying,  “They can use spell check” is not a substitute for the challenging work needed.  Indeed, it’s arduous, often not fun, but leaving children in the state they are in, as in the samples above, is hard to justify.

In later blog posts we will offer home-based tips to work on these skills.


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Copyright, Richard Selznick, Ph.D.  2023, www.shutdownlearner.com.

“Just Use Spell Check”

Let’s say your 12-year-old sixth grader, spells the following words:

  • bref  (brief)
  • susess  (success)
  • edcccate  (educate)
  • resolt  (result)
  • kicten  (kitchen

Then he writes the following story to a picture prompt:

          “Once a o pon a time there was a kid that was a million air and he whated to buy a house   he look at so many house and finally found a house. but it needed a lot of work So                 the kid hierd lots of people to help him but after thay were all done the house went back  to it whent back to the way  it was.”

Or, perhaps you have an 8-year- old third grader who writes:

            “I hrd a son.  It was funne. My dad was beyenfunne was he dats Wen he was in the cr  Wan we wr gown to the prck.”

(Translated as best I can after the child tried to tell it to me –  “I heard a song.  It was funny.  My dad was being funny when he danced.  When he was in the car when we were going to the park.”)

In each case, when the parents raised the issue of their concerns about their child’s spelling and writing,  the response was, “Well, spelling really doesn’t matter – they can use spell check.”

For those of you following this blog for a while, I am sure that you will predict that I respectfully disagree.

In the early grades, about 70% of the kids progress smoothly in reading, spelling and writing without any special intervention.

The more they do of these activities, the better they get, creating a positive growing snowball effect, as it picks up momentum rolling along.

Effectively, the rich get richer.

For the 20-30% on the other side, it’s not simply a matter of doing more of the activities that will lead to improvement.

For this group they are not attuned to the sounds within words or the concepts of writing a sentence and these skills do not come naturally.

They are at a decided disadvantage and need to have these sounds taught much more explicitly with much greater practice following the direct instruction.

It’s a long, slow process.

A study conducted of practices in the classroom where teacher practices were observed, revealed that less than 5% of the language arts instructional block time is devoted to spelling or direct instruction in writing.

For the 70% mentioned above that’s fine, for the rest, simply saying “They can use spell check” is not a substitute for the challenging work needed.


Copyright, 2021 www.shutdownlearner.com
Questions or topics email Dr. Selznick.  Not in the South Jersey area? For a free 15 Minute Consultation, contact Dr. Selznick: email – rselznick615@gmail.com.

Playing Music & Learning to Write

Let’s say a child knows a few notes on the piano, but does not yet know any songs. Would it make sense to ask him to play a challenging song that was clearly beyond his/her ability level?

I don’t think so.  It would only create undue frustration.

Well, young Ethan, age 11, isn’t taking piano lessons, but his writing class approaches the teaching of writing very similarly to the above scenario.

Asked to write how he feels through open-ended writing prompts, even though Ethan does not  know how to write a sentence, he is frustrated daily.

To illustrate Ethan’s level of writing, here’s a recent  sample Ethan completed to a picture prompt:

On a Satday morning a dog broke from a leash it was Jays leash then the dog ran ascrost the street tom turned in his car he hit the frie hydren water went evry were Tom got up and complained to Jay about keep your dog on the leash then the teacher go t up from the car the police offerrer gave them a ticket.

Then there is the sample from 9 year old Kate when asked to write a paragraph about her favorite thing in school (by the way, “spas” is “space”):

My favrit thing to do is lern about spas. spas is one thing I love I like spas bechas I can larn about the Sun and all of the Plantes and when the end the world is end. And I am not ciding about the end of the end of the world bechas siantists have Prof of it. Bechas of the suns Pul gravity the erth will be Puld into the sun ubilleen yers. They are sum reshens I lick to larn about Spase.

To address their writing difficulty,  both of these kids  have been  given Occupational Therapy (OT).

