Writing difficulties

[bgbarnes]

Does anyone else's kid have writing difficulties- I am beginning to wonder if he has a writing disability or something- he always gets REALLY resistant about writing- reading and math he is great but writing he would rather do anything that write. His handwriting is awful and his spelling is really bad too.

Any thoughts or stories about how they handle their child with this issue would be greatly appreciated.

Brandy

[MomWithOCDSon]

Does anyone else's kid have writing difficulties- I am beginning to wonder if he has a writing disability or something- he always gets REALLY resistant about writing- reading and math he is great but writing he would rather do anything that write. His handwriting is awful and his spelling is really bad too.

Any thoughts or stories about how they handle their child with this issue would be greatly appreciated.

Brandy

Absolutely, our DS has significant writing issues, especially during an exacerbation. He resists it, it is illegible, he breaks pencil points repeatedly, he snaps pencils in half, etc. From what I've seen on threads here over the months, this is not uncommon in PANDAS kids. I think Dr. K even has something on his web site about it.

 

We've done a couple of things. Frankly, during exacerbation, I'm not sure any attempt to get him actually writing is going to be very successful; it's just too hard for him. But you can ask him to type/word process instead, or you can even ask him to dictate answers to you, and you write them down on his behalf. We even have some software and a microphone set up on the computer so that he can speak what he wants to write, and the computer more or less does it for him.

 

Interestingly enough, once things get more under control with him mentally, he writes without a problem, and it's even pretty legible!

[JAG10]

My dd10 is one of those asymptomatic strep kids and we weren't pointed to pandas until 6 months ago. So, it's a little difficult to remember back over all these years and chronical the good times and the bad, which over time have manifested into bad times and TERRIBLE.

 

I have two clues;

#1 from kindergarten where every month the children were asked to draw a self portrait on a card. At Back to School Night, the teacher explained how we would see the children's pictures improve with each passing month, adding more and more details and we would receive it as a Mother's Day gift in May. Well, hers did not follow the typical pattern and it reminds me so much of those before/after IVIG drawings on Dr. K's site. Hers looked almost exactly the same only over the course of 9 months, I can look back and tell...ah sept and oct- great, lots of detail, nov, dec, jan-barely stick figures, feb, mar-wow! really good again, april, may, back to messy, asymmetrical figures with no hands or feet or nose.

 

#2- Her homework copybooks from 1st, 2nd, 3rd grade. Homework is written same time everyday in the copybooks. I can flip through the pages day after day and chronical how she was doing behaviorally & cognitively based on the dramatic changes in handwriting. And not only would her handwriting go from pretty good to 'what the heck is that!', but it would also be littered with reversals and sometimes whole words written backwards! In 3rd gr, she would even reverse print letters in cursive!

 

The fine motor- using utensils, handwriting, drawing, has been one of the most objective measuring sticks. When fine motor is clear, concise and put together, so is she.

[Ginger]

My dd10 is one of those asymptomatic strep kids and we weren't pointed to pandas until 6 months ago. So, it's a little difficult to remember back over all these years and chronical the good times and the bad, which over time have manifested into bad times and TERRIBLE.

 

I have two clues;

#1 from kindergarten where every month the children were asked to draw a self portrait on a card. At Back to School Night, the teacher explained how we would see the children's pictures improve with each passing month, adding more and more details and we would receive it as a Mother's Day gift in May. Well, hers did not follow the typical pattern and it reminds me so much of those before/after IVIG drawings on Dr. K's site. Hers looked almost exactly the same only over the course of 9 months, I can look back and tell...ah sept and oct- great, lots of detail, nov, dec, jan-barely stick figures, feb, mar-wow! really good again, april, may, back to messy, asymmetrical figures with no hands or feet or nose.

 

#2- Her homework copybooks from 1st, 2nd, 3rd grade. Homework is written same time everyday in the copybooks. I can flip through the pages day after day and chronical how she was doing behaviorally & cognitively based on the dramatic changes in handwriting. And not only would her handwriting go from pretty good to 'what the heck is that!', but it would also be littered with reversals and sometimes whole words written backwards! In 3rd gr, she would even reverse print letters in cursive!

 

The fine motor- using utensils, handwriting, drawing, has been one of the most objective measuring sticks. When fine motor is clear, concise and put together, so is she.

 

 

 

 

Wow. That is great that you have so much proof of this. I can always tell when my son has strep, by the fact that he starts to spell his name backwards...he is only 3 so that is really the only thing he writes, but his coloring and pictures are awful as well.

[kimballot]

Handwriting goes from bad to worse and he becomes oppositional when he has to write anything. Teachers get baffled because "I know he could do a better job if he tried - I've seen him do it at the beginning of the year". We have accommodations that allow for written or typed notes sent home before every test, teachers check his assignment book to make sure we can read it when he gets home, and he or I type his work.

