Handwriting: A Very Complex Process
Reposted from newsletter@brainworks.info
 
Q: My son's handwriting is illegible to me. Even his teachers put question marks in the margins of his papers because they can't read his writing.  When he slows down, his handwriting does improve, but he usually rushes through any written assignments, writing just enough and that's it. Why is this so hard for my son, and is this handwriting problem another symptom of ADHD? What can I do to help him?
 
A: Written expression is the most common learning problem among students with ADHD (65%). It might be helpful to consult with an occupational therapist who is trained in the developmental process of this complex skill. This medical professional sees handwriting not just as one skill, but as a coordinated effort of 14 abilities that need to work together. Struggling in one or more of these abilities can cause a handwriting problem.

• Visual focusing: the ability for the eyes to work together.
• Mental attention: the ability to screen out distractions.
• Organized physical movements:  the ability to maintain posture and hold the writing tool.
• Receptive language: the ability to perceive abstract concepts and follow verbal directions.
• Inner expressive language:  the ability to think clearly, organize ideas and concepts, and communicate through writing.
• Memory recall: the ability to remember letter formations and the required movements necessary to make each letter and connection.
• Concentration with awareness: the ability to maintain consistent awareness of details and form over a period of time.
• Spatial perception: the ability to utilize space.
• Organization: the ability to organize mind, body, and space to produce meaningful responses.
• Integration: the ability to unite the mind, body, and space to create meaningful written expression.
• Eye-hand coordination: the ability to use the eyes and hands together as a unit.
• Motor planning: the ability to plan and carry out an action.
• Tactile input: the ability to feel the pencil in the hand and apply the appropriate pressure to write.
• Crossing midline: the movement of the eyes, a hand, or forearm to move across the midsection of the body without moving any other part of the body.

Click here to read an article, "ADHD and Handwriting: Is There A Connection?" by Carla Crutsinger, M.S. If your child has a handwriting problem, share this article with your child's teachers.  It can give the teachers new ideas for helping him. Carla also does workshops for schools on this and other topics.

Moving Beyond What You Already Know

article by Diana Cooley

What do Martin Luther King, Jr., Eudora Welty, T.S. Eliot, and Sandra Day O’Connor have in common?  They all were accelerated and finished school early. When most people think of acceleration, they think of skipping grade levels.  While this is one option, there are in fact many other choices. Nicholas Colangelo has done extensive research on the subject and three years ago produced the Templeton National Report on Acceleration, which was published as “A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America’s Brightest Students.” In the report, acceleration is defined as an educational intervention that moves students through an educational program at a faster than usual rate. The book describes 18 types of acceleration that are organized into two broad categories, Subject-Based and Grade-Based. 

Subject-Based requires cognitive ability – the work is faster paced and more complex – but not necessarily social/emotional maturity. It allows gifted learners to master material beyond their expected age or grade level while remaining with their age and grade peers. Advanced Placement (AP) courses are an example in which students take college-level courses while still in high school.

Grade-Based requires both cognitive ability and emotional maturity or readiness. In this type of acceleration the student does not remain with chronological classmates, but is advanced by one or more grade levels.

Acceleration really means matching the level, complexity, and pace of the curriculum with the readiness of the student. Students who have already mastered the material need to advance through the curriculum without relearning what they already know. Studies show that students who are accelerated tend to aspire to careers requiring advanced education degrees and accelerating will not only get them there, but will challenge them to develop the study skills needed to be successful when they arrive.

The report also addresses the social concerns. If grade-based acceleration is chosen, will they be able to make good friends and enjoy an appropriate social life for their age? Will there be gaps in the knowledge between grades? What effect will it have on the child’s self-esteem. The research concludes that gifted students tend to be more emotionally and socially mature than their age-mates and that their ideas of friendship are different. The games they enjoy and the books they read are more like those of older children. Age is only one indicator of readiness. For the child who is placed ahead because he is already ahead, there are rarely negative social consequences. Likewise, when bright children learn in a class of students who are not as bright as they are, their academic self-esteem can get a bit inflated. When they are accelerated to be with students who know as much as they do, they can develop a more realistic self-perception and a healthy confidence in their abilities.

Many schools address the learning and social-emotional needs of gifted students in a variety of ways. Some of the better known approaches include ability grouping, enrichment activities, pull-out resource rooms, classroom differentiation, independent projects, and cooperative learning. However, for high-ability students, none of these approaches has been as effective as accelerating the curriculum. To read the research for yourself, you can download a free copy of the report at http://nationdeceived.org. 

