Does your child have trouble with writing. Maybe their writing is slow, they have sloppy handwriting, or they just have trouble gathering their thoughts to get them down on paper?

Dysgraphia is a processing disorder that affects written expression. In other words, trouble with writing.

 

Trouble with writing?

Writing is a complex process. It involves language processing, visual-spatial processing, and fine motor skills. Trouble in any of these areas can cause dysgraphia.

Dysgraphia is usually separated into three types. These are dyslexia dysgraphia, motor dysgraphia, and spatial dysgraphia. But of course, as with all specific learning disabilities, there can be a crossover between these types, because all of the parts of the brain work together and affect one another.

Let’s cover the types of dysgraphia individually

 

Dyslexia Dysgraphia

The first, dyslexia dysgraphia, occurs when the underlying cause is most related to language processing. The student with this type of dysgraphia, just like the other types, may or may not also have dyslexia. 

 

Children with this type of dysgraphia may have trouble organizing their thoughts to write. They may have sequencing problems so they’ll have trouble getting the parts of a story in order or have trouble with logic. This may also affect working memory and attention. They may be experiencing auditory processing difficulties. Or they may have difficulty with orthographic coding, meaning they struggle with remembering what each word or letter looks like and how the hand must move to write them.

 

In this type of dysgraphia, they may say things like “I don’t know what to write” or “I don’t know where to start”. They may use the wrong words to express what they mean. Or miss words altogether.

 

Organizing their ideas may be difficult so they may have lots of run-on sentences and may go off on tangents a lot in their writing. Although they have trouble expressing their ideas in written form they may be able to express them well verbally. There can be a huge difference between their verbal communication and their written communication.

 

A clue that a child may have this type of dysgraphia is that their handwriting may be very sloppy but when they copy or draw they show no signs of problems. They may also have trouble with spelling