Understanding Dyslexic Dysgraphia

Remember your excitement when you first saw your child writing all by himself? Isn't it a pleasure to receive innocently made cards in their own handwriting? But what if they avoid writing because they have problems in doing so?

Writing is a natural trait of human beings and deficiency in writing ability is a matter for serious concern. When your young child is not able to scribble a few sentences correctly, it is natural to be concerned about his ability. What could be the cause of the deficiency affecting the writing power of a child? "It may be a case of dyslexic dysgraphia", says your family doctor when you take your child to him. You are in state of shock as the doctor goes on explaining the cause and other details!

Dyslexic dysgraphia does not seem to have originated from the fine motor problem or any other intellectual impairment, as the finger tapping activity remains normal. The dyslexic child finds letters in reversed shape while reading or writing and that makes it difficult for him to copy the words right!

Dyslexia is known as a disorderly condition which is noticeable mainly as a problem with reading and spelling activity in children. It has no connection with other problems such as poor vision or hearing deficiency or any other non-neurological lacuna or gap. It is not attributed as an intellectual insufficiency. Dysgraphia is one type of dyslexia where there is a problem specifically in writing.

As stated earlier, it is a form of dyslexia. Common symptoms observed in this condition are illegible writing, uneven letters without any consistency, a faulty combination of uppercase and lower case letters and unfinished writing tasks. Parents make complaints about the struggling attitude of the child while reading due to difficulty with words like ‘if’, ‘to’,’ but’ and so many others. Children cannot finally bring the writing on paper due to the lacuna in the fine motor activity. The child is unable to tighten his shoe laces and makes a face of frustration.

Dysgraphia is classified in three categories. Motor dysgraphia originates due to inability of muscle, improper motor function and retarded dexterity. The child finds difficulty in writing and it is mostly illegible but there is less spelling mistakes. Dyslexic dysgraphia has more spelling mistakes with illegible handwriting. Spatial dysgraphia indicates messy spacing of words in writing.

Children should be attended properly while they are taking their primary lessons in writing. If there is any lacuna or gap in their ability, it will give signals from the very beginning and parents can take remedial actions immediately.

One should understand that dyslexic dysgraphia is merely a writing deficiency, which produces distorted writing scripts, poor handwriting and mis-spelled words but nothing to do with the IQ of the child. It is simply a neurological dysfunction due to specific or some times non-specific origin.

Children with dyslexia display faulty writing skills with illegibility but they are generally correct in speaking on the subject. There seems to be messy combination of upper and lower case letters with diverse size and shape of letters. Spacing between words is inconsistent and margin lines are never bothered. There are errors in punctuations, suffixes, disorderly numbering and sometimes there are slips of syllables.

Children with dyslexic dysgrphaia struggle with their grip on the pen or pencil and will try several tactics to inscribe words on the paper without much success. The child is found to be engaged in self talking during the process of writing and the body is not in the correct position with the paper. It becomes a hard and painful task for the child to complete his task of writing.