Prevention, remediation and accommodation are all important elements in the treatment of dysgraphia. Many problems can be prevented by early training. Young children in kindergarten and grade one should learn to form letters correctly; kinesthetic memory is powerful and incorrect habits are very difficult to eradicate. Muscle training and over-learning good techniques are both critical for the remediation of dysgraphia. 

Specifically designed exercises are needed to increase strength and dexterity. A specialist can recommend the most appropriate plan of handwriting exercises. For all students, kinesthetic writing, that is writing with eyes closed or averted, is a powerful reinforcer. Work needs always to begin with the formation of individual letters written in isolation. Alphabets need to be practiced daily, often for months.

Finally, individuals can benefit from a variety of modifications and accommodations. One effective method is to teach the use of a word processor, bypassing the complex motor demands of handwriting. Many students may find learning the keyboard by the alphabet method easier than beginning with the home keys. For many, touch typing offers a whole new opportunity to learn to spell through a different kinesthetic mode. Students should also experiment with different writing tools; some people with dysgraphia may find pencil grips helpful. Other bypass methods include allowing the student to answer questions orally or into a tape recorder instead of writing, modifying written assignments so that less writing is required, and allowing extended time to complete tests and assignments. Copying from the board is an especially difficult task.

Teachers need to provide notes. Photocopying the notes of another student is one possibility. Providing an outline, with spaces left for the student to fill in information, is another. Writing on a slightly inclined plane may be helpful.

Dysgraphia is a term that is way overused, and commonly is used to describe “bad handwriting”. If a student has a poor grip or sloppy handwriting, they are often labeled as having dysgraphia.

To diagnose true dysgraphia, there are three main types:

Dyslexic dysgraphia - students who can copy written work but have difficulty with composition due to visual memory problems with spelling, putting thoughts together to compose, etc. These students have great thoughts in their head but are challenged when they have composed.

Fine Motor dysgraphia - this is usually unrelated to pencil grip! These students have some fine motor and eye hand coordination challenges, and the physical act of controlling the pencil is difficult.

Visual Motor dysgraphia - these students have trouble seeing a symbol and reproducing it on paper. These kids just have trouble learning to write the letter, and often have reversals.

Programs like Fonts 4 Teachers can help overcome dysgraphia fast!

Written by: Jan McCleskey, MA, OTR

The Handwriting Clinic

A few people with dysgraphia lack only the fine motor coordination to produce legible handwriting, but some may have a physical tremor that interferes with writing.

In most cases, however, several brain systems interact to produce dysgraphia. Some experts believe that dysgraphia involves a dysfunction in the interaction between the two main brain systems that allows a person to translate mental into written language (phoneme-to-grapheme translation, i.e., sound to symbol, and lexicon-tographeme translation, i.e., mental to written word).

Other studies have shown that split attention, memory load, and familiarity of graphic material affect writing ability. Typically, a person with illegible handwriting has a combination of fine-motor difficulty, inability to re-visualize letters, and inability to remember the motor patterns of letter forms.

Some handwriting software can really help overcome dysgraphia!

For many children with dysgraphia, cursive writing has several advantages:

• It eliminates the necessity of picking up a pencil and deciding where to replace it after each letter.
• Each letter starts on the line, thus eliminating another potentially confusing decision for the writer.
• Cursive also has very few reversible letters, a typical source of trouble for people with dysgraphia.
• It eliminates word-spacing problems and gives words a flow and rhythm that enhances learning.
• For children who find it difficult to remember the motor patterns of letter forms, starting with cursive eliminates the traumatic transition from manuscript to cursive writing.
• Writers in cursive also have more opportunity to distinguish b, d, p, and q because the cursive letter formations for writing each of these letters is so different.

While dysgraphia may be broadly classified as follows, there are many individual variations that affect both treatment and prognosis. School teachers should be informed about.

 1. In dyslexic dysgraphia, spontaneously written text is illegible, especially when the text is complex. Oral spelling is poor, but drawing and copying of written text are relatively normal. Finger-tapping speed (a measure of fine-motor speed) is normal.

2. In motor dysgraphia, both spontaneously written and copied text may be illegible, oral spelling is normal, and drawing is usually problematic. Finger-tapping speed is abnormal.

3. In spatial dysgraphia, people display illegible writing, whether spontaneously produced or copied. Oral spelling is normal. Finger-tapping speed is normal, but drawing is very problematic.

Some programs like fonts 4 teachers can offer a great support to children to fight dysgraphia.

Ramon Abajo, Handwriting Expert & Teacher of the Year

Downhill Publishing LLC

No, dysgraphia cannot be diagnosed solely by looking at a handwriting sample. A qualified clinician must directly test the individual. Such a test includes:  

• writing self-generated sentences and paragraphs
• copying age-appropriate text

The examiner assesses not only the finished product, but also the process, including posture

• position
• pencil grip
• fatigue
• cramping
• tremor of the writing hand
• eyed-ness and handedness
• other factors

The examiner may assess fine-motor speed with finger tapping and wrist turning. Some programs like fonts 4 teachers can offer a great support to children to fight dysgraphia.

