Margin Shift in Writing

[VickyLH]

Hi everyone,

 

I noticed another parent posted about their daughter's margin shift in her writing and I wondered if anyone has observed this behavior. I thought it was odd that my ds11 would start writing in the middle of the page and then progressively shift his margin to the right as he progressed down the page. I asked him if this was OCD and he said it wasn't. He doesn't know why he does it, but continues to do it despite constant reminders to start each line at the margin. He would also tend to skip many lines and/or only have a few written words on one page. I just thought this similarity was interesting and wondered if anyone else has experienced this with their child.

 

-Vicky

[butterflymom]

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Edited February 3, 2016 by butterflymom

[LNN]

Handwriting is one of our clear measurements of health. When DS is not doing well, we see margin drift, b/d and 9/P letter reversals, he loses his ability to tell where the mid-line should be and we'll see things like store - with the "r" always towering above all other letters. some letters float in mid-air, some become barely recognizable. We also see erratic spacing between words. It's almost the kind of writing you'd do if you were blindfolded.

 

One of the most helpful things I've done for school meetings is to take writing samples and place them side by side. The 'ol picture worth a thousand words thing...

Edited February 11, 2011 by LLM

[Phasmid]

My son had this really bad- made writing EXTREMELY frustrating, not so much for him, but for his parents and teachers! We never recognized this as part of the disorder but IT IS! As soon as he became ill this presented itself and got worse as his illness progressed. It disappeared when he was treated with antibiotics, over the course of I would say about six months. Things we did to help this- we highlighted the left margin with bright color, or placed a sticker where he was supposed to return to. It helped some. For us, it was a case of mistaken disease- my son has very little vision in his left eye so of course we thought that it was related to that. I don't think it was, but... it would be good for you to rule out a vision problem!

[EAMom]

Hi VickieLH,

 

My dd might have been the one you read about orginally.

 

For us, margin drift started in 2nd grade after my dd's severe PANDAS episode (we think she had low grade undiagnosed PANDAS/ocd b-4 that). We have a writing sample saved from pre-PANDAS explosion in 2nd grade with no drift. After the big PANDAS explosion (for which she was hospitalized) she had a drift. During 3rd grade margin continued to be an issue, despite treatment strength Azith. We did have her work with an OT for a bit (didn't help much) and also had an extensive optomotry exam (at UC Berkeley) to make sure she didn't have a vision or tracking problem.

 

The margin drift resolved (not instantly, gradually over a couple of months) after IVIG just b-4 4th grade.

 

Recently, dd disclosed to dh that her margin drift was OCD (still hard for me to believe!) and it was a pattern based on a poem by e.e. cummings. (!!)

 

However, our dd continues to have other writing problems (still on abs, has had 2 HD IVIG's). Her handwriting still isn't great (better than it was though) and she continues to (now in 5th grade) have problems with d and b lowercase letter reversals. In fact she tends to write a capital B and D (even in the middle of a word) so she doesn't reverse.

Edited February 12, 2011 by EAMom

[thenmama]

xx

Edited March 26, 2013 by thenmama

[VickyLH]

Wow, I can't believe how much I learn from this forum every day! It still blows me away the extent of symptom similarities amongst our children. Luckily we home school too so I don't have to worry about this issue at school. Although I must say, I gave ds11 a pretty hard time about this before I understood PANDAS. He's been on antibiotics for about 5 weeks now and just this past week I've noticed his writing has improved and he doesn't seem to have as much margin drift or urge to re-write words. I asked him if this was OCD today and he said it was. So far antibiotics has helped him get back to about 80%. He's now reading again, he can function around the house (aside from getting dressed), he plays outside a little more, he's much quicker with his math and I notice more clarity in his thinking and reasoning skills. He still has some anxiety about returning to Boy Scouts and home school band. We're also seeing some hyperactivity which I suspect may be due to yeast. We're giving him probiotics, but probably not enough (only 1-2 billion per day). I'm in the process of educating myself on diet changes that will help.

 

My heart breaks for all of the children and families who have undiagnosed PANDAS and are struggling. I feel so fortunate to have found such a wonderful and supportive group!!

 

Vicky

[EAMom]

My dd also has punctuation problems. When she writes (esp. if it's a longer essay or report) she'll leave out periods and capital letters and it looks like one big run on sentence, which is incredibly confusing for us to read. THen dh will go back and help her add the caps and periods and it's wonderfully written (the content and prose). She does keyboard for reports. She has an alphasmart which she likes to use for her initial writing, and then she plugs it into the computer to edit/correct.

 

She can edit herself, but it's just A LOT of effort for her...so we tend to help her. The whole cap/period thing just doesn't come easily. Spelling is also a big problem too...but the computer spell check helps with that!

[T_Mom]

Early on Dr K's website noted writing deterioration with PANDAS...it was like a lightbulb went off when I read that--YES we have total writing deterioration during exacerbations. Handwriting as well as the ability to express themselves in writing. My second d has severe margin shifts -- starts "kind of" at the left margin of the paper and it ends up with WAY over to the right, almost a straight backwards slant downwards to the right. That is really weird but there is no mistaking it. It is entirely weird that so many of our kids have had this--WHAT does that say!?! I sure wish a neuropsych with an expertise in writing ability would take a look at this--I would wager a guess that the basal ganglia must be responsible--??

Edited February 13, 2011 by T.Mom

[EAMom]

I sure wish a neuropsych with an expertise in writing ability would take a look at this--I would wager a guess that the basal ganglia must be responsible--??

 

Yeah...and I actually do think there was more to it than even the ee cummings ocd/thing in my dd's case.

 

In 3rd grade (after the @#$%^ of 2nd grade) we had some psych./educational testing done on our dd due to some of her learning issues (math facts/spelling/handwriting/despite high IQ). One of the specialists had said (she's not a psychologist mind you, but is well-regarded 'education specialist' and does see/test lots of kids) that she's never seen a margin drift like that except in brain damage. (I assume she hasn't seen a lot of PANDAS patients). She was the one who recommended the eye evaluation (possible tracking problem.)

Edited February 13, 2011 by EAMom

[thenmama]

xx

Edited March 26, 2013 by thenmama