Dyslexia's Lesser-Known Cousin: Dysgraphia

Most of us have heard of dyslexia. Children over 7 who still have difficulty writing and distinguishing the printed lower-case p and q, b and d are commonly considered dyslexic. We also hear that they jumble words, often reading and writing them backwards, such as reading or writing "dog" instead of "god." When my son was first diagnosed with a learning disability in elementary school and tried to tell people the nature of the problem, they often argued with him, telling him the word was "dyslexia." But he knew exactly what he was saying, and it wasn't dyslexia, but dysgraphia.

Separating terms

Part of the confusion of the two terms seems to stem from the fact that everyone knows about dyslexia and few have heard of dysgraphia. (I note as I write this that dyslexia is in the word processor's dictionary, but dysgraphia is not.) To further the confusion, the two do have some common traits. For instance, both may have the difficulty with flipping and reversing letters, especially b/d and p/q. Interestingly, the two disabilities often occur together, and yet they are unrelated. Dyslexia is a reading impairment; dysgraphia is a writing impairment.

Signs of dysgraphia

To be more precise, dysgraphia indicates a problem with small motor skills. Any activities that take such manipulation can cause trouble, such as tying shoes. My son had to have Velcro-laced shoes long after the other kids knew how to tie their laces.

Most of the signs appear in written work, however, which is why children are not typically diagnosed until they are about halfway through elementary school. Their handwriting, either printed or cursive or maybe both, is very difficult to read. They are very slow in their writing. Capitalization occurs at inappropriate times. Punctuation is often missing entirely. The letters seldom touch the bottom line, and if there are 3 lines like in many early handwriting exercises, the middle line seems to have no purpose to them. Often there are no extra spaces between words. Spelling can't really be considered an issue because it can be just fine or terrible; the larger problem is trying to figure out what the letters are since deciphering is so difficult. There were times I asked my son what he had written, and even he couldn't figure it out.

The often overlooked indicator

One of the most significant symptoms often goes unnoticed because children don't often talk about it unless they are asked: pain. The pain often starts in the writing hand and then moves up the arm and into the neck. Headaches and nausea are quite common, and these are symptoms that can certainly be misinterpreted. Is the child saying he feels sick just so he doesn't have to work on his homework anymore? At school or at home, it didn't seem to matter for my son. If he worked on any assignment requiring writing for more than about 10 minutes, he was sick.

Why these symptoms manifest

These indicators of dysgraphia make much more sense when considering what is going on in the body. When most of us see the word "hello," we think "h-e-l-l-o" as we write. After a time, we may not even have to think that specifically if the word is automatic. A person with dysgraphia, on the other hand, thinks something like this: "line down, hump on the side, circle but not quite closed, line in the middle," and so on. They don't even think about each letter as they write it; they think about each stroke as they make it. Having to concentrate so intently would make most of us stressed, and putting it in the context of school when there are so many minutes to finish an assignment creates a more hurried response, which of course is illegible. Working like this for an hour and then being told what you wrote wasn't good enough because the teacher couldn't read it is also incredibly frustrating.

How to help dysgraphics

The frustration created by the difficulties of dysgraphia can be greatly reduced with word processors. They take away the intensity of the writing process since the dysgraphic doesn't have to think about the formation of the letters. The content may have more substance since the writer can spend time considering the ideas within and actually have the time to write them. And finally, teachers and bosses can read the finished product. Computers make for a win-win situation.

Why many people haven't heard of dysgraphia

I believe there are a number of children with dysgraphia who have not been, and probably will not be, diagnosed. Working in an environment where learning disabilities were commonly discussed and diagnosed, I was able to see the problems my son was experiencing and intervene. But there are children out there who are being told that they are lazy, that they have sloppy handwriting and so need to practice more, that don't understand why everyone else can write so fast and just ignore the pain. Dysgraphia needs to become more familiar so these children can get the assistance they need.

References

Wikipedia. "Dysgraphia." Wikipedia.org.

National Center for Learning Disabilities. "Dysgraphia." Ldonline.org.