Is it worth pursuing a dysgraphia diagnosis?

Hmm, this is a tough one, and you don't say how old your child is. Our 12 yo son probably has dysgraphia but we didn't pursue a formal diagnosis because he already had multiple other more severe umbrella diagnosis, ADHD etc., and was getting accommodations through that 504 plan. I will say that we really found some teachers unwilling to accommodate his handwriting challenges, perhaps because there wasn't a stand-alone diagnosis and perhaps it is an ingrained belief that boys have messy handwriting because they don't try hard enough to make it neat. It has come up even during remote school, when the students had to take photos of the work in their notebooks and upload it... more than one teacher said his wasn't legible. Yeah... no kidding. However, it really isn't clear what professional diagnoses this condition - maybe an OT?? You can also just bide your time until upper middle school when it really should start transitioning to all keyboarding anyway. Finally, give some thought to if dysgraphia is actually a symptom of something else and it might be a better use of your time to investigate that.

OP here. Thanks for the quick response! My child is 10, in 5th grade. Hope that helps. 

The solution is the have your child keyboard. The diagnosis helps put that in writing in a 504. My child was able to keyboard all assignments and tests even if it was a paper assignment for other kids. This was a HUGE help. Though math can be tricky since keyboarding isn't really an option. As far as I am aware OT doesn't help at this age. However, someone did advise me to have my child write a few sentences a day that have to be legible. The keyboarding does make it so they practice handwriting less. There is a base level of handwriting required in life - filling out a form, addressing an envelope and those short bursts of writing can be practiced at home. Of course, at 12 there was no way they would do this. Now at 15 they can see the value and are more open to it. Good luck!

100% I suggest getting a diagnosis. If you child does have dysgraphia, she is going to spend so much neural energy on writing that she's going to be at a disadvantage being able to show her knowledge of school subjects. My son has it, and we tried typing, which did not work for him either. He has an IEP at school (also for dyslexia and ADHD) and since 7th grade, his main concessions have been around the dysgraphia - he uses speech to type, has a chrome book available to him at school, teachers are expected to share notes with him, class assignments that had kids writing and doing something else (like watching a film) at the same time were altered because they were leaving him out. There is no down side as far as I believe. If you want the school to provide accommodations,  you need that diagnosis. A neuropsychologist can diagnose. We used a private one but got the school district to pay for it. As part of the neuropsychological report, the doctor will include recommendations at home and school. We found the school was very receptive to those. We got the accommodations we had been asking for solo once we got that report! FYI, dysgraphia isn't a symptom of something else, it's an independent diagnosis. And it may mean your child will have as much trouble w/ keyboarding as with hand writing. Getting help sooner rather than later will help your child immensely.  I'm always flabbergasted when parents are trying to get diagnoses when their child is 16. They've lost so much time!

I think it depends on how severe it is and how much teachers are willing to support without. My very smart kid was still doing some reversals in 8th grade, had terrible handwriting and some form constancy issues, but never met the bar for dysgraphia (or dyslexia). From early on, I asked teachers to clarify whether an assignment was to measure writing or handwriting, and he did voice to text (which is quite good!), for the writing exercises. Even in elementary school folks accommodated that without an official 504, and teachers could see that his output was so significantly better that they adjusted. By middle school he was typing most assignments. Now in high school, he is being required again to do some writing exercises in ink, and i think it has been an adjustment, but I think the fluency of writing and organizing he was able to accomplish without handwriting for many years actually has helped him to do better by hand now. His handwriting, spelling and punctuation will never be great but honestly we have so many ways of supporting that, that it's never been my focus. I do think making sure there aren't any barriers to your child being able to compose fluidly will be helpful and build confidence and skills--but you may not need an official dx to do that.

Hi, I’d be happy to talk with you about this.   I have a lot of experience with my own kids Please contact me directly.   

