Who knows about ADHD with dyslexia

I am new here. My son is 10 years old and has adhd. He has had issues with his handwriting and spelling for year's. He sees a OT for only 30 min a week through his IEP at school. He also sees a speech therapist he has issues saying certain sounds. We live in a very small town with no programs to help kids we would have to travel two hours away to get help. My concern is my son writes his p backwards and d backwards not constantly but he does it. I have brought this up many time's at his meetings as well has his spelling and handwriting they just blow me off saying he will be using computers more so handwriting won't be a issue and he will have spell check. And they don't notice him doing any letter's backwards but I do. I even brought his work into meetings. I have done research on dyslexia something's seems like he could possibly have it. I have been fighting this battle for year's with the school. I read that it is hard to get a child tested for dyslexia through the school system because they don't really know a lot about it. Does anyone have any of these issues with there child? Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you.

[Onthemove1971]

Mamabeat10- Thanks for being part of this community. Fighting for years doesn't sound fun.. Let me see if I can help at all. First of all you could always drive some where and get a second opinion, which end the fighting. But let's start by asking a few questions is handwriting your only concern ( just talking about the dyslexia? Not the ADHD?) Often time children with ADHD have issues with handwriting.. so I was just curious if you are thinking he has other learning issues or if you only concern is handwriting? I missing words as he reads a sentence, comprehending what he reads etc..

Kids also with ADHD can have handwriting issues, but it is often wanting to hurry to write because they want to go do something else so it is messy.

Has you son had academic testing or are you concerned he is falling behind in school?

Just wanted to he more about him becuase it is rare for a kid to JUST qualify for OT becuase of handwriting.

Can you explain some more please? How long has he had it ? I assume the goal is written to improve shapes?

[SuzetteIClarke]

Problems with handwriting is called dysgraphia and is common with kids with ADHD. Sometimes getting a thicker pen can help the grip. You can find them on-line.

My 8 yr old son was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia at 7 yrs old. I read quite a bit about it and the doctor who did the (extensive) testing explained the two often are found together.

Testing took about 10 hrs of 1:1 with a specialist and cost 2k in San Francisco where we live. I know it is expensive but I urge you to see if you can get him officially diagnosed because it wlll qualify him for extra time when if comes to standardized

Tests. That may seem like a way off in the future but high school come up quickly and it wlll be important that he is not at a disavantage.

Best of luck with all. I think in general us mothers have to be ‘the squeeze wheel’ when it comes to advocating for our children and powering through.

[SuzetteIClarke]

Typo - squeaky wheel ; -)

[seller]

My ADHD son is now 23 and his handwriting has always been really awful. He also makes some of his letters very strangely....the letter "a" comes to mind, but there are others. His actual handwriting is very slow and tedious, so for years, he has a combination of printing and writing, which is also awful, but he's faster with it! Please don't worry about the handwriting....it has nothing to do with his actual intelligence and he really won't need it nearly as much as you think. (You can always get an IEP saying he has to have a note-taker or can type on his laptop!).

One final word of encouragement....one of my son's friends got perfect scores on his ACT and SAT and has the worst handwriting I've ever seen!!