Dysgraphia

Dysgraphia affects a student’s ability to write coherently, regardless of their ability to read. Types identified include:

• Type 1: dyslexia dysgraphia where written work that is created spontaneously is illegible, copied work is good and spelling is poor. A student with dyslexia dysgraphia does not necessarily have dyslexia.
• Type 2: motor dysgraphia where the condition may be caused by poor fine-motor skills, poor dexterity and/or poor muscle tone. Generally written work is poor to illegible, even if it is copied from another source. While letter formation may be legible in very short samples of writing, this is usually after extreme efforts and the dedication of unreasonable amounts of time on the student’s part. Spelling skills are not impaired.
• Type 3: spatial dysgraphia where the condition is caused by a defect in spatial awareness and students may have illegible spontaneously written work as well as illegible copied work. Spelling skills are generally not impaired.

In general, written work may be presented with a mixture of upper/lower case letters, irregular letter sizes and shapes, and unfinished letters. Students struggle to use writing as a communication tool, and as so much effort goes into the actual writing process there may seem to be little imagination or thought in their work. They may have unusual writing grips, odd wrist, body and paper positions, and may suffer discomfort while writing. Excessive erasing may be evidenced as may a misuse of lines and margins. Students may also poorly organise writing on a page. Other difficulties may be observed in a poor organisation of ideas, poor sentence and/or paragraph structure and a limited expression of ideas. They may be reluctant to complete writing tasks or refuse to do so.