Dysgraphia
Dysgraphia is a learning disability which affects the ability to write or write in a legibly understood way.
Some Links on Dysgraphia
- National Center for Learning Disabilities - Dysgrpahia
- LD Online – Accommodations for Students With Dysgraphia
- Dyscalcula.Org
Once diagnosed it’s easy to accommodate Dysgraphia with the use of computers, writers (people willing to write for one with Dysgraphia), and tape recorders to help with blocks in the thought process. The hardest thing, it seems, is understanding. Kids with Dysgraphia are not lazy, they have imagination and ideas they simply can not communicate in a written form. Sometimes practice helps, but sometimes it only serves to frustrate. Accomodations as described above are most useful.
When one can't produce written communication, it puts them at a significant disadvatage. As adults we know that many times, our written communication make some of our first impressions. As we learn to write we learn good use of language and grammer, spelling, and creativity. When Dysgraphia isn't accomodated early, these things are often a significant life-long challenge to master.
My son described it this way when he was in first grade: “I’m so busy writing the letters good, that I forget what I’m writing.” His writing was normally illegible, and he only could spell phonetically.
My daughter also had Dysgraphia due to fine motor delay.
Both were given an Alphasmart, and were allowed to do work on both home and school computers. The Alphasmart is a small keyboard, word processor type device. Notes or assignments can be typed into it, then plug it into a computer, and download all the info into a wordprocessor such as MS Word.
Both my kids had help through occupational therapy. We had more early success with my daughter when they decided her issues were permanent, and accomodated her right away. She has been able to successfully over come this problem, and types well thought out work.
It wasn't until my son was in his last year of high school, that we convinced them to accomodate his Dysgraphia. At that time, when he handed in typed work, it was so different than what he would produce by hand, that his teachers often accused him of having someone else do his work. Why is it so difficult to recognize people's strength's, weaknesses, and understand differences? He still struggles to overcome this issue.
I found the following quote on a web site that talked about Dysgraphia:
"Asking a child who has Dysgraphia to write an essay is like pouring an
ocean through a garden hose!"
Please refer to the links at the top
of this page for more information on this easy to accomodate learning
disability.
