Rebecca S. Blakeman, PhD
Licensed Psychologist

Statements I hear all too frequently that make my heart break for the students involved:  “If he would just try harder, he could write neatly.”  “She writes her letters backwards because she’s careless.”  “His writing is unreadable because he’s lazy.” 

These statements, more often than not, occur when a teacher or parent is unaware of the signs of a learning disability related to writing:  dysgraphia.  Children with dysgraphia have a difficult time learning to write their letters, such that their letter formations remain immature, even after several years of writing.  Their writing is characterized by poor spacing, such that letters may be on top of each other, or so far apart that they do not appear to be part of the same word.  It is often difficult to determine where one word ends and the other begins.  For some children, it is nearly impossible to keep the words on the line, so that their writing “floats” on the page.  Children with dysgraphia will often make letter reversals, such as writing a ‘b’ when they meant to write a ‘d.’  This has nothing to do with seeing letters backwards, but is rather a sign that they are having trouble either (1) remembering what the letter looks like, or (2) making their hand perform the necessary movements to make the letter look “right.” 

When watching children with dysgraphia write, several observations can clue a parent or teacher into the fact that there is a problem.  First, these children often hold their pencils in awkward and inefficient ways.  When the thumb is resting on top of the other fingers, it makes writing a gross (large) motor skill, rather than a fine (small) motor skill.  This often means that the child’s entire arm becomes fatigued as they write.  Children with dysgraphia also tend to form their letters in unusual ways.  While the letter they write may be readable, they may start at the end of the letter and write “backward” to create the letter.  Certainly, if a child is making additional pencil strokes to create a letter, it is a warning sign for dysgraphia (e.g., a child makes the top part of an ‘s,’ then picks his pencil up and uses another stroke to make the bottom half of the letter, starting at the ‘end’ of the letter).  Children with dysgraphia also tend to exhibit extremes in relation to the pressure they use when writing.  For example, they may press so hard that one can “feel” their writing on the back of the paper, or they may even poke holes in the paper from pressing so hard.  Likewise, some children with dysgraphia will use too little pressure, such that their writing is very light and they exercise limited control over their pencil movements. 

While messy handwriting may seem relatively trivial, dysgraphia affects not only neatness of writing, but also one’s ability to express themselves in writing.  Because it takes so much physical and mental energy to simply write letters, children with dysgraphia tend to make mistakes when writing, such as spelling errors (even when they know how to spell the word), leaving out words, omitting parts of words, and neglecting punctuation and capitalization.  These children tend to minimize their writing, as it is very difficult and they recognize they are not successful.  However, if you ask them to communicate their thoughts orally, they can provide lengthy explanations of their thoughts and what they wanted their answer to be.

If you suspect that your child has dysgraphia, it is beneficial to obtain a thorough evaluation, as other learning disabilities and conditions are often co-existing with dysgraphia (e.g., dyslexia, ADHD).  Depending on the nature of the dysgraphia (e.g., if it is associated with other fine motor skill weaknesses, if it is associated with visual processing deficits), recommendations for improving writing skills vary, but may include working with an Occupational Therapist or a specialist who uses multisensory approaches for teaching writing and spelling.  Certainly, it is critical that appropriate accommodations (e.g., no copying from the board) be in place in the school setting to allow these children to succeed without being penalized by a neurological condition that has nothing to do with laziness, carelessness or poor motivation.