With no disrespect to OT, doing fine-motor exercises is not where the action is for these kids.

What they do need are good, structured  focused, structured methodologies that teaches how to write a basic sentence. Once the skill of writing a sentence is internalized and mastered, they can begin to  work at the paragraph level, all of which  take a lot of time, patience and practice.

You can’t play songs until you know some basic notes and chords.

(This link offers good resources for writing programs for struggling children:  http://dyslexiahelp.umich.edu/professionals/dyslexia-school/writing/writing-resources)

 


Copyright, 2021 www.shutdownlearner.com
Questions or topics email Dr. Selznick.  Not in the South Jersey area? For a free 15 Minute Consultation, contact Dr. Selznick: email – rselznick615@gmail.com.

 

“Just Use Spell Check…”

For a whole host of reasons that won’t be raised at the moment, writing is difficult to adequately assess, even though there are standardized measures that practitioners and education specialists use in the assessment of writing.

I would be willing to go out on a pretty significant limb to say that a vast majority of school struggling children maintain some level of  mild, moderate to severe problems with writing and spelling.

However, when parents raise the issue of writing/spelling with the school they are frequently told variations on the following:

 

  • “Spelling doesn’t matter – they can just use spell check.”

 

  • “Maybe the child has ‘dysgraphia’ and you should go to a neurologist or an O.T. (occupational therapist).”

 

  • “They can get ‘A.T.’ (assistive technology) and dictate into speech-to-text programs.”

 

  • “All that matters is that they express their feelings – that they write what they feel.”

Even though the motor-component of most children’s writing is typically an issue, I don’t think the results would be very different if the writing is  composed on a computer or through dictating software.

From where I sit and the kids I evaluate, the issue with their writing struggling has more to do with the child’s understanding of the concepts of writing and is less a matter of whether the child uses a pen/pencil or some type of assistive technology.

For example, today I gave 8 year old Logan a picture from a standardized test in which he was asked to write a paragraph to a story of the picture.  (Keep in mind, the picture has a lot going on.)

Logan was told the paragraph should have a beginning, middle and an end

Here’s what he wrote in about 20 seconds:

                        “I am gooing to hlep mom oops I dopd the eggs.”

If your child is struggling with writing, I wish I could offer an easy answer to “fix” the problem.

The reality is Logans of the world need a great deal of direct guided instruction starting at the basic, simple sentence level. Once the concept of a simple sentence is mastered and internalized, then somewhat more complex sentences can be taught and practiced.

This instruction would also focus on the concepts involved with punctuation.  There would be talk about why do we use commas, periods and capital letters?  What is their point?

Such an approach is the direct opposite of  the “just write what you feel” approaches.

It’s difficult work and there are no short-cuts.  Direct instruction practiced over time is the only ticket I know.


Copyright, 2021 www.shutdownlearner.com
Questions or topics email Dr. Selznick.  Not in the South Jersey area? For a free 15 Minute Consultation, contact Dr. Selznick: email – rselznick615@gmail.com.

“Spelling Doesn’t Matter Anyway”

Let’s say your 6th grade 12-year-old child, of average to above average  intelligence spelled the following words:

  • bref (brief)
  • susess (success)
  • edcccate (educate)
  • resolt (result)
  • kicten (kitchen

Then he wrote the following story to a picture prompt

“Once a o pon a time there was a kid that was a million air and he whated to buy a house.    He look at so many house and finally found a house. but it needed a lot of work So the kid hierd lots of people to help him but after thay were all done the house went back  to it whent back to the way  it was.

Or let’s say you have a 7 year old in the second grade who writes:

“I hrd a son.  It was funne. My dad was beyen funne was he dats Wen he was in the cr  Wan we wr gown to the prck.”

(Translated as best I can- “I heard a song.  It was funny.  My dad was being funny when he danced.  When he was in the car when we were going to the park.”)

In each case, when the parents raised the issue of their concerns about their child’s spelling  the response  from the school was the following:

“Spelling doesn’t matter.  He can always use spell check.”