Hi there, as a parent of a college age student, I think it would be good to have that diagnosis as you can get note taking accommodations when your kid gets to college. If your child doesn’t need that kind of help now, but is struggling I was taking nose, it is very likely that kind of accommodation will be helpful by the time they are in college. Usually it’s a smart pan or something like that, but if a student is having a really hard time taking notes they assign another student to share their notes with them. That is a really nice thing, and my student had a hard time getting that accommodation even though he has ADHD and several other learning issues. I would think dysgraphia would be a good reason for them to provide note taking assistance.

Hi! I'm an OT for a school district. Schools can't assess just for OT as it is a standalone service so you may come up against that wall if you make a request for an OT-only assessment. You can request for a study study team/SST or a 504 to address the concerns and the OT will likely be your person of contact for support. As for diagnosis, it needs to come from a neuropsychologist in order to get the diagnosis of disorder of written production. Hope this helps!

We ended up working with an OT outside of BUSD, because at that point the policy was that if the child wasn't below grade level (i.e. overall) the district didn't need to provide help. It was worth the money, though the long run solution was learning to type. You might want to get an overall learning difference evaluation, which technically the school district is supposed to provide within 60 days of your written request. We ended up going with an evaluation through the UCB psych department because of the gifted/learning disabled situation. A 504 plan can be very helpful as your child gets older -- ours needed extended time on tests to demonstrate their command of the material, and at times turned in typed work rather than handwritten work. The UCB eval is on a sliding scale.

Our kid was diagnosed with dysgraphia at age 13, and it helped us to understand why she couldn't take notes fast enough for her classes. Taking notes is key, and her accommodations now include getting copies of the slides the teachers use after class. Some students in college even have note-takers as part of their accommodations. They can't alway type their notes in class. So I think it's worth it.

My kiddo is too young to be evaluated herself, but, as someone who has a formal dysgraphia diagnosis, I strongly encourage you to have your child evaluated. I'm an attorney, and am still embarrassed by my poor handwriting. That said, finally receiving appropriate accommodations for dysgraphia made a huge difference in my educational attainment. (As in my college GPA was higher than my high school GPA.) Times has changed, but I was able to use a computer to type essay responses on tests in college that would have otherwise been required to be handwritten. There may be other classroom accommodations available to your child based on her needs, including notetaking (or access to the teacher's notes or slides), use of a chrome book or laptop in class for written work, etc. Also, in case cursive is still required by any teachers, it could get her off the hook for that (let's be honest, she only really needs to be able to sign her name, and printing is easier than cursive). If she isn't a skilled typist, she could have access to typing training or other assistive technology. Again, accommodations are based on individual needs, and are not one-size-fits-all.

Finally, don't worry about figuring out which professional does the evaluation-- that's the school district's responsibility once you write a demand to have your daughter evaluated. Also, you didn't share, but if you suspect any other learning disabilities--dysgraphia frequently accompanies other diagnoses, such as ADHD, dyslexia, etc.--ask that she be evaluated for those too.

Good luck!

yes, they will tell you to have him start typing. Worked for our son. 

My 4th grader has ADHD, dyslexia, and dysgraphia, and has had an IEP since 1st grade. There are 2 benefits (as I see it for my kid) of getting a formal evaluation from the school and getting an IEP. One is that my kid qualifies for help to improve his fine motor skills in general, and writing in particular. He has sessions with the school Occupational Therapist for that, and they’ve definitely helped. Two, an IEP can provide accommodations to help your kid in class and with homework. For example, that could be allowing your child to use a computer instead of handwriting some assignments, or allowing extra time to complete work when it’s handwritten. The specific services and accommodations will be tailored to your kid, of course, but having both support and accommodations has been HUGELY helpful for my kid. If this issue is really causing a problem for your kid, I would seriously consider asking for an evaluation. There’s still lots of handwriting in middle school (my eldest is in 7th grade and all of her teachers have the kids taking notes by hand) so I would think about this in terms of future support too. 

There’s lots of great past advice here on how to request an evaluation for learning disabilities, and what that process looks like. The evaluation itself was long but felt very thorough and I’ve overall been really happy with the services my kid had received.

Get the diagnosis for sure. My son has this and things have been going a lot better since we got accommodations for it. In the day of computers, why should our kids be held back for a skill that isn't really required? Switching to typing has made everything better.