Diagnosing a writing disability starts with parent or teacher awareness of a problem. Parents need to be sure that the difficulties their child is having with writing are not typical for the average child at the same grade level. The teacher will be able to tell the parent if the child is struggling to keep up in class or showing signs of difficulties that the other students are not having.
Testing for a Writing Disability
If it is determined that the child is indeed struggling and needs to be tested for a writing disability, the parent can go to the child’s doctor and the teacher can refer the child for testing as well. There will be several professionals involved in the diagnosis of a writing disability including an occupational therapist, school psychologist, and special educator.
Tests for a writing disability will look for pre-writing skills including fine motor skills, the ability to coordinate the hand and eyes together), smooth pencil strokes. Additionally testers will look to see if the child can discriminate between shapes, letters and numbers. Finally they will see if the child understands page orientation and if the child has the ability to recognize letters.
Learn how to Identify a Writing Disability
Creating an IEP for a Writing Disability
Once a writing disability has been identified, an Individual Education Plan, or IEP will be written detailing the specific goals and instructional modifications necessary for the student to successfully learn. The parent needs to be an active participant in the writing of the IEP. It is important that everyone involved in the education of the child work together as a team to provide the best education possible.
An occupational therapist will often work with a child diagnosed with a writing disability, teaching proper letter formation with directional sequence first, then blending those letters into words. Often, multi-sensory programs such as the Orton-Gillingham Method are useful.
From the moment a disability is suspected, the parent and teachers need to work together and be careful to not allow the child to use a disability as a crutch for not working to the best of his or her ability. Assignments may need to be modified somewhat, and students may benefit from the use of tools such as a computer or AlphaSmart, but these students still need to work towards the goals on an IEP and continue to learn and improve.
