The Writing Glitch: Hack Dysgraphia No Pencil Required

Last December, I had the privilege of speaking with Jason Davies of The OT Schoolhouse Podcast. He has launched something new and exciting for occupational therapists. It is a place to learn and integrate school-based practices. Even if you are not an occupational therapist, this podcast episode may trigger a way for you to design a community in your specialty area. Join a village of similar minds, celebrate wins, and get support for challenges. Present in the community to prepare your AOTA or Learning Forward presentation.

Intervention inside this podcast: Using the phone as a therapeutic medium

OT Schoolhouse Collaborative
The Writing Glitch Community

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In today's episode, Jonily Zupancic and Cheri discuss how they met and have joined forces to create a collaborative math and therapy team to support students with Specific Learning Disabilities, especially dysgraphia and dyscalculia.
Jonily Zupancic: jonily.com
Cheri Dotterer: cheridotterer.com
5-Day Roadmap to Hacking Dysgraphia
5-Day Math DYS-Connected: Connecting the Puzzle Challenge
Listen for how Cheri surprises Jonily around minute 34.

In today's episode, Shelley Kenow talks about her work as an IEP consultant. One of the areas we discuss is writing goals into an IEP.
https://www.shelleykenow.com/
https://www.cheridotterer.com/

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Today we are taking a break from guest interviews so Cheri can share more of her story. She shares a story of a student who was having difficulty with sight words and how she used kinesthetic interventions to enhance his retention to spell a sight word. He continues to use this method. Cheri's Body Sentence Alphabet was the result of this discussion. It is available on her website, and Teachers Pay Teachers. Cheri also explains the definition of dysgraphia in the DSM-5 and how it is differentiated from dyslexia and dyscalculia. Find out more about Cheri at her website. Share your insights from this episode inside The Writing Glitch Community

Body Sentence Alphabet
Body Sentence Alphabet on Teachers Pay Teachers

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In today's episode, Kelli Fetter shares how the discovery of her daughter's dysgraphia triggered the creation of a new business, Handwriting Solutions. "We would work into a more fine motor, visual motor task and then segue into our weekly handwriting lesson. I saw excellent results. I did a pre and a post-screen. The results were amazing after four days." Wow, Kelli is seeing results in four days. How exciting. Check out how she uses visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning and how she has modified the Body Sentence Alphabet to support following directions.

She offers a free 15-minute consultation.

Reach out to Kelli at Handwriting Solutions    Freebie: Developmental Teaching Order
[email protected]
Facebook Page

If you are listening to the episode after November 2022, check out the replay in the Community.
www.TheWritingGlitch.com
www.cheridotterer.com

Learn more about Cheri
Linked In
Facebook Page
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[email protected]
[email protected]

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In today's episode, Jennifer Porter shares, "As a teacher, they teach you a little bit about dysgraphia and dyslexia and other disabilities like ADHD. You get a very shallow overview. And so when you get students who. Those disabilities, you tend to do a little more research into it because you get a student like that. But when you're a parent, you don't have a clue that your kid has something other than what the doctor said they had. And I believe, and she now believes also, that she has both dyslexia and dysgraphia."

She owns Special Needs Spa, an online place to stop and take a breath and get support for students with ADHD and Autism. But, no, her business is not the typical spa.

She shares practical tips and materials that she has gleaned from 20 years of teaching in high school English and K-8 special education. Having several children of her own with disabilities, she lives the special education life everywhere she goes.

We discuss the impact anxiety, ADHD, dyslexia, and dysgraphia have had on her daughter over the years.

She offers a graphic organizer that students can use images through writing paragraphs. The link is https://specialneedsspa.com/writingglitch/

Be sure to catch her intervention. It's quick! Sign up to become part of The Writing Glitch Community at app.thewritingglitch.com

By the way, she is the author of The Frozen, a young adult-friendly Christian story about society's impact on the special needs community in the year 3019. https://www.amazon.com/Frozen-Xianova-Chronicles-Jen-Porter/dp/B09Y1PJQS1 It is a fantastic book.

In today's episode, Nicole Santamaria of OT for Real Life shares gold nuggets about executive function skills. She answers Three Myths about Executive Function Skills: EF skills just develop, EF skills don’t get better, and EF struggles mean that you have ADHD. She adds a Bonus Myth about medication!

She offered her Executive Function Starter Kit about time management, organization, and working memory at 10% off using the Promo Code Cheri10. The regular price is $87.  She also offers a resource guide. To get her bundle go to https://learn.nicolesantamaria.com/podcastCheri   You can learn more about other courses from Nicole at https://learn.nicolesantamaria.com 

You can find the handouts listed below at The Writing Glitch Community https://thewritingglitch.com/ Click on the Community button at the top right.

Nicole's 3 myths pdf. Listen to the episode to discover how to bust these myths.

Form constancy bdpq worksheet. Listen to the episode about how to use the worksheet.

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Dysgraphia Awareness Day is October 3rd, 2022! Yes, that is recognized by the National Calendar Archive. Deedra Schrem, a mom of a dysgraphic son, shares how she took her pain and is sharing it with the world. Her website is www.turnwritearound.com. She can also be found at Turn Write Around on Facebook. Her Facebook Group is We need a Dysgraphia Awareness Day. Am I write? Get a t-shirt and support this event! Also, stop by The Writing Clitch Community and share a picture of yourself wearing the shirt or another store item. We are having a contest to share the best awareness pic. While you are there, look for Q&A sessions from previous guests. Upgrade to Amethyst for Professional Development. app.thewritingglitch.com

Lori Sugarman is a guidance counselor who uses hypnotherapy to help students access their writing skills. She is also an author. She discusses how anxiety reduction boosts confidence and self-esteem with her students.

Lori has written a poem that Cheri reads to the audience and reflects how it supports positive psychology. Lori is also the author of 26 songs to support the alphabet. Please note that she has a new website for the songs not mentioned in the podcast.

Connect with Lori at
[email protected]
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Sing-Along-Street

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In this episode, Sabrena Schaefer shares how the Dotterer Dysgraphia Method transformed her understanding of dysgraphia, a disability in written expression. She and Cheri exchange ideas to support handwriting challenges. Sabrena shares how she remediated a student to write the letter "a" and Cheri adds additional methods to remediate that letter. These interventions can be used for any letter or number.

What is dysgraphia?

Before I took the course, I thought dysgraphia was having a hard time writing letters or forming letters backward, writing above the line, through the line, and under the line, or having challenges with writing. 

How did a course change your perspective?

Now that I have taken the Dotterer Dysgraphia Method, I know that it's much more than the written component that students struggle. So it's as her book is titled the brain-body disconnect. I learned much more in-depth as I read the book and took the course. 

Sabrena shares intervention strategies that she created from the course.

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