Ideas on supporting students with dysgraphia

General-education teachers play an important role in supporting students with dysgraphia -- a language-based learning difference -- writes Jessica Hamman, founder and CEO of Educator Learning Lab. In this blog post, she shares six tips for creating a dysgraphia-friendly classroom.  Edutopia online

6 Multisensory Techniques for Teaching Handwriting

Handwriting involves more than just making letters on a page — it requires strong fine motor and visual-motor skills. Here are some multisensory techniques to try if your child is struggling with writing. [In English and Spanish, with links to downloadable templates]   http://www.readingrockets.org/article/6-multisensory-techniques-teaching-handwriting  

Ask the Tech Expert: Dysgraphia and High School Science and Math

When a student has dysgraphia, writing mathematical formulas or drawing charts and graphs for science class can be daunting. Dr. Tracy Gray of the American Institutes for Research has some ideas for accommodations, from smartpens to specialized graphing software.  http://www.ldonline.org/experts/techexpert/current#5

How Speech-to-Text Transformed a Student's 5th Grade Year

It all started with one clever & perseverant ten-year-old boy & one harried, but well-meaning teacher (me). Pierce struggled with the same cruel disparity that haunts many dyslexic students: weak written expression concomitant with exceptional ideas, knowledge & intellectual abilities. I was always looking to find strategies to help him get his great ideas into the content of his writing. Although I had serious doubts about the iPads's speech-to-text feature for classroom work, I thought it was worth a try. After several days, I almost fell out of my chair when Pierce commented that he was making real progress and he thought he should use the iPad speech to text for all his writing. Say what? I asked him to show me what he had been writing. (From the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity)   http://dyslexia.yale.edu/EDU_SpeechToTextRedford.html

Worksheets Troublesome Due to Handwriting Difficulties? SnapType App to the Rescue!

By Peggy Shireley, 25 September, 2014  From North Dakota Assistive Technology Project  http://ndipat.org/blog/worksheets-a-mess-due-to-handwriting-difficulties-snaptype-app-to-the-rescue/

Not everyone has legible handwriting, & sadly I fall into that category! However, for individuals with dysgraphia or other disabilities impacting writing, it is not just messy handwriting. It is a processing disorder that makes writing difficult over a lifetime.
Here is a story of how a 5th grader with dysgraphia was being held hostage by a worksheet. He knew the material, but could not write his answers in the space provided quickly or neatly enough to be successful. This resulted in frustration, and more significantly to falling behind academically. While receiving occupational therapy (OT) services, the OT in-training noted his difficulty. She decided there must be a better way for him to express what he knew, and set out to find it. When nothing was found simple enough for elementary school students, she decided to create it!