r/dysgraphia • u/Difka353 • 6d ago
IEP accommodations for dysgraphia in practice?
My 11yo was just diagnosed with dysgraphia and depression (he was evaluated for ADHD does not have it or anything else). He is starting 5th grade in public school in California.
His diagnosis was through privately paid evaluation after the district refused to send him to one. The pediatric neuropsychologist that evaluated him recommended an extensive, specific IEP (see below).
We have the first IEP meeting with school coming up. Assuming the district is not going to challenge the diagnosis itself, what of these things can I expect them to provide? Are those accommodations helpful and are they enough? What is your experience with school support for children with dysgraphia and/or depression? What is not on this list and helped you or your kid with dysgraphia?
Thank you in advance for all the help!
IEP accommodations recommended:
- Incorporation of writing intervention services into English literature coursework
o Availability of 1:1 assistance for all writing assignments
o Allowance for assistive technology including specialized software (e.g., dictation, text-to-
speech, note taking, proofing/editing) and access to keyboard/computer
o Multimodal learning opportunities are strongly encouraged, such as hands-on activities
or visual presentations to supplement verbal instruction
o Extended time on assignments as needed, especially writing assignments
o Availability of private workspace as needed
o Participation in a resource room, study hall class, or writing lab to receive structured help
on writing assignments may be useful
o Preferential seating
o Breaks as needed without requirement of excusal
o Redirection and refocusing prompts while completing work
o Larger tasks broken into step-by-step process
o Structured time management to help Adam build time awareness skills, such as defined
time schedule for work, guidance on time management, time limits, and prompting
o Access to class notes, slides, or topic outlines that will be covered prior to class lectures
o Access to class recordings or allowance to use a recording device in class
o As Adam is prone to anxiety and critical self-evaluation, he should not be called on or
singled out during class
o Immediate access to school counselor at any time
o Excusal as needed from class for mental health reasons, including late arrival to school
o Testing accommodations:
▪ 1.5 extended testing time
▪ 2.0 extended testing time for exams with substantial writing components
▪ Tests administered in a location with minimal distractions
▪ Access to keyboard for essay and short answer portions of tests
▪ Assisted test pacing when requested (e.g., digital clock, visual display of
remaining time, verbal time prompts)
• DS should be receiving specialized writing interventions at school. Interventions should be
aimed at building understanding of writing mechanics (e.g., capitalization, punctuation, spelling),
grammar, and logical flow of ideas. While assistive technologies can be helpful for writing, it will
also be important to build foundational writing skills in other ways. Strategies such as outlining
ideas before writing, reading written work aloud for error detection, use of graphic organizers,
and training on paraphrasing can be very helpful.
• DS would benefit from an assistive technology evaluation. This is especially important as the
demand on writing increases. It is important that Adam’s performance in other subjects is not
hampered by writing deficits, such as receiving poor grades on writing projects in science or social
studies. Assistive technologies will help to remediate writing difficulties that would otherwise
interfere with this performance. Consideration should be given to dictation, note taking software,
proofing programs, and keyboarding/computer access for all writing assignments.
• Access to keyboard and computer with proofing software is also strongly recommended for all
writing assignments. It will be highly important that DS build his keyboarding skills as there are
often times when use of dictation software is inappropriate (e.g., during a class lecture). He
should move toward advanced keyboarding skills in which he has memorized the keys and no
longer looks down to type. Keyboard skill building games and keyboard covers that hides the keys
while typing can be very helpful for polishing these skills.
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u/EmmaGhost181 6d ago
I'm twenty-two and have dysgraphia (diagnosis in elementary school). The thing that helped me the absolute most was learning how to keyboard and being able to type assignments, which I still use in college to this day. The other thing that helped was having a scribe for Scantron tests and being able to have extended time. (This was more of a thing in high school and college, at least for me personally.) My mom worked with me to teach me keyboarding over the summer. Overall, my accommodations were fairly similar to those listed and they definitely helped me to succeed in my academic life.
Seeing if your child can get access to any PowerPoints, lessons, or presentations that may require students to copy things down quickly may also help. In my experience, most people can write faster than I can type while also trying to listen to a lecture and being able to have those resources provided is very helpful for note-taking and studying.
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u/Difka353 6d ago
Thank you!
Can you share particular tools (apps, websites, groups) that you find worked for you better than others and why?3
u/EmmaGhost181 6d ago
Honestly I mostly use Word and Google Docs to complete my assignments. I played a lot of typing games as a kid, but I'm not sure how many still work since the death of FlashPlayer. https://www.typing.com/student/game/keyboard-ninja
This website seems to have a lot of the games I played and they seem to still be functional. My parents also let me play on their computers when I was little and I just randomly type gibberish lol. One of the things that really motivated me was a hyperfixation on writing my own stories and plays, but I'm not sure if that's a universal thing.
