Dysgraphia

Dysgraphia is a learning difference that can affect your writing ability, and the way you process language and communicate. It can make it difficult to spell, and write clearly. Dysgraphia can impact your daily life and development. But getting support may help you improve your writing skills and manage any difficulties you have.

About dysgraphia

People are often diagnosed with dysgraphia as children, when they start school. Dysgraphia is a life-long condition that affects both adults and children. It affects your writing, not just your handwriting, but other aspects too. For example, you may find it difficult to translate your thoughts into words, structure a sentence, or to physically hold a pen. You have these difficulties despite the opportunity to learn the skills in education, and your written skills fall behind other people your age.

Dysgraphia can affect children at school, or if you’re an adult, cause difficulties in education or at work, and with daily living. For example, difficulty tying shoelaces and other fine motor skills.

Dysgraphia is what’s called a learning difference. This is different to a learning disability and has nothing to do with intelligence. It doesn’t affect your ability to understand and learn new information. But the problems dysgraphia can cause may affect learning everyday life skills in education and employment.

Conditions associated with dysgraphia

Many people with dysgraphia also have other difficulties. These include:

• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
• dyslexia

Dysgraphia can lead to developing mental health conditions, such as anxiety and low self-esteem and confidence. This is because of the frustration of having the knowledge and understanding of concepts, but not being able to put this into writing.

Types of dysgraphia

There are different types of dysgraphia.

• Dyslexic dysgraphia is when you find spelling very challenging and your handwriting is illegible, but your finger movement when you draw or trace is normal.
• Dysgraphia is when you have poor fine motor skills. This makes handwriting physically difficult and slow, even if your spelling is fine and you can organise your thoughts well.
• Spatial dysgraphia is related to difficulty understanding spatial relationships. This can cause you to write out letters that are different sizes and have different spaces between them. You’ll likely find it hard to organise your thoughts on paper too.

Causes of dysgraphia

No one knows exactly what causes dysgraphia. But it’s thought to be caused by differences in brain function that affect motor coordination and writing-related skills.

Sometimes, you can get dysgraphia after having a stroke or head injury. This is called acquired dysgraphia.

Symptoms of dysgraphia

The symptoms of dysgraphia generally fall into two categories, those that affect your physical abilities, and those that affect your thinking. You may have challenges with just one area, or both.

In children, you’ll probably first notice symptoms when they first learn to write.

Physical symptoms of dysgraphia include the following.

• Problems holding a pen or pencil. You may hold it awkwardly, or need to grip it extra tight, for example.
• Messy or ineligible handwriting.
• Difficulty keeping words on a line or within margins.
• Issues with physically writing words and numbers, finding it hard to form words, make them the same size and space them in the correct way. You may reverse the direction a letter faces along a vertical axis for example, or flip letters so they’re upside down.
• Pain and tiredness after writing.

Symptoms that affect thinking include:

• difficulty writing grammatically correct sentences
• poor spelling and punctuation
• difficulty structuring sentences in a way that makes sense to the reader
• difficulty translating ideas into writing
• slow writing
• difficulty copying text (from other paper or a screen for example)

While some of these things may happen for every child at some stage, if it’s consistently a problem and doesn’t improve as their peers do, it’s worth asking for help.

For adults, being able to express yourself when speaking can be fine, but you’re less able to put your thoughts into written form. This can be challenging at work.

If you’re an adult concerned about the symptoms above, or have a child who has them, see your GP or talk to your child’s school.

Diagnosis of dysgraphia

If you notice any problems with your child’s development, or their teachers report they’re having difficulties at school, see your GP. Or your school may have a special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) you can talk to. Your GP may refer you to a specialist. For example, an occupational therapist or psychologist may assess your child’s handwriting and general writing skills.

It’s important to get a dysgraphia diagnosis early so you can get the right support for your child and dysgraphia doesn’t continue to impact their learning. But although it’s best to get support early, it’s never too late to intervene and improve skills and provide appropriate support.

