Dr. Forgan’s articles about helping children with learning disabilities.

Dysgraphia in Children Explained

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Dysgraphia is a type of writing learning disability that is recognized by Florida public schools.  When a child has dysgraphia writing can be a mentally overwhelming, physically exhausting, and time consuming.  It might be dysgraphia if your child does not enjoy writing and has a negative attitude toward writing.

How Dysgraphia Presents

Children with dysgraphia are not all the same and present in various ways.  Some children with dysgraphia have messy looking handwriting, others have an awkward pencil grasp which fatigues their hand, other child have difficulty quickly copying from the board to their paper, and some are poor spellers.

Furthermore, many children with dysgraphia often have great thoughts and can speak more eloquently than they write.  For example, a recent client’s child had writing difficulty. The boy’s second-grade schoolteacher required weekly homework to write each spelling word in a sentence. Dysgraphia impeded his handwriting and ability to put thoughts onto paper so rather than elaborate sentences, he wrote very simple sentences.  For the word, ‘supper’ he wrote, “I eat supper.” This simple sentence pattern repeated for words such as ‘color’ and ‘inside’ with sentence such as “I like to color.” and “I go inside.” Although the boy correctly used the spelling word, the teacher did not like the simplicity of his sentences and noted this in large red ink on his paper. This was not the child being lazy but rather him coping with dysgraphia. After an evaluation and diagnosis from me, the parent got the school to give her son a 504 Plan to give teachers understanding and her son accommodations.

Causes of Dysgraphia

The causes of dysgraphia may include weak finger control, fine motor difficulty, seeing information one way but writing it a different way, rapid recall from memory difficulty, slow processing speed, working memory weakness or a combination of factors.

Treatment for Dysgraphia

Treatment for dysgraphia can include occupational therapy, working with an educational therapist, home based exercises to increase motor control, keyboarding, and learning writing strategies.

Call to discuss your child as we test students ages 5.5 through college for dyslexia, dysgraphia, ADHD, depression, anxiety, and other processing disorders.  Visit JimForgan.com or call 561.625.4125.

Dysgraphia Explained

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Could it be a writing learning disability? Does your child have awful looking penmanship? Does she have an awkward looking pencil grip? How about difficulty putting thoughts onto paper?  One young child told me he felt like he was having writing wars with his hand.  A mom expressed her frustration when she explained her child’s writing was so slow and laborious that the writing process was painful for them both. These are classic dysgraphia warning signs.

Dysgraphia is a writing learning disability that affects 6-10% of kids.  Testing for dysgraphia is an easy process that most kids enjoy. We assess your child’s finger control as some children can’t control their finger movements.  This creates fine motor difficulty. A dysgraphia evaluation also assesses your child’s ability to copy from close or farther away.  We compared your child’s talking ability with his or her writing ability as most children with dysgraphia are stronger verbal communicators but don’t express themselves well in written form.

If your child has dysgraphia he or she might be eligible for classroom accommodations on a 504 Plan.  This is the public school document that recognizes your child has dysgraphia and prevents teachers from discriminating against your child’s writing. Some children need to use technology whether voice to text or keyboarding.  Other children need extra time on writing tests.  Some children need a special writing utensil such as the Pen Again which is a wishbone looking pencil that helps children correct an awkward pencil grasp.

Children with weak finger strength and control might need to participate in occupational therapy. An occupational therapist works on fine motor activities such as cutting, drawing, buttoning, and improving finger control.  Children with severe dysgraphia often qualify to receive occupational therapy at school.  A thorough dysgraphia evaluation pinpoints your child’s difficulty and provides the paperwork for obtaining school help.

We offer in office ADHD/ADD testing, school neuropsychological evaluations for dysgraphia and dyslexia, and gifted testing. Call (561) 625 4125.

Dyscalculia: A Math Learning Disability

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Dyscalculia (pronounced dys-cal-kule-ya) is a type of math learning disability.  I explain this to some parents and they say it sounds like dyslexia, but for math. They are right as dyscalculia occurs in about half of the children with dyslexia.  Your child might have dyscalculia if he or she struggles with memorizing math facts, understanding math vocabulary, and strongly dislikes math. Dyscalculia becomes more noticeable as children get into upper elementary, middle, and high school.

What is Dyscalculia

Generally, people with dyscalculia have poor ‘number sense.’ This is an intuitive understanding of how numbers work. A lack of number sense causes people with dyscalculia to struggle with math concepts. If your child doesn’t understand the basics about how numbers work, learning math and using it every day can be very frustrating.

Dyscalculia warning signs include difficulty seeing how numbers work together, poor math fact recall, difficulty understanding concepts like “sum” or “less than,” telling left from right, reading an analog clock, trouble solving math word problems, and difficulty working with dollars and coins. Most children believe they are not good at math and might experience math anxiety.

