A Beginner’s Guide to Understanding Dysgraphia
Problems with writing can be the result of a myriad of different things. Children have to be capable developmentally, physically, and mentally. A student must learn how to hold a pencil and develop the fine motor skills to write fluidly. They must also understand how to form each individual letter before learning to connect those letters to make words and finally stringing words together to make sentences. After all of that, students must also master the grammar rules necessary to clearly communicate their thoughts in writing. As you can see, there are many areas that could prove challenging on a child’s journey of learning to write.
In this blog, we will dive into understanding dysgraphia, a unique difficulty with writing that impairs children’s ability to express themselves clearly through the written word.
What is Dysgraphia?
As mentioned in my previous blog on Understand Learning Disorders, students with difficulties in writing may be diagnosed with a Specific Learning Disorder with Impairments in Written Expression. The term dysgraphia is often attributed to children that have deficits in all three areas of writing:
Spelling accuracy
Grammar and punctuation accuracy
Clarity or organization of written expression
Let’s look at each of these areas separately.
Spelling Accuracy
Children with dysgraphia frequently make spelling errors. These errors can come in a variety of forms. Sometimes, students leave out letters or add in extra letters. Other times, they attempt to spell the word phonetically (that is, how it sounds) without paying attention to spelling rules. This occurs most frequently on words that are exceptions to the rules (those with silent letters like “comb” or “knee”) or those with unique spellings (like “juice” or “laugh”).
Another common spelling error for kids with dysgraphia is to include letter reversals. This may happen on many letters, not just ones that are similar (like “b” or “d”). These letter reversals occur due to the child’s difficulty with fine motor skills, challenges with establishing “muscle memory,” and weaknesses in visual-spatial processing (i.e., a child’s ability to attend to visual details and understand where things are in space, including their own body). This weak visual-spatial processing may explain why some students have difficulty recognizing when they have made letter reversal errors.
Although these students may manage passing scores on spelling tests, their spelling accuracy decreases drastically when required to write stories. As students with dysgraphia get older, you may notice that your child uses a limited vocabulary when writing as a way to minimize the likelihood of making spelling errors. These children often benefit from opportunities to use a computer, use speech-to-text technology, or dictate their answers in order to provide a more accurate representation of their knowledge and ability without being penalized for poor spelling.
Grammar and Punctuation Accuracy
So much of the focus of a dysgraphic child’s brain is aimed towards the very basics of writing: consistently forming letters and accurately spelling words. Therefore, the higher-level components of understanding sentence structure, perceiving which words are nouns, verbs, or adjectives, and grasping the concept of capitalization and punctuation are very often not attained.
Additionally, when we speak a language, we use pauses, tone, and facial expressions to help convey the where a sentence begins and ends as well as other grammatical concepts. Unfortunately, this is not naturally translated to paper when asked to write the same response. For example, we don’t say “Capital M..my dog is named capital M..Max period capital H…he likes to play fetch period” but that is how we would need to write it. However, your child likely speaks with proper grammar structure but fails to transfer that to their writing.
English is a complicated language with many nuances that require years of learning to master all of the grammatical rules. Although students diagnosed with dysgraphia are capable of understanding grammar, it may take them longer than their peers and require more repetition to incorporate it in their writing. This is largely due to their difficulty in being aware of grammar and punctuation rules in the lower grades because they are spending so much time and energy grasping the basics of writing. Children with dysgraphia often benefit from opportunities to have their work reviewed and edited prior to turning in their final copy.
Clarity or Organization of Written Expression
Obviously, accurate spelling, correct punctuation, and the proper use of grammar rules aids in the clarity of a student’s writing. However, students with dysgraphia often continue to have challenges with clearly expressing and organizing their thoughts and ideas when required to put them on paper, even after remediation focused on addressing those specific issues. Commonly, children’s brains are moving much faster than they are able to incorporate that information in writing.
Frequently, these children will provide a stream of consciousness, as they relay each thought related to the topic about which they are writing. Although this may get out a lot of information and knowledge that the student has about the topic, it is typically very disorganized as their brain jumps around. These children often fail to use a standard paragraph structure of a topic sentence, supporting sentences, and then a conclusion sentence. They benefit from explicit teaching on the use of outlines to help them get all of the information out of their head and then organize it in a way that allows others to understand their viewpoint.
