Posts

Dysgraphia in Children Explained

/in /by

Dysgraphia is a type of writing learning disability that is recognized by Florida public schools.  When a child has dysgraphia writing can be a mentally overwhelming, physically exhausting, and time consuming.  It might be dysgraphia if your child does not enjoy writing and has a negative attitude toward writing.

How Dysgraphia Presents

Children with dysgraphia are not all the same and present in various ways.  Some children with dysgraphia have messy looking handwriting, others have an awkward pencil grasp which fatigues their hand, other child have difficulty quickly copying from the board to their paper, and some are poor spellers.

Furthermore, many children with dysgraphia often have great thoughts and can speak more eloquently than they write.  For example, a recent client’s child had writing difficulty. The boy’s second-grade schoolteacher required weekly homework to write each spelling word in a sentence. Dysgraphia impeded his handwriting and ability to put thoughts onto paper so rather than elaborate sentences, he wrote very simple sentences.  For the word, ‘supper’ he wrote, “I eat supper.” This simple sentence pattern repeated for words such as ‘color’ and ‘inside’ with sentence such as “I like to color.” and “I go inside.” Although the boy correctly used the spelling word, the teacher did not like the simplicity of his sentences and noted this in large red ink on his paper. This was not the child being lazy but rather him coping with dysgraphia. After an evaluation and diagnosis from me, the parent got the school to give her son a 504 Plan to give teachers understanding and her son accommodations.

Causes of Dysgraphia

The causes of dysgraphia may include weak finger control, fine motor difficulty, seeing information one way but writing it a different way, rapid recall from memory difficulty, slow processing speed, working memory weakness or a combination of factors.

Treatment for Dysgraphia

Treatment for dysgraphia can include occupational therapy, working with an educational therapist, home based exercises to increase motor control, keyboarding, and learning writing strategies.

Call to discuss your child as we test students ages 5.5 through college for dyslexia, dysgraphia, ADHD, depression, anxiety, and other processing disorders.  Visit JimForgan.com or call 561.625.4125.

Dysgraphia Explained

/in /by

Could it be a writing learning disability? Does your child have awful looking penmanship? Does she have an awkward looking pencil grip? How about difficulty putting thoughts onto paper?  One young child told me he felt like he was having writing wars with his hand.  A mom expressed her frustration when she explained her child’s writing was so slow and laborious that the writing process was painful for them both. These are classic dysgraphia warning signs.

Dysgraphia is a writing learning disability that affects 6-10% of kids.  Testing for dysgraphia is an easy process that most kids enjoy. We assess your child’s finger control as some children can’t control their finger movements.  This creates fine motor difficulty. A dysgraphia evaluation also assesses your child’s ability to copy from close or farther away.  We compared your child’s talking ability with his or her writing ability as most children with dysgraphia are stronger verbal communicators but don’t express themselves well in written form.

If your child has dysgraphia he or she might be eligible for classroom accommodations on a 504 Plan.  This is the public school document that recognizes your child has dysgraphia and prevents teachers from discriminating against your child’s writing. Some children need to use technology whether voice to text or keyboarding.  Other children need extra time on writing tests.  Some children need a special writing utensil such as the Pen Again which is a wishbone looking pencil that helps children correct an awkward pencil grasp.

Children with weak finger strength and control might need to participate in occupational therapy. An occupational therapist works on fine motor activities such as cutting, drawing, buttoning, and improving finger control.  Children with severe dysgraphia often qualify to receive occupational therapy at school.  A thorough dysgraphia evaluation pinpoints your child’s difficulty and provides the paperwork for obtaining school help.

We offer in office ADHD/ADD testing, school neuropsychological evaluations for dysgraphia and dyslexia, and gifted testing. Call (561) 625 4125.

dysgraphia test

Writing Help

/in /by

For various reasons some children do not enjoy writing. You can help make writing fun this summer by assisting your child in writing his or her own book, creating mazes, and by learning keyboarding. When my children were young I purchased a blank book from an online retailer because this book had a durable cover and blank pages inside.  When we went on vacation I took pictures so that upon returning home, my child and I selected and printed 10-15 favorites.  Then we taped them in the book and my child either wrote about the picture or told me what to write.  The kids loved it and now, a decade later, we have lots of great books filled with memories.

Many kids enjoy doing mazes and you can suggest that your child create his or her own mazes for others to complete. You can use graph paper to help with the lines or just use blank paper.  Your child has to write the directions so people know what to do because some mazes are started at the end, are completed with the opposite hand, or get penalized if they hit a dead-end.

One of my best classes was taking a typing class but many schools don’t formally teach keyboarding anymore. This summer you can give your child a life skill that is crucial in today’s world.  Use Type to Learn, Mavis Beacon, or other programs and require 10-15 minutes per day of keyboard training.  Going forward this skill will make your child’s life easier.

Some children struggle with writing because they have dysgraphia which makes penmanship look extremely messy, the same letter is formed different ways, letters don’t sit on the line, and children can have difficulty copying. Some kids with dysgraphia think great thoughts but can’t transfer them to paper.  If your child has these warning signs, consider a dysgraphia evaluation.

Contact us if we can help you. 561-625-4125