Next Workshop Begins June 9

Day(s)

:

Hour(s)

:

Minute(s)

:

Second(s)

~110,000,000 Americans have some form of dysgraphia.

That’s one out of three people!

The numbers are increasing since the pandemic!

 

Is the School District paying?

Why is dysgraphia so prevalent?

  • Lack of awareness

  • Perceived perspective on instruction that do not support students learning styles

  • Pandemic stress

54% of K-4 teachers indicated that Common Core Standards impacted handwriting instruction. Challenges increased. They included grip, letter formation, spacing, memory, fine motor skills, and perceptual problems, plus increase illegibility and formation of poor writing habits.

Collette, D., Anson, K., Halabi, N., Schlierman, A., & Suriner, A. (2017). Handwriting and Common Core State Standards: Teacher, occupational therapist, and administrator perceptions from New York State public schools. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 71, 7106220010. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2017.021808

Workshop Takeaway

You will take away the 15-day Dysgraphia Warm-Up Protocol to deliver a visual-perceptual, visual-motor, and memory-support program that can be completed in as little as 2-minutes per day.

 

Strengthen your students’ social-emotional well-being. Rally your classroom to improve engagement in writing.

Who is the workshop designed for?

  • Regular Education Teachers

  • Learning Support Teachers

  • School-based Occupational Therapists

  • Speech Therapists

  • Parents

This workshop is not designed for Life Skills or Autism support classrooms.

When and where?

June 9, 2022 – C.A.R.A. Therapy – Midlothian, VA

August 9, 2022 – Alvernia University College Towne Campus – Reading, PA

9am-3:30pm Eastern Time

Workshop Itinerary

8:45 am EST Online welcome

9:00 am EST Workshop begins

3:30 pm EST Workshop ends

10-minute breaks throughout the morning and after lunch

1-hour lunch – approximately 12:00pm-1pm EST

5.5 contact hours of continuing education

Where can I learn more about your services for School Districts?

Certificate of Attendance Approved by

All OT Compact states can use Act 48 Approved Provider for continuing education credit. Other states use NBCOT line 11 to receive 36 PDUs!

Workshop Outline

Emerging writers do not always translate what they see and hear to written expression well. The IDA defines dysgraphia as “a condition of impaired letter writing by hand” or handwriting (Berninger & Wolf, 2018). In contrast, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5) (APA, 2013) does not define dysgraphia as a specific identifiable diagnosis. It is mentioned as a symptom under the criterion of a Specific Learning Disability, Neurodevelopmental Disorders section.  The Types of Dysgraphia is a method of explaining the developmental process and the neural glitches that occur.

This portion of the workshop will review reading and writing, decoding and encoding, typical development, and explains the obstacles created by dyslexia. Reading is divided into five main categories: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, reading fluency, and reading comprehension. Each of these categories has different subcategories.

We will also examine the impact of writing. Decoding is the process of breaking things apart into syllables, for example. Whereas the word, encoding, is a method of expressing the concept of taking information, storing it, and retrieving it to be used as new material. The process is like computer-based information storage. In education, it means handwriting.  This section compares typical encoding and dysgraphia.

The brain controls everything a person does, sees, and hears. The process of writing is divided into three parts. Handwriting is the mechanical part. This part of the process includes the letter formation, the location a letter is placed on the writing paper, and the neural pathway created in the process. Parts two and three are the language and cognitive portions. The language portion of the process is the development of sentence structure.  This part contains the grammar, syntax, and basic skills in creating a sentence. The cognitive component is the final piece. It occurs after a child understands the basics of how to write letters and words to create sentences. Once a child can put all three pieces together, the neural pathways of creativity will form paragraphs and essays. This session provides an overview of the nervous system’s functions in terms that teachers and parents can comprehend.

Messages from the body to the brain and back ascend and descend through the sensory-motor system. This module discusses the five common and hidden sensory pathways. The motor pathway is separated in a unique propriety method. However, the pathway system and terms remain the same. 

Memory is complex. This module breaks it down into segments that apply to reading and writing. The visual system is the most prominent sensory system used to gather information from our senses in a classroom setting.  Yes, the other senses can impact attention.  However, keeping up with the teacher in a regular education classroom is 50% vision, 50% of the sensory systems. Decoding the visual system begins with a brief explanation of eye anatomy and ocular motor function and how the brain interprets the information. 

This portion of the workshop synchronizes sessions one, two, and three and teaches practical and functional applications to the classroom that do not add tasks for the teacher to perform but transform your teaching style.  These ideas are alternative strategies to enhance your current curriculum.  It will align the visual-spatial, motor, and memory strategies of dysgraphia with the classroom.

This portion of the workshop aligns the language aspects of dysgraphia with the classroom. They can be easily taught to a parent of a child needing extra support.  Specific strategies are shared for spelling and vocabulary.  Teachers can build on these strategies across the curriculum. This session is rounded out by applying these strategies to learning support and special education needs for goals, accommodations, and specially designed instruction modifications. Paragraph formation is the most abstract aspect of writing. This week will bring the final aspects of dysgraphia together and aligns them with classroom strategies.

Learning Objectives:

Participants will

  • Delineate dysgraphia from dyslexia and dyscalculia using the definition of a Specific Learning Disability in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders, fifth edition in the general education classroom.
  • Remediate dysgraphia through formative assessment or progress monitoring to observe improved handwriting skills.
  • Construct an intervention strategy that impacts the whole classroom, small group, or 1:1 instruction and benefits all students.
  • Synthesize the neural pathway connections for written expression and how they apply to spell, sentences, and paragraphs.

Ready to get started?

Enroll in our One-Day Workshop!