For those of you following this blog for a while, I am sure that you will predict that I respectfully disagree.

In the early grades about 70% of the kids who are given typical exposure to words through a variety of reading and spelling activities  progress smoothly These kids read, spell and write pretty well and then they do more of it.    Effectively, the rich getting richer.

The rest of the population are not in the same position.  They are not in tune to the sounds within words and spelling does not come to them naturally.  They are at a decided disadvantage.  They need to have these sounds taught much more explicitly with much greater practice following.

It’s a long, slow process.

Why bother when there’s spell check, as the school told these parents?

I will answer by way of an example.

Josh, is a 19 year old college student with an IQ in the superior range (i.e., above 130).  He’s extremely savvy with technology and all things modern.  There’s one problem. As high as his IQ is, that’s how low his skill and confidence are regarding spelling and writing.

How did Josh fare as a first year college student?  Even though he had a 504 Plan in place that gave him some basic accommodations, he spent 90% of his time in college doing one thing – avoiding.

When Josh came home and met with me to discuss what was going on, he shared some of his writing.  It was painfully obvious at first glance that Josh had severe writing (and spelling) deficits that made him acutely embarrassed.  There was barely a complete sentence and most of the words beyond the most basic were severely misspelled.

Over the years Josh really never received the ongoing, explicit instruction needed.

Spelling is tough  there are words that don’t easily “play by the rules” (think of a word like “because”) and there are others that require a certain level of sound/symbol awareness that just don’t come easily to the Josh types.

A study conducted of practices in the classroom where teacher practices  were observed, revealed that less than 4% of the language arts instructional block time is devoted to spelling or spelling related activities.

For the 70% mentioned above, that’s fine.  They get these skills  intuitively and by third grade they are spelling just fine, thank you.

For the Josh types, this is a formula for disaster.

Takeaway Point

Spell check is a helpful tool.  It is not a substitute for the challenging work needed for the Josh’s among us.


Copyright, 2019 www.shutdownlearner.com
Questions or topics email Dr. Selznick.  Not in the South Jersey area? For a free 15 Minute Consultation, contact Dr. Selznick: email – rselznick615@gmail.com

To purchase a signed copy of  “What To Do About Dyslexia: 25 Essential Concepts” & Dr. Selznick’s other books and to receive blog updates go to https://shutdownlearner.com.

“Not in MLA Style”…Really???

I find myself shaking my head a lot in utter disbelief when I talk to parents about what’s happening with their children in school..

I also find myself being more and more outrageous in ways that I would probably not have been in my younger years. This week to a mom who describing what was taking place in school for her very special needs child, I said to the mom, “Is it ok if I use inappropriate language?”

“Go right ahead,” she smiled and responded.

“WTF,” I exclaimed in plainer language.  “Are you kidding me?”  (Thankfully, she laughed.)

This was in reaction to a writing sample the mom showed me of her severely learning disabled son who barely could write a complete ,  sentence no less an essay (which was being asked of him).  What triggered my reaction was on the top of his submitted writing for English class (he was 15) was the teacher’s critique with the comment that his writing was, “not in MLA style.”

In case you’ve forgotten English 101 from college, as noted in Wikipedia:

“MLA (Modern Language Association of America) documentation is used in scholarship throughout the humanities, especially in English studies, modern languages and literatures, comparative literature, literary criticism, media studies and related disciplines

“MLA Style???????”

Seriously???

I continually return to sports or related skill analogies in the work that I do with kids and my explanation to parents.

“We need to be in a zone of reality,” I start with the mom.  “If a person is asked to lift 50 pound weights because that is the norm for 10th grade, that’s all well and good, but if the person is barely capable of lifting 10 pounds, what then?  Do we tap our foot and moralize that “you need to be lifting 50 lbs.’ because that is what most your age can do.”

It’s patently absurd, yet I see this in different versions on a regular basis.