As children with dysgraphia get older, it is common to see two styles of writing that showcase this particular challenge. In one style, the student is very concise and writes extremely short responses that lacks important details and does not have the support necessary to convey their knowledge of the subject to others. The other style is exactly the opposite. The child provides too much information, resulting in a lack of vision or understanding of what is important and often appears to be a rambling of inconsequential facts.
Additional Challenges
In addition to the challenges within these three areas, these children frequently hold their pencil awkwardly and their fine motor skills on writing tasks appear cumbersome. They may move their entire arm to form letters or shift the paper around as they struggle to fluidly manipulate their fingers and wrists. Additionally, these students may write very slowly as they work out how to form letters or may use excessive pressure, expressing the mental and physical effort required for writing. As a result, you will often see your child stretching or shaking out their hand when completing a writing task in an attempt to relieve the strain placed on the muscles in their hand. This is often corrected through working with an occupational therapist.
Due to their weak visual-spatial processing abilities, students struggling with dysgraphia frequently have difficulty keeping appropriate spacing between letters and words. In writing, we recognize that letters that make up a word have little space between them while there is a greater space between words to indicate where one word has stopped and another has begun. Although students are typically consistent in the amount of spacing they provide in each instance, children with dysgraphia are much less so. You may find that some words and letters are smushed against each other, while at other places there appears to be an excessive amount of space between the letters or words. Similarly, your child may lack the visual-spatial ability to determine whether there is enough space on a line for a word to fit. Therefore, they may break up a word in an awkward manner (such as writing “moth” on one line and “er” on the next for the word “mother”) simply because they ran out of room.
Lastly, a student with dysgraphia often has difficulty writing on a line. Their letters may dip below or float about the line and is typically inconsistent so that the writing appears wavy. They may struggle to pull letters below the line (such as g, p, or j) or “see” the midline of the space to allow them to properly form tall letters (such as t or k). Your child may also be unreliable in their use of uppercase and lowercase letters, as they mix them in sporadically in their writing. Another common challenge is using signals on the paper, such as margins, to assist with organizing their writing. These students may simply begin their writing in the upper left corner of a page regardless of where the lines on the paper are located. These issues are again related to weak visual-spatial abilities.
Characteristics of Dysgraphia
Below are typical features of dysgraphia seen in students. However, some of these characteristics are more common in certain ages and grade levels than others.
Improper or awkward pencil grip
Writes or erases with whole arm movements rather than using fingers and wrist
Weak fine motor skills (often not just in writing but also with using utensils, tying shoes, buttoning shirts, etc.)
Difficulty forming letters despite developmental appropriateness (appears cumbersome and requiring lots of thought rather than being automatic)
Handwriting is sloppy and hard to read
Makes letter and/or number reversals
Complains of hand hurting when writing
Uses excessive pressure when holding pencil and writing on paper
Avoids or refuses to complete writing tasks
Completes writing tasks at a much slower pace than peers
Makes spelling errors (typically more prominent when required to write stories) though may be able to accurately spell words verbally
Has difficulty writing on a line
Struggles to use cues on paper to properly form letters (e.g., won’t go below lines to form “p” or “j,” doesn’t see the midline to write tall letters such as “k” or “t,” and ignores paper margins)
Inconsistently uses uppercase and lowercase letters
Has difficulty with providing appropriate spacing between letters and words
Struggles to learn and apply grammar rules in writing
Is inconsistent in the use of punctuation
Provides too much or too little information
Frequently provides clearer and more detailed responses when answered verbally
Uses a limited vocabulary when writing
Has difficulty copying off the board
Struggles to take notes during a lecture (particularly the pace of writing and listening to the teacher continue to talk)
Writes a stream of consciousness thought (does not organize information)
Dysgraphia and Dyslexia
As writing heavily overlaps with reading, many students diagnosed with dysgraphia are also diagnosed with dyslexia. However, not all students with dyslexia show signs of dysgraphia.
As you might imagine, if a child is having difficulty forming letters, they are also likely struggling to recognize the letters they see when they read. These visual-spatial challenges make learning to write and read much more challenging, though not impossible. Many of these children perform well on verbal tasks, as they grasp language and vocabulary when it is not presented in the written form. Allowing them opportunities to engage in hands-on learning rather than through the use of one-dimensional learning strategies, such as flashcards, is beneficial.
This overlap of dyslexia and dysgraphia results in much of the multi-sensory tutoring focusing on both writing and reading. It may also mean that the child needs assistance to recognize the grammatical components when reading so that they pause at commas and at the end of sentences. This tutoring may also address the nuances of intonation that express the meaning of the passages being read to help students comprehend the overall passage as well as connect with the grammar rules they will need to apply when writing.