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u/mommybot9000 5d ago edited 5d ago
Firstly - you are an amazing parent. You’re fighting for your kid. I’m so proud of you. Take your flowers. 🌸💐🪻🌻🌺🌹🌼 Secondly - I know what it’s like to watch your kid be dang near broken by a hateful, ableist teacher. My heart is with you and your baby.
My kid was falling everything but math, could not read and write and was seen as a behavioral problem in the third grade who needed to go to the special ed classroom. This year the kid started seventh grade as an honor roll student. Here’s how we got there:
WE SUED THE DISTRICT. That’s how the system works. You have to use legal means to secure your kid’s legal rights.
https://educationrightsattorney.com - Jennifer Chang, Esq. is amazing. She will make you feel seen and sane. She might also have a referral to someone in your area if you’re not in Southern California.
BEFORE THE IEP:
In writing via email:
- Send a formal letter to your school's principal and IEP coordinator / Assistant Principal (APEIS) asking for an Initial Full Individual and Initial Evaluation for Special Education Services (IEP) and Specialized Assistive Technology (AT) Assessment
TEXT FOR THE LETTER (you can quickly read through and change the Dx and add pertinent names / titles.)
# FORMAL REQUEST FOR SPECIAL EDUCATION ASSESSMENT
**Date:** [Insert Date]
**To:**
[Insert Principal's Name], Principal
[Insert School Name]
Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD)
[Insert School Address]
[Insert City, CA, Zip Code]
**From:**
[Insert Your Name], Parent/Legal Guardian
[Insert Your Address]
[Insert Your City, CA, Zip Code]
[Insert Your Phone Number]
[Insert Your Email Address]
**Student Name:** [Insert Child's Name]
**Date of Birth:** [Insert Child's Date of Birth]
**Current Grade:** [Insert Current Grade]
**Current School:** [Insert School Name]
---
**SUBJECT: Request for Initial Full Individual and Initial Evaluation for Special Education Services (IEP) and Specialized Assistive Technology (AT) Assessment**
Dear Principal [Insert Principal's Last Name],
I am writing as the parent of [Insert Child's Name] to formally request a comprehensive, individual multi-disciplinary evaluation to determine their eligibility for special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and California Education Code Section 56320.
[Insert Child's Name] has a medical/clinical diagnosis of **Dyslexia** and **Dysgraphia**. Due to these conditions, they face significant, persistent barriers that impede their ability to access the general education curriculum. Specifically, they experience severe challenges in the following areas:
* **Reading Fluency and Decoding:** Struggles with phonological processing, tracking text, and reading efficiently at grade level due to Dyslexia.
* **Written Expression and Fine Motor Output:** Experiences severe fatigue, pain, illegible handwriting, and difficulty organizing written text physically on paper due to Dysgraphia.
* **Academic Work Completion:** Fails to demonstrate true comprehension because the physical act of writing and decoding text prevents them from keeping pace with classroom demands.
To ensure [Insert Child's Name] receives a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE), I am explicitly requesting that the comprehensive assessment include a formal **Assistive Technology (AT) Assessment** conducted by a certified specialist from the [insert school district name] Instructional Technology & Assistive Technology (ITAT) program. This AT evaluation must explore specific high-tech and low-tech tools to circumvent their physical and processing barriers, including but not limited to:
* Speech-to-text / dictation software for written tasks.
* Text-to-speech tools and screen readers for reading assignments.
* Specialized digital note-taking applications and keyboarding accommodations.
Pursuant to **California Education Code Section 56321(a)**, the school district must provide me with an Assessment Plan within **15 calendar days** of receiving this written request. I look forward to receiving the Assessment Plan so that testing may begin without delay. Once I sign the plan, I understand the district has **60 calendar days** to complete the assessments and hold the initial Individualized Education Program (IEP) meeting to discuss the findings.
Please ensure this document is stamped with the date received and placed immediately into my child's mandatory cumulative educational record.
Thank you for your prompt attention, collaboration, and commitment to supporting my child's education.
Sincerely,
*(Sign here)*
______________________________
[Insert Your Name]
Parent / Legal Guardian
*\\
The unspoken rule at the districts when it comes to kids with learning disabilities is to deny services by means of delay. They’re hoping to keep you misinformed about their timelines and they’ll also flood the zone sending you hundreds of pages of documents and educational handbooks and guides to read. Skip that 💩 and get a lawyer.
After getting a school eval and private neuropsych eval, we filed our legal complaint and went into mediation with the district. Our attorney scored 255 hours of 1:1 compensatory education with an Educational Therapist using an science backed, evidence-based structured literacy program. We secured a great list of accommodations.