Ramon Abajo, Handwriting Expert & Teacher of the Year

Downhill Publishing LLC

Girl with Dysgraphia

If you are a teacher and have students with dysgraphia, please have these suggestions in mind:

1. Determine whether output problems are limited to one modality (e.g., only handwriting or typing).
2. If so, encourage the student to focus on use of the output form that works best, even if this means developing or improving skills (e.g., keyboarding proficiency, experimentation with printing).
3. Handwriting can sometimes be improved by having the student develop an orthographic style that is more natural for them than the style of writing they have been taught in school; example: conventional cursive may be difficult but a more calligraphic print style may become more legible and more fluent. You can use school fonts that include cursive…
4. Particularly if motor output difficulties apply to both handwriting and typing, encourage the student to try using dictation software (e.g., Box Fonts). [Note: Patience may be needed in the initial training of this system; DSS staff may be able to help with advice and strategies for making the system work effectively].
5. Punctuation and capitalization problems can be very difficult to improve. Teach self-monitoring for accuracy on this dimension. Have papers proofread, if necessary. Minimize penalties for these errors.
6. Spellingis also very difficult to improve. Develop skills in use of spell checking. Mark errors but have the student to make the corrections. Develop a list of particularly troublesome words, especially those that are frequently used. Focus on distinctions that spell checkers miss, e.g., heterographic homophones, like “hear-here,” “there-their,” “whether-weather,” etc.
7. Encourage the student to value a rich vocabulary over one that is easily spelled. Have the student mark those “stretch” words for later spelling check, then, help the student ensure that the spelling of those words is accurate.

Ramon Abajo, Handwriting Expert & Teacher of the Year

Downhill Publishing LLC

The following dysgraphia symptoms can be displayed  in the classroom when working on handwriting:

• Student may be unable to take effective notes in class or from readings.
• Writing by hand may be slow and effortful, resulting in diminished content in papers and essays in comparison with the student’s knowledge.
• Legibility of written work may be poor, becoming increasingly worse from the beginning to the end of the document.
• Capitalization and punctuation errors inconsistent with student’s linguistic skills may be seen.
• Spelling may be inaccurate and/or inconsistent.
• Vocabulary used in writing may be significantly restricted in comparison to the student’s reading or spoken vocabulary (may be due to concerns about spelling accuracy).
• Content of written work may be impoverished due to effort required by the physical act of writing

Some teachers are using kids fonts to correct some of the dysgraphia problems.  Maybe it can also help you!

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Ramon Abajo, Handwriting Expert & Teacher of the Year

Downhill Publishing LLC

 Dysgraphia can greatly impact student’s performance in class:

• Student may be unable to take effective notes in class or from readings.
• Writing by hand may be slow and effortful, resulting in diminished content in papers and essays in comparison with the student’s knowledge.
• Legibility of written work may be poor, becoming increasingly worse from the beginning to the end of the document.
• Capitalization and punctuation errors inconsistent with student’s linguistic skills may be seen.
• Spelling may be inaccurate and/or inconsistent.
• Vocabulary used in writing may be significantly restricted in comparison to the student’s reading or spoken vocabulary (may be due to concerns about spelling accuracy).
• Content of written work may be impoverished due to effort required by the physical act of writing

Teachers are using Fonts 4 Teachers in many schools throughout the country to fight dysgraphia with remarkable success. 

Ramon Abajo, Handwriting Expert & Teacher of the Year

Downhill Publishing LLC

There is no one place in the brain that is responsible for writing and there are several different ways dysgraphia can manifest itself. The strategies or methods used should target where the breakdown is occurring.

Strategy 1. If the student has difficulty gripping a writing utensil, then experiment with different pens or pencils, encourage proper grip and posture, or develop keyboarding skills to compensate.

Strategy 2. If the student with dysgraphia has difficulty remembering how to form letters, reinforce letter formation with large motor movements, smaller hand/finger motions, and multisensory reinforcements such as visual and auditory cues. Practice the letters and sounds many different ways (see it, hear it, say it, trace it with a body part). Find tricks to help the student remember letters, e.g. for the direction of b’s and d’s use your hands to make the shape of a bed. With both hands make a fist, the palms toward you. Leave your thumbs up. Your thumbs form the top of the b (headboard) and the d (foot of the bed). You can always remember the direction of b and d using this trick.

Strategy 3. If the student with dysgraphia has difficulty spelling or sequencing letters, use multi-sensory techniques to establish visual, auditory, and motor memory.  Fonts 4 Teachers is a program that can help them spell and write faster.

Strategy 4. If the student with dysgraphia has difficulty organizing thoughts, use the steps of the writing process:

a. P-Plan what you are going to write about.

b. O-Organize with idea maps or outlines.

c. W-Write your thoughts-if you can’t get started with a blank page, start with an index

card.

d. E-Edit your own writing as well as have someone else edit your draft.

e. R-Revise your draft with your own and someone else’s edits.

Additionally, help the student find someone whose writing he/she really likes and ask the person to model how to get started, organize ideas, use handwriting software, etc.. It even helps to have the model edit the individual’s writing. Encourage them to ask the model what they are thinking when they make changes or edits. The law of good writing is that every writer gets help, especially good writers.

Strategy 5. If the student with dysgraphia has a voice in his/her head that is critical during writing, help him/her develop a response to it. For example, if writing reminds him/her of a teacher that said he/she was a terrible speller, teach them to respond by saying, “Maybe I am a poor speller, but I can revise it later and use spell-check.”

Strategy 6. If the student with dysgraphia can’t get ideas down on paper, provide him/her time to talk them out or dictate them into a tape recorder. With taped notes he/she can fast-forward through ideas or stop the tape when an idea needs to be fleshed out.

Strategy 7. If the student with dysgraphia has difficulty generating ideas, teach him/her to pay attention to how the authors organize their ideas. It isn’t cheating to organize one’s ideas in the same way as long as the ideas/wording aren’t the same. Also pay attention to phrases or words the author uses. One can always start with wording that he/she likes and develop ideas from there.

Compiled by the Learning Disabilities Association of Minnesota