Whether the child is officially labeled “dyslexic” or “learning disabled” there needs to be a reasonable match between the child’s capabilities and what is being asked of him/her.

As a parent I would suggest that you try and be as vigilant as you can with regard to the work being given to your child.  If it seems like the trend is work that is in the child’s frustration zone (i.e., beyond the child’s capabilities), then you need to send it back with a note attached that what is being asked is fundamentally unfair.

I don’t think you can react to every assignment and you want to be careful not to overreact, but if you have double-checked yourself and made sure you are being fair in your request, then you are your child’s best advocate to sensitize the teacher as to the issue of what your child can or cannot do.


Copyright, 2019 www.shutdownlearner.com
Questions or topics email Dr. Selznick.  Not in the South Jersey area? For a free 15 Minute Consultation, contact Dr. Selznick: email – rselznick615@gmail.com

To purchase a signed copy of  “What To Do About Dyslexia: 25 Essential Concepts” & Dr. Selznick’s other books and to receive blog updates go to https://shutdownlearner.com.

Facing the Writing Challenges

Open-ended writing can be dreadfully difficult for school-struggling children.  On so many levels, they find the task to be overwhelming.

For those who are struggling, the more common classroom writing tasks that encourage the child to write as he/she feels is problematic.  The typical “write about your weekend,” is a classic open-ended prompt that struggling children have no idea how to proceed.

To address writing problems, schools typically recommend occupational therapy (OT).  While OT serves certain purposes, for the vast majority of children with writing issues the remediation given by OT typically centers upon the motor-aspects of writing and does not address the more challenging aspects of the writing process.

In short, they find the whole process overwhelming.

While this is a drum that we have been beating for number of years, there are no signs of any changes taking place on any meaningful level and the ongoing demand to just keep writing persists.

With the structured approaches the children are taught at very basic sentence levels. The remediation needed is long and laborious.

They practice the writing of a simple sentence until they have mastered the basic concept.  For example, the children are taught that every sentence has a triangle which represents the subject of the sentence, as well as a square, which is the action or the verb.

Simple sentences are generated.

The children  play   

Once simple sentences are mastered,  more complex sentences can be practiced and generated.

(The happy children played in the school playground after doing their schoolwork.”)

As different sentence styles are mastered and internalized by the child, he/she can work on the concept of one paragraph containing a topic sentence and four or five supporting sentences.

This processes is highly sequential and based in skill-mastery in order to develop fundamental writing skills.

The approach is clearly in opposition to the more popular, open-ended approaches that are the norm in schools across the country.  These sequential approaches that are so crucial are often criticized as depriving the child of creativity.  They certainly do not tend to tap into the child’s imaginative processes.

However, when the child is unable to understand the components of writing a basic sentence, this lack of understanding clearly impacts any potential creativity and their ability to communicate effectively in writing.

Having assessed thousands of kids in my career, I am continually struck by the challenges children face when it comes to their writing.  At a very basic level, they have little to no idea what goes into the writing of a sentence, no less a paragraph or a more involved and complex essay.  For children who are on the dyslexic/LD spectrum, their writing problems are profound.

For children who are on the smooth road and who seem to have little problem with the writing process, business as usual in school is fine for them.

For the children of concern, the ones on the rougher road, we need to find alternatives to help them become fundamentally literate.

Just telling them to do more of it is unacceptable.  It’s like handing a kid a tennis racket and telling them just play the game without showing them how to grip the racket or how to hit a forehand.

The fundamentals need to be taught directly and practiced over time to be internalized.


Copyright, 2018 www.shutdownlearner.com
Questions or topics email Dr. Selznick.  Not in the South Jersey area? For a free 15 Minute Consultation, contact Dr. Selznick: email – rselznick615@gmail.com

To purchase a signed copy of  “What To Do About Dyslexia: 25 Essential Concepts” & Dr. Selznick’s other books and to receive blog updates go to https://shutdownlearner.com.