If you’re an adult with dysgraphia, speak to your GP.

There isn’t one specific test for dysgraphia, but a number of assessments to test various brain functions in relation to writing. These include assessments to identify any problems with visual perception, fine motor skills, and hand-eye coordination, for example. Or they may test your processing of sounds and how you process words.

Ask your doctor for more information about what tests you or your child need.

Support for dysgraphia

There isn’t a cure for dysgraphia – it’s something you have for life, but it may improve over time with the right support. There are ways to manage the challenges that come with dysgraphia. People with dysgraphia have their individual strengths, difficulties and needs – just like anyone else. What works best for you or your child will depend on how you’re affected by dysgraphia.

Your child may need help with both handwriting and oral language skills to improve how they express themselves when they write.

A team of health professionals may be involved in your care. These may include a:

• neurologist
• psychiatrist
• psychologist
• social worker
• occupational therapist
• physiotherapist

Support for children

Some of the first treatments for children to help them form letters include:

• playing with clay to strengthen their hand muscles
• keeping lines within mazes to develop skills in initiating movement (motor control)
• connecting dots or dashes to create complete letter forms
• tracing letters with their index finger or end of a pencil

Once children can form legible letters, they can work on writing letters by hiding a letter on a page and imagining the letter in their mind, for example. Or they can write the letter from memory after increasing intervals, or after a teacher saying a letter out loud, writing it down.

Children can then get more support in spelling before moving to more complex writing structure. To help with getting ideas into writing, there are approaches that teach writing in a very structured way, which can be useful for children with dysgraphia.

As children progress through school, extra support can include things like having more time to complete written assignments and tests. And using a keyboard or audio recorder instead of a pen and paper. See our section Living with dysgraphia for more information on this.

With the right, early support, your child may close the writing gap between them and their classmates. Make sure you praise and support your child and celebrate successes.

Practical things that may help include using a pencil grip to help hold a pencil correctly and comfortably. Other types of treatment that might help are:

• occupational therapy – this can help to improve fine motor skills (tiny movements you make with your hands and fingers) and motor planning (preparation and coordinating movements)
• physical therapy – this can help with gross motor skills (movements you make with large muscle groups, such as your arms and legs)

Support for adults

Occupational therapy may help some adults. Ask your GP if they can refer you. Private care is also available.

Living with dysgraphia

Having dysgraphia can make home, school, and work life difficult. But if you put strategies in place, it can help you, or your child, to deal with these challenges and live a fulfilling life. Some examples are below.

Children

• If your child has writing difficulties, encourage them to learn how to write letters using a multi-sensory approach. Besides just writing, could they say the letter and the sound out loud? Or they could trace it with something like playdough, or with touch on the inside of your hand.
• Teach older children to type and give them a laptop or tablet to take notes and write assignments. Ask their school or education facility if they qualify for a free laptop or tablet. Or a charity may be able to help you (see Other helpful websites below).
• If your child has a writing assignment, sit down and let them talk it through with you first. Saying it out loud can help them organise their thoughts better before they start to write.
• Proofread your child’s work and teach them to regularly proofread their own work as well. Let them know it’s ok to ask others to read things over for them.
• Explore the possibility of alternatives to written assignments with their school. For example, a video of your child explaining answers instead.

Adults

• Talk through concepts and ideas with colleagues before you produce written reports to help organise your thoughts.
• Ask colleagues to proofread your work and regularly proofread your own work as well.
• Use text prediction software to write emails and other communications. And use spell-check and grammar-check features if available in the software you’re using.
• In meetings, ask for verbal brainstorming sessions and for the note-taker to type up their notes. Or if you’re given the role of note-taker, take notes on a laptop with a projector instead of hand-written on a whiteboard.
• Ask for instructions from your employer to be verbal. If your manager can talk you through instructions by phone or voice memo, it may be easier for you to get started. Speak to your HR department if you need support with this.
• Call people rather than email.

Other helpful websites

• The Brain Charity

Discover other helpful health information websites.