Something to watch out for with school OT eval

Post Reply New Topic

We recently moved to a new district, and our educational advocate was able to get them to do his tri-annual IEP evaluation early, and include a full neuropsychological exam. During the IEP meeting, it came out that there was a big discrepancy between the OT's evaluation, and the nuero's eval in the same areas.

The OT's report basically said his grip was fine, he used scissors fine, he copied drawings slowly, but basically had all the skills needed to participate in a general ed classroom. It really sounded like he didn't need OT for handwriting. (She did concur with other observations that he had excessive movement during circle time and academic tasks, and wrote a goal for him to sit properly with his feet on the floor 50% of the time. Good luck with that one!)

The neuro's report said he was in the <2% for graphomotor speed and accuracy, and for copying a drawing.

It came out that the difference between the two was in the level of testing that was done. The OT had him copy a circle, square, triangle and X, where the neuro had much more complex figures to copy. They both had a test where you draw a line through a track as fast as possible (it looks like a curvy road). The OT's track had only two bends, the neuro's track had about 10-15. He did the OT's test easily, but lifted his pencil 9 times on the neuro test.

We independently had vision testing done through a developmental optometrist, and he had a test that I think was much more telling than either the OT or the neuropsych. He had DS copy a paragraph, and timed how long it took (10 excruciating minutes). It turns out he writes at a speed of about 10 letters/min, where a second grader needs to write at about 25 letters/min.

For a writing sample, the OT asked DS to write a sentence. He had a cold, so he wrote, "I am sick." What do you know, she didn't detect that his descending letters (g, j, p, q, y) don't cross the bottom line! The primary lines were so large that sick was on the 2nd line, so she also didn't notice that he doesn't space his words properly.

Nobody tested his ability to copy from the chalkboard.

It makes me wonder how many OT evals miss kids that are struggling who could really be helped with a little intensive handwriting instruction.

If your kid is getting an OT eval through the school system, I would suggest also doing the following on your own:
* Write the alphabet (upper and lower) on grade appropriate paper
* Original writing sample on unlined paper
* Near-point copy (timed to get letters/min)
* Copy a sentence from a chalkboard

School OTs are looking for the bare minimum for inclusion.

My NT daughter's left handed writing is terrible. Her school is going to be almost all key boarding next year, starting in 1st grade. I have bitched about the lack of penmanship practice and correct letter formation for 4 years. They are barely using cursive in the 4th grade.

What you posted below for samples wouldn't even get a shoulder shrug at my daughter's school. I'm not saying don't do it, but here there is so little value placed on writing straight on unlinked paper, proper letter formation, etc...the child would really have to be beyond the pale for it to be addressed.

Her school is one of the tops in our state, meaning I'm not in an impoverished, inner city school.

Please understand, what you said about your son is important and correct. The schools only care if he can make grade level. Good luck! Hope they don't shelve your other reports.

Zette, that is some very good specific information, and I am going to bookmark this just in case I ever want to/have to return my son to school.

Tawaki, a lot of schools are no longer even teaching cursive and they are moving very quickly to typing, and they absolutely will use that, and anything else they can to avoid giving an appropriate amount of OT.

They wanted to drop my son's OT back after not even a year of it, and very little progress, and after not even touching all the things they were supposed to address, based solely on an untimed writing sample they gave him to do. I bet if anything they should have increased it. I told them either give him a formal re-eval or keep it as is. They must have known they would not like the result b/c they opted out of paying for the testing, and kept things as they were.

It is nice to see people post what they ought to be testing, and how they ought to be doing it, so parents have the right knowledge going in. Thanks, Zette!

I know this was a side issue to the post, but in our school district cursive is an elective activity for teachers who want to offer it in their classes and not mandatory for students to learn.

I'm going to be pushing for a letters/min goal for handwriting, based on the following document:

WRITTEN-LANGUAGE PRODUCTION STANDARDS FOR HANDWRITING & KEYBOARDING created at Handwriting in the 21st Century? An Educational Summit: https://www.hw21summit.com/media/zb/hw21/Written-Language_ProductionStandards.pdf

It actually gives speeds for printing and typing copied text -- you can argue they can't keep up with classroom work and access the curriculum if their speeds are lower.

Printing from copy
1st grade: print individual upper and lowercase letters within 4-6 seconds after dictated by teacher
2nd grade: 25 letters/min (WLP.2.6)
3rd grade: 45 letters/min (WLP.3.6)
4th grade: 60 letters/min (WLP.4.6)
5th grade: 70 letters/min (WLP.5.6)
6th grade: 80 letters/min (WLP.6.6)
7th grade: 90 letters/min (WLP.7.6)
8th grade: 100 letters/min (WLP.8.6)

Typing from copy
1st grade: n/a
2nd grade: n/a
3rd grade: 5-10 words/min (WLP.3.7)
4th grade: 10-15 words/min (WLP.4.7)
5th grade: 15-20 words/min (WLP.5.7)
6th grade: 20-25 words/min (WLP.6.7)
7th grade: 25 words/min (WLP.7.7)
8th grade: 30 words/min (WLP.8.7)

This is awesome, Zette! Now I know where we need to be!

Something I've read is that a simplified cursive (like Getty-Dubay Italic or New American Cursive) is actually easier and faster for kids with fine motor problems to learn and write. Think about how many times per letter and word the child has to pick his pencil up off the page and all the visual and motor planning that goes into getting the pencil back into the correct place to finish just the letters in print. Now add that up for the words, and that equals a huge amount of visual motor integration and fine motor control. Compare to those simplified cursive scripts They neither one have huge slants or a lot of straight lines (which are hard motor skills wise, too), or a lot of curly adornments, or Q's that look that 2's. I think the Italic is even simpler and tends towards even more legibility, but the workbooks and instructions are easier to obtain for the NAC. At least for me, since the homeschool program I use for my youngest includes it. They also help with reversals, since the b's and d's and p's and q's have more distinctions. According to the people that run NAC, it isn't necessary for kids to perfect print before moving to cursive, only to recognize the print letters for reading. I don't know what it would take to get an OT motivated to teach your son cursive, or even to let you teach it at home and them reinforce his usage at school, but it might be helpful.

Here is a study that was done in Quebec. http://www.newswise.com/articles/learni ... s-students