Garland ISD offers several options for acceleration as well as advanced curriculum opportunities. The GT magnet program already incorporates an accelerated curriculum across the grade levels.  If you would like more information on the district’s policies regarding acceleration, either by subject or grade level, visit their website at www.garlandisd.net and click on “About GISD” from across the top margin. On the “Board of Trustees” page from the sidebar, you will find “Board Policy Online” which allows you to access specific parts of the document for reference. A search for “Credit by Examination” will pull up the most relevant aspects of acceleration.

Advocates for gifted students want teachers to have more specialized training
12:00 AM CDT on Sunday, August 9, 2009
By KAREL HOLLOWAY / The Dallas Morning News
kholloway@dallasnews.com

Identifying teachers who are best qualified to teach our brightest children is not an easy task. And, advocates for gifted students say, it's getting harder. Enrollments are dwindling in graduate education programs that focus on training teachers to work with gifted students. The state doesn't require the programs, few school districts pay teachers to take them, and teachers who get the training generally are not paid higher salaries.

That leaves gifted students – those with higher-than-normal intelligence who are particularly motivated – in classes with teachers who may have little training in their special needs. "Gifted students are the only special population in the state that doesn't require a special certification to teach," said Kathy Hargrove, director of the Gifted Students Institute at SMU.

Teachers must be specially certified to teach disabled students or bilingual education, but no special credentials are needed to teach gifted students, Hargrove said. The Texas Education Agency is working on a new plan for gifted education, said Kelly Callaway, who oversees gifted education for the TEA. But it will not change certification requirements as many advocates for gifted students had hoped. The state requires teachers of gifted students to have 30 hours of classroom instruction, which amounts to fewer total hours than one college class. They also must have six hours of additional training each year.

Hargrove argues that's insufficient for teachers to learn how to educate gifted students. Gifted students need to move at a faster pace than others and need more in-depth information, she said. Many also have special emotional needs as well.

Many graduate programs specializing in gifted student teaching require four to six college classes and, in some cases, an internship. "The biggest argument for graduate classes is it's over time," Hargrove said. "With classes, there is time for interaction. Time for teachers to talk to each other and with the instructor. Time to exchange ideas and practices." Hargrove said it is getting harder to find students for the graduate programs. Similar programs in the state have reported the same.

At the University of North Texas, however, enrollment in graduate gifted classes is picking up, said Michael Sayler, who oversees the program. Applications there are up 50 percent over last year. But most of the students take the classes online, so teachers are from around the state, the country and even other countries. Sayler said the graduate classes are important not only in providing practical teaching methods but in explaining the special needs of gifted students. He said there is a myth that gifted students can take care of themselves and that they will thrive no matter what. But there is a difference between "gifted and talented" and "gifted and thriving." It's like a child who has slightly bad eyesight and then gets glasses, Sayler said: "They may have done OK, but they missed a lot."

Ann Poore, principal at Garland's Austin Academy for Excellence, the district's magnet school for gifted seventh- and eighth-graders, said she values training and education, but really is looking for great teachers no matter the certification. Given two teachers, one with graduate hours and the other with the standard training, she said she would hire "the one who was most engaging and most dynamic. The one who had the ideas to best present science or math."

The state has little involvement with the gifted programs, Callaway of the TEA said. Districts evaluate their own programs so there is little comparable data for research. While it was not required, until 2005 teachers were only considered "certified" to teach gifted students if they had the graduate hours. Some districts required the graduate endorsement. Then the state started offering certification by a multiple-choice test, as they do in most areas.

Gifted certification is as muddy in other parts of the country as it is in Texas, said Jane Clarenbach with the National Association for Gifted Children. The organization surveyed the states two years ago and 42 responded. A little over half of the survey respondents said they do not require certification. Texas said it considers the 30 hours of continuing education as certification.

Hargrove said she hates to see gifted students being taught by less than highly trained teachers. "These kids need as much expertise as they can get," she said.

Advocacy News, Action, and Alerts

Online Arts Education Resource: The Education Commission of the States (ECS) has published the “Findings & Recommendations” of the Governor's Commission on the Arts in Education for 2006. This report concludes a two-year initiative on arts education under the leadership of Governor Mike Huckabee (AR). It includes a summary of current state arts education policies.