[simplygina]

Does anyone else's kid have writing difficulties- I am beginning to wonder if he has a writing disability or something- he always gets REALLY resistant about writing- reading and math he is great but writing he would rather do anything that write. His handwriting is awful and his spelling is really bad too.

Any thoughts or stories about how they handle their child with this issue would be greatly appreciated.

Brandy

 

My son's handwriting is never great, but during bad times it is AWFUL. One time in 2nd grade I was passing the copy room and heard his 1st grade teacher ask his 2nd grade teacher if his handwriting was still awful. She laughed and said she'd never seen worse. It wasn't said in a mean way so I didn't take offense. It really was HORRIBLE his entire second grade year. It's something I usually mention at the first teacher meeting before school starts.

 

At the beginning of this year (4th grade) they took placement tests to determine their class for language arts. DS has always been at the top and placed in the highest class. This year the testing coincided with his brother having a strep infection as well as a whole bunch of other kids (DS may have also had strep but I didn't know much about PANDAS then and didn't think to have him tested as well. Both kids are always asymptomatic and DS has had his tonsils removed so I assumed he didn't have it.) He was placed in the middle class because his writing sample looked like a pre-schoolers. Even I was shocked. The rest of his scores were still high but it was so bad I had him evaluated for a learning disability. Of course it took two months for the specialist to finally get to evaluating him and by then his handwriting was OK. She seemed to think I was nuts until she saw the testing papers. I tried to have him moved up to the higher class but it was already over-crowded. Now I'm glad because he has the higher L.A. teacher for math and they really don't get along very well. He loves the teacher he has and she has been really good for him in a lot of ways. Now that he is on abx he is actually getting an A in handwriting, which totally blows me away. His cursive is MUCH better than his print so that may be part of it.

 

I can also tell when things are bad because bedsides the horrible handwriting, he also breaks multiple pencil leads and is totally resistant to writing. His math abilities also drop quickly. During the horrible testing week he tested into the remedial math as well even though he has always tested into to the highest class there too. Now he's doing really well and his teacher is amazed even though I told her from the beginning he didn't belong in low math. The abx have made a really big difference in his schoolwork and his willingness to do homework.

[T_Mom]

When our daughter was at her worst she could no longer express herself in written language--Her handwriting showed significant deterioration and her ability to write was literally 2 to 3 grade levels lower then what it had been.

 

Reading Dr K's website, and his reference to writing problems that Pandas children encounter was an important clue for us, as we tried to figure out what was wrong...

 

A year ago last February, the school (who did not know what to do with us) told me that her teacher had decided to no longer grade her any of her writing--as it would be failing, if it was given a grade! That quarter marking period she received an NA for a grade for english! Blessing in diguise--

 

Happy to say, after a year of full antibiotics and 2 steroid bursts she is again writing like she should be --

Principal of the school, in fact, told me last week that our d was an "excellent writer"!

 

To tell the truth, when she could not write, I worried that her abilities were gone forever--

[Suzan]

At the height of my dd7's PANDAS before getting antibiotics and clearning up her V. Strep, her hand writing deteroriated throughout the year to where you could not read it. Her teacher never told me but would write notes to my dd saying "I know you can do better than this" and "try harder". I was so upset that she did not tell me about it until the year was over!! Now, about a year later, it is fine, if she is engaged in what she is doing. I do have to remind her to use her good grip and she will correct that and write better.

 

Susan

[Joan Pandas Mom]

My son's handwriting completely deteriorated at his first exacerbation in 2004. Now when an exacerbation subsides a little his hand writing improves. The hand writing deterioration is directly related to his PANDAS. You might find when your child's symptoms subside a little and the focus comes back, the handwriting will improve.

[Buster]

Our dd9 had the oddest handwriting issues when in an exacerbation. She would start her sentences in the middle of the line. It seemed she just couldn't find the left margin. Each sentence would then indent from there. All punctuation would disappear (including capitalization). When the exacerbation ended, her left margin returned. It is really odd and very easy to see. Her handwriting becomes more like a scrawl during an exacberation. In her early exacerbations, we thought she had dysgraphia. It wasn't until she was in remission that we saw what her handwriting could be. Curiously she had a slight tremor in her hand when writing -- this was more noticable after 20 min of writing.

 

Buster

 

 

Does anyone else's kid have writing difficulties- I am beginning to wonder if he has a writing disability or something- he always gets REALLY resistant about writing- reading and math he is great but writing he would rather do anything that write. His handwriting is awful and his spelling is really bad too.

Any thoughts or stories about how they handle their child with this issue would be greatly appreciated.