Managing Dysgraphia
What is often noticed and addressed first is the physical challenges a child has with writing. Working with an occupational therapist to improve fine motor skills and focus on providing a proper pencil grip is typically the first step to helping a child with dysgraphia, particularly when they are young. Many occupational therapists also teach handwriting programs such as Handwriting without Tears that uses a multi-sensory approach to learning to write. Many children with dysgraphia find more writing success when using cursive as they are able to become more fluid with their movements to form letters.
Once the physical components of writing have been mastered, the child typically benefits from multi-sensory tutoring focused on mastering grammar rules and improving spelling. During this time, it is also advantageous for the student to begin developing proficiency on the keyboard. While children need a foundational level of writing, more and more of their academic work is completed on the computer. Additionally, there are many technological advancements that ease the challenges faced by these students.
The last challenge of dysgraphia that is typically addressed is the difficulty with organizing their writing and communicating in a clear way. Children are taught this through explicit teaching of organizational strategies such as using outlines, brain maps, and color-coding categories. Often these children need to dump all of their knowledge of the particular topic without thought to how to organize it and then learn to arrange their thoughts in a way that clearly demonstrates their understanding of the topic. As the assignments become longer and more complex (like a research paper rather than an opinion-style book review), children with dysgraphia will likely need consistent check-ins to ensure they are staying on course with their organizational methods and may benefit from writing multiple drafts that are edited by others.
As with dyslexia, the needs of support and accommodations vary depending on the impact of a child’s dysgraphia. Some children need more assistance and are noticeably impaired at an earlier age than others. You may find that some students need to work with an occupational therapist on the physical aspects of writing while others need to spend more time with a tutor mastering grammar rules. Similarly, as children age and progress through school, their needs change with the academic demands. Often, this occurs in the form of reducing or eliminating tutoring and relying solely on accommodations.
Examples of common accommodations:
Extended time
Opportunities to become proficient at keyboarding
Minimizing the amount of information required to copy off the board
Not penalizing for spelling errors, except on spelling tests (even in foreign language classes)
The use of a computer for writing assignments
Flexibility in foreign language requirements
One-on-one instruction
Using voice recognition software to assist with writing
Permission to dictate responses
Testing in a distraction-reduced setting
Teacher’s notes prior to class to ensure child has all of the information
Access to a peer’s notes
Permission to record lectures
Helpful Technology
There are many advancements in technology that can be valuable for students struggling with dysgraphia. Below is a quick overview of a few of those helpful pieces of technology.
Speech-to-text software – There are many software programs, some of which may already be uploaded to your computer or phone, that allow students to dictate their responses rather than type them out. This can be extremely useful for children who struggle with typing or older students who can work more quickly by talking rather than typing. The speed of getting work done often becomes a greater challenge in high school and college. I find that this also allows students to get all of the information out of their head and then allows them to go back and organize it in a coherent manner.
Word processing software – Most students in middle school and beyond complete much of their work on a computer. Using a word processing software that has a built-in spell check, grammar check, dictionary, and thesaurus can greatly aid in a child’s ability to write effectively. This reduces the pressure to ensure that they are always following spelling and grammar rules, and instead provides a first line defense in editing their paper. However, it is likely that these students would continue to benefit from additional editing of their paper as this software is not 100% accurate in acknowledging all errors and it does not address clarity or organization of the writing as a whole.
Writing Apps – There are many apps available that provide a fun learning environment for children to practice their writing skills. This can be especially helpful for younger children with weak fine motor skills. Additionally, some apps ease the challenges associated with completing homework worksheets (especially when required to fit responses within predetermined spaces). Check out these
Smartpens – Sometimes children with dysgraphia prefer to continue writing rather than typing on a computer. This frequently occurs when students have a particular style of note-taking (for example, incorporating pictures or using a unique outline format), when the actual act of writing (typically in cursive) aids in the retention of the information, or when they struggle to become proficient on a keyboard. For these students, the use of a smartpen (such as a Pulsepen or Livescribe pen) can be extremely valuable. These pens record what the student writes on special paper. The pen is then connected to a computer where it converts the written information into a typed document.
Other tools – There are many other tools that are not as technologically advanced that help students with their writing. A child may benefit from using a pencil grip, specially lined paper, graphic organizers, or a lap board.
For more information on useful tools and technology to assist children with dysgraphia, check out this list on Understood.org.