Writing Deficits on the Rough Road

Open-Ended writing is usually not difficult for children on the “smooth road,”  the ones without the myriad of variables leading to school struggling.

For the “Smooth-Roaders” their sentences are complete and varied in style.    There is flow to their written stories generated and logic in their paragraphs.

With open-ended writing, children are given some type of prompt, such as, “write about your favorite trip,” or “write about your weekend.”

It is open-ended, because it can go in any direction.  The idea is that the children will tap into their creative selves and be able to express themselves on paper.

However, for those children on the rougher road, the ones with a variety of learning problems, open-ended writing is brutal on many levels.

Here’s an excerpt from a writing sample of an 8 year old writing about his favorite vacation:

“Uurvl is a ghat pls for a sekal reris.  At first jassit park miat besley but the seord time you go it is cool…..Evening no it’s the slisy rias in the park it goes with Dr. serrl!  Thes saren is call serrl laanring.  Lastly, I’ll talk about the qrslins.  Tars go lef and rert and lef and rert and, you get the ideas. There are sehal rrenis why I love going to uurvl.”

Or there was the 9 year old who wrote a story to a picture that he had drawn:

“Once aqha time ther was a boy namd levi he lived in a hog house and it was so mosh fon. and he livel in lll borenrom lahe.  And he had loss of frahs and naders.  The End.”

In screenings of their cognitive and intellectual capabilities, both of these kids demonstrated at least average cognitive potential.

Neither child was classified or receiving any type of service or official accommodation under a 504 Plan.

When the parents questioned what they should do they were told by the school to “read to your child.”  There was also the veiled suggestion of putting the child on medication, “even though we are not doctors.”

For these children, reading to them or medicating them will not accomplish much relative to their fundamental inability to write.

Continuing with any open-ended writing will be particularly problematic,  as they have no concept of what a sentence is and their spelling is severely impacting their thought process.For them, the concept of what represents a basic sentence is not something they have been taught or internalized and they are in need of intense, focused remedial instruction,

I usually dwell in metaphors or basic images that help to put things to parents in down-to-earth terms.

The metaphor of taking them back to the shallow end of the pool is fully applicable.  They need to spend a lot of time in the shallow end of the pool (writing simple and basic sentences) and then incrementally moving out beyond, one baby step at a time.

Instead of encouraging creativity and “write what you feel,” they need to practice at the most simplistic levels building on a logical sequence of one skill leading to another.

_______

To purchase a signed copy of  “What To Do About Dyslexia: 25 Essential Concepts” & to receive blog updates go, to https://shutdownlearner.com.

Copyright, 2018 www.shutdownlearner.com
Questions or topics email Dr. Selznick.  Not in the South Jersey area? For a free 15 Minute Consultation, contact Dr. Selznick: email – rselznick615@gmail.com

“Dyscalculia”… Don’t Let it Fool ‘Ya’

Dyscalculia: Severe difficulty in making arithmetical calculations, as a result of brain disorder.

Recently, I had a number of kids who were struggling in basic mathematic functions. Parents will often inquire whether their child has “dyscalculia.” Even though I’ve tested a couple thousand kids at this point in my career I really have no idea whether I’ve evaluated a child who has dyscalculia.

Take, young Jackson, age 8, a third grader. Described by his parents as possessing many wonderful (mostly nonverbal abilities), he struggles with the most basic of mathematic functions.

“Jackson can look at any car on the road and tell you the model…his recall for that is incredible,” said his dad. “He’s also an amazing builder and loves coming with me on jobs (dad owns a heating and air conditioning company).”

“At the same time,” the dad continued, “he is unable to understand the concept of the most basic fractions. I’ve tried with real pizzas and cookies, you name it. He just can’t understand what a fraction is and that a half, that a half represents two parts of a whole thing. Everyone one of his tests and worksheets comes back with bad grade after bad grade and no attempt at offering any help.”