Dyscalculia Testing

Consider having your child tested to determine the root cause of his or her math difficulty. There might be more occurring than you can fix simply by telling your child to try harder or to stop being lazy.  We offer in person dyscalculia testing in Jupiter and Stuart.

What To Do If It Is Dyscalculia

Kids with dyscalculia need specialized instruction and can receive school accommodations.  Your child might need to work with a specialized math tutor or attend a special learning center like the Lindamood Bell center in Palm Beach Gardens.  At school an IEP might be needed.  Some kids benefit from school accommodations on a 504 Plan. There is a lot that can be done once we know the root cause.

Get your child tested if you believe something is interfering with your child’s math, reading, or writing.  When you take a wait and see approach it becomes harder to fix the older your child becomes, and it can damage your child’s self-esteem.   Contact us if we can help you.

When Kids Have Problems

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Have you ever wished every day could end with a calm and peaceful sunset? I have but unfortunately many days are not calm and peaceful when you have a child that struggles or that contributes to family friction.  What causes his or her struggles?  I say, “When in doubt let’s rule it out.” That’s the premise behind testing your child when he or she is having a problem. School neuropsychological testing of your child helps determine what is occurring within him or her so you know how to best deal with it. Do you need to punish or give grace? Your child’s behavior might be frustrating you but there could be a hidden reason for the behavior.

Testing Your Child

I believe you shouldn’t punish your child for something he or she can’t control.  Maybe what your child does is not within his or her control and if that’s the case then you can approach it differently.  When you have your child tested it gives you insight to know what is going on with your child.

An Example

I recently met with a mom who had a 9-year-old boy who had difficulty controlling his behavior. His dad was in the picture, but not really involved. This boy had a history of hearing but not doing what he was told.  At his home, his mom told him he could go fishing but not to go out of her sight or else she would ground him. In his excitement of chasing fish he forgot what she said and went out of sight.  She called and called him but he didn’t respond so she was extremely worried. After searching for him and later finding him way down the shoreline she was relieved, but upset.  She thought, “Why couldn’t he just listen?”  Since this was a repeated pattern of behavior for her son she brought him for testing.  After testing she learned his memory problems were due to a real disorder and not just willful misbehaving. Through this process she learned some new skills that helped her know how to best help her son.

My associates and I can help you with your child. Call us (561) 625-4125.

Palm Beach Atlantic University Disability Testing

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The Palm Beach Atlantic University disability testing provides students with up to date documentation they can submit to request reasonable accommodations.  Palm Beach Atlantic calls their office Disability Services and it is located in the Student Success Center.  As a licensed school psychologist, I provide testing for college students and the testing takes approximately 4 to 4.5 hours.  Most college students prefer to complete the testing in one day while some prefer testing on two different days.

What Does Palm Beach Atlantic Disability Testing Include?

The Palm Beach Atlantic University disability testing includes any needed testing in the areas of intelligence (IQ testing), academic testing in reading, writing, and math, tests of information or neuropsychological processing, executive functioning, continuous performance tests, behavioral rating scales, and additional areas as needed.  Each person’s disability is unique so a customized battery of tests are used for each college student.

According to the PBA Disability Services website, their guidelines recommend the student submit the following.  “The following evaluative criteria must be met:

  • Testing that is comprehensive, including a measure of both aptitude and academic achievement in the areas of reading, mathematics, and written language.
  • Documentation for eligibility reflecting the current impact the learning disability has on the student’s functioning.
  • A clear statement that a learning disability is present along with the rational for this diagnosis
  • A narrative summary, including all scores (standard and percentile) supporting the diagnosis.
  • A statement of strengths and needs that will impact the student’s ability to meet the demands of the university environment
  • A statement of the functional impact or limitations of the disability on learning or other major life activities and the degree to which it impacts the individual in the learning context for which accommodations are being requested.
  • Further assessment by an appropriate professional may be required if co-existing learning disabilities or other disabling conditions are indicated.”

What Does Palm Beach Atlantic Do with Disability Testing?

Once a student submits their disability documentation paperwork, they must also complete an application for services.  These two documents are reviewed by a counselor and the counselor meets with the student.  They set up an action plan and the student receives an official approval letter which they can provide each professor.  Some accommodations granted by Palm Beach Atlantic’s Disability Services Office include:

Support Services (granted by Student Success Center based on documentation of disability):

  • Extended time on tests [up to time and one half (i.e 1hr class =1.5 hr test time)]
  • Separate location for testing
  • Faculty/Staff notification of student’s disability(with student’s written permission)
  • A copy of the lecture notes when possible
  • Tape Recording of class lecture

When choosing a psychologist to complete the student’s disability testing paperwork, it’s important to work with a professional familiar with Palm Beach Atlantic’s requirements.  Use the contact form above or call if you’d like to discuss college disability testing.