Brandy

[Kayanne]

Our experience was a lot like TMom's. Or kindergartener started reading and writing a lot within a few weeks in the beginning of the school year. During the last quarter she wasn't capapble of writing anything without direct prompting from an adult. Her daily school journal shows the deterioration in the quality and quantity of her writing and drawing.

 

Written and verbal communication stopped. She could still read, but was unable to indicate if she even understood what she read. The teacher and guidance counsler decided to not even give her a grade for the last quarter. Her report card says that she was unable to be assessed at that time.

 

Writing her "stories" was something that she loved to do prior to her PANDAS last year. She began to write on her own in again August, and she didn't start writing her stories again until November...although her writing skills have been fine for her to be successful in first grade (so far).

 

She did have another increase in symptoms when my other children tested positve for strep this year in February, and her handwriting was beginning to look a lilttle sloppy (for her). Her story writing has also slowed down again...I am not concerned because right I think it is more because she is reading a lot.

[tpotter]

Yes. handwriting and math skills can frequently suffer from PANDAS. Both of my kids have that problem, particularly during flare up. We know when things are getting bad again, because one of my kids who has always been brilliant in math, suddenly can't do the easy stuff (10 + 8). My other one, gets bad in math, and his normally really nice handwriting gets bad.

 

 

 

 

Does anyone else's kid have writing difficulties- I am beginning to wonder if he has a writing disability or something- he always gets REALLY resistant about writing- reading and math he is great but writing he would rather do anything that write. His handwriting is awful and his spelling is really bad too.

Any thoughts or stories about how they handle their child with this issue would be greatly appreciated.

Brandy

[JAG10]

YES!!! That "drift to the right" away from the left margin, more and more with each line, is really noticible on spelling tests. This is actually a sign the school-based OTs will look for to differentiate "cognitive" dysfunction from pure fine motor issues.

My dd10 (at the time 7) drew a picture of a train w/smoke stack. At the top, she wrote a sentence totally backwards, right to left word order with each word spelled backward and it wrapped around to the other side of the page. When I asked her why, she looked at my like it was so obvious and said bcs she couldn't cross over the smoke stack. I showed it to the OT at my school and he said he had never seen anything like that before.

 

 

Our dd9 had the oddest handwriting issues when in an exacerbation. She would start her sentences in the middle of the line. It seemed she just couldn't find the left margin. Each sentence would then indent from there. All punctuation would disappear (including capitalization). When the exacerbation ended, her left margin returned. It is really odd and very easy to see. Her handwriting becomes more like a scrawl during an exacberation. In her early exacerbations, we thought she had dysgraphia. It wasn't until she was in remission that we saw what her handwriting could be. Curiously she had a slight tremor in her hand when writing -- this was more noticable after 20 min of writing.

 

Buster

 

 

Does anyone else's kid have writing difficulties- I am beginning to wonder if he has a writing disability or something- he always gets REALLY resistant about writing- reading and math he is great but writing he would rather do anything that write. His handwriting is awful and his spelling is really bad too.

Any thoughts or stories about how they handle their child with this issue would be greatly appreciated.

Brandy

 

[Pace2009]

My dd sure does. Her change in writing was 1 of the 1st symptoms that tipped us off to P.A.N.D.A.S.

 

She had strep at age 2yrs. She was on maybe 1 antibiotic since then (she's now 9yo). Last spring she had an infection and was put on a round of Flagyl. On day 3 of treatment, she was coloring and writing and I could not get over the difference. She's always had horrible visual-motor skills and has been dx with dysgraphia. As a pediatric OT, I sat there stunned at the 3+ year gains my daughter had made. And the only thing I had changed was the Flagyl.

 

Made me think that I should require blood tests on any of my future handwriting clients

[simplygina]

Our dd9 had the oddest handwriting issues when in an exacerbation. She would start her sentences in the middle of the line. It seemed she just couldn't find the left margin. Each sentence would then indent from there. All punctuation would disappear (including capitalization). When the exacerbation ended, her left margin returned. It is really odd and very easy to see. Her handwriting becomes more like a scrawl during an exacberation. In her early exacerbations, we thought she had dysgraphia. It wasn't until she was in remission that we saw what her handwriting could be. Curiously she had a slight tremor in her hand when writing -- this was more noticable after 20 min of writing.

 

Buster

 

We have the drift and punctuation issues too! I told the principal I was sure he had dysgraphia but now realize that it is part of the whole PANDAS deal. When he had his tonsils out in the 3rd grade, his handwriting improved so much. When it was so horrible again at the beginning of 4th grade, this year, I didn't know what to think. The principal thought it was from not writing much over the summer but I knew it had to more than that because it was so much worse than his younger brother's!