I see tons of kids who don’t get concepts that most of us take for granted. It doesn’t surprise me in the least. They get regular doses of red “X’s”

So much in daily life involves concepts of mathematics that we take for granted that kids like Jackson will understand. For them it’s totally abstract

Who thinks about the concept that a day is 1/365 of a whole year or 1/7 of a week.

What about time or money? How many of our kids of concern understand the concept of a minute, hour or quarter as fractions.

There are endless examples.

We forget that so much of mathematics is language and that if we don’t understand the concept, the calculations are going to be virtually impossible. There are some great resources online to help with maths understanding. For example, a friend of mine was recently learning how to do scalar projection on a website similar to https://programmathically.com. For those that struggle with maths, there are some great websites available to help.

Samples of Jackson’s papers that parents brought to me were marked all over the place with red “X’s” or “pay attention more” comments. I looked over the problems that he got wrong:

Melody draws a quadrilateral with two pairs of opposite sides that appear to be parallel. Which could be the quadrilateral Melody draws.”

“Quadrilateral???” “Opposite???” “Parallel??? How ridiculous.

Honestly, do you think that a child who can’t understand the concept that a week has seven days is going to begin to understand a word problem involving quadrilaterals?

So, does Jackson have “dyscalculia?” Not from where I sit.

Jackson has a concept deficit. Talking about “quadrilaterals” when he doesn’t even understand what a half represents, is a complete instructional mismatch.

Takeaway Point

The Jacksons of the world need a lot more patient practice, in portions of the “mathematic pool” where they are remotely comfortable. Next week we will build on this theme.

——————————————————————-

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On Writing, Chromebooks & Nubby Pencils

In my office I sometimes feel like I am in an outpost of the galaxy.  Messages come in periodically informing us of things going on in the schools, such as, “All the kids are now getting Chromebooks for writing.”

Out in my corner of the universe, I just scratch my head and wonder how something like Chromebooks is really going to help kids who struggle to learn how to write.

I see the use of Chromebooks as fun and they probably help kids become more technologically literate (not that they really need it, as most of them seem pretty literate as far as technology goes), but how does it help kids become competent writers?

For the 60% of those that I referred to on the positive side of the bell-shaped curve, Chromebook or even a  nubby pencil and paper can probably work fine for them in terms of being able to generate a solid paragraph or a three paragraph essay.

A second grade child who had no learning problems recently wrote this as part of a classroom exercise:

“Shells work great with mulch.  Mulch is wood, sand and mussel shells that go over the dirt to keep the soil wet and keeps weeds from growing.  That is what happened at the end of the story after Grace asks about the shells.”

The words were nicely spaced and there were clear punctuation marks. (The writing was completed with a nubby pencil, I might add.)

Contrast this with Charles who was also a second grader, writing about something funny that happened in school. When I asked 8 and a half year old Charles to write a story that had a beginning, middle and end  about something funny that happened  in school he told me, the following:

“When my totoere read what I root it made me lauhg so hard I could not stop”

For the kids with learning problems, those in the 30-40% group, neither Chromebook nor paper and pencil are effective medium for them since writing is hard no matter what.   Whether it’s old technology (a pencil with an eraser was at one time a cutting edge technology) or modern technology like a Chromebook, without direct instruction the child will be at a loss as to how to organize his/her thoughts into a solid paragraph.

Direct instruction means that the child will be directly taught discrete skills that will be practiced to mastery.  For the first child who wrote about mussel shells and mulch, it looks like she has a pretty good grasp of sentence and paragraph structure.  This child can already engage with open-ended writing.

Not so, young Charles.  For him, focusing on simple sentences for a while would be a good way for him to go.  Let him master writing basic sentences and after he’s done that he can write more complex sentences, ultimately leading up to the writing if a paragraph.

Takeaway Point

Sentences can be practiced on Chromebook or with an old school technology like paper and pencil.  It really doesn’t matter. What matters is recognizing that kids who struggle with writing, need patient, direct instruction to be practiced over time to mastery.


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