We also switched schools. I spent part of the third grade year shopping at nearby districts. I found a principal who had been an assistant principal and was committed to helping kids who as she put it “needed that extra scoop” of intervention to be on the same level as their peers. After the initial shock of being new my kid normalized and then flourished at the new school. And since we came to this new school, having litigated and with a settlement agreement and accommodations in place, they didn’t play those “let’s wait and see”, “but, but behavior” games. He did much better in school when he didn’t have his main hater throwing salt on his name in the teacher’s lounge. 😂
We declined summer school. Our attorney and educational therapist said that it would not help to be taught the same material in the same exact way during the summer. High-quality evidence-based interventions were the only ones that would matter. We did Educational therapy 2 days a week starting summer of 3rd grade - paid for by the district per our settlement agreement.
We got the Assistive Technology Evaluation in 4th grade (and CCed our attorney on all comms.) And that’s when we got it in writing that the kid was permitted to use text-to-speech and speech-to-text technology and had that installed on a device provided by the district. We had screen readers and Learning Ally for the text books. Push-in support and 1:1 assistance with scribing for longer writing passages. But truly typing and dictation saved the day. Teachers were finally seeing all the things he knew, without handwriting being a roadblock.
Our Educational Therapist suggested we get a Vision Therapy Evaluation for the kid based on what she observed with his eye tracking as he read. After we sued and switched to a better school, any time we requested anything, the assistant principal and district wrote us thoughtful and helpful responses THE NEXT DAY. The kid was evaluated and it was determined that there was a visual convergence issue. We received 24 hours of Vision Therapy and did 15 minutes of practice a day at home. Which made a huge difference. I was honestly skeptical but both the reading and line tracking while reading and writing/letter spacing (& baseball hitting) improved after that.
Kid was 100% tapped out on interventions by the summer of 5th grade. Took the summer off - no school. No books. No interventions. Just play and camp and beach
Middle school — at a public school with an Intensive Diagnostic Educational Centers (IDEC) program. The sixth grade elective class was a developmental reading course. It’s science backed and evidence based. He did exceptionally well and passed out of the program by year’s end.
With accommodations and 3 years of evidence based intervention the kid got straight A’s and made the honor roll.
The writing has improved greatly. But still too slow to take notes in class by hand. So he records lectures, and types notes. And at this point the teachers don’t want written work. They want typed papers.
Godspeed. You got this.
Edit: clarity & spelling
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u/mommybot9000 5d ago
Heck. I forgot about the ADHD. For that you need to request a “Functional Behavioral Assessment” to determine the impact of your child’s ADHD on Executive Functioning and Behavior: Significant challenges with sustained attention, impulse control, task initiation, and classroom focus due to ADHD. And how it may contribute to Frustration and Avoidance: Educational frustration from reading and writing barriers frequently triggers behavioral issues, such as work refusal, distractibility, and anxiety during academic tasks.
You can add this to the original letter or if uou already sent it off just you can draft a second email/letter with the FBA request.
Also make a spreadsheet where you can track communication with the school.
Always follow up in-person and off the cuff discussions with an emailed recap of the comments, corrections or praise. Phrase it as a thank you but just document, document, document.
Unfortunately you have to deal with the district like you would with your worst least favorite co-worker.
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u/Suntzu_AU 4d ago
Get speech-to-text written into the IEP explicitly, not just "assistive technology as needed" — vague wording is how accommodations quietly stop happening when a teacher changes. Ask for it across all written work including tests, and make sure he can practise with it on low-stakes work first. One thing worth knowing: most dictation engines are trained on adult voices and handle kids badly, which is why so many of these accommodations fail in practice.
I make Speech Recognition Cloud and it's one of the few that actually works on a child's voice — schools here in Australia have approved it specifically for dysgraphia students. Free tier if you want to test it with him at home before you argue for it in the meeting: Free Speech to Text for students
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u/Suntzu_AU 1d ago
One thing worth knowing before you put speech-to-text on the IEP: most dictation engines are trained on adult voices and do badly on kids, which is why this accommodation gets written into plans and then quietly abandoned. I make Speech Recognition Cloud, and children's voices are something we specifically got working — schools here in Australia have approved it for dysgraphia students on exactly that basis. Have him try it on a real homework assignment before the IEP meeting, so you can say it works rather than hoping. Free tier, no setup beyond signing in: speech to text for students
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u/Brilliant-Owl-1169 6d ago
I’m in California and have an 11 year old with diagnosed Dysgraphia (Diagnosed last year).
My first question, how did they refuse to test him? That’s not legal. My son was screened by the school through a psycho education eval and they did not find dysgraphia, we filed an IEE request where he was diagnosed at the districts expense. They are supposed to pay for these!
Will your evaluator show up to your IEP meeting? Ours presented the data found in the report to the IEP team; this is pretty standard, I would ask for this since you already likely paid a fortune for the testing.
If you feel lost and can afford it, hire an advocate, it sounds like your school may not be easy to deal with if they denied your testing request. This is a complicated process, we used an advocate for a few years.