BEST Tips and Resources for Dysgraphia

When a child or teen consistently struggles with the physical act of handwriting or conveying thoughts in written form, it may be a strong indication of what is called dysgraphia. This challenge can effect individuals of all ages, not just children or teens, and can not only impact a student's academic achievement but also his self-esteem---and not in a positive way.

How Will I Know If a Child Has Dysgraphia?

For years, dysgraphia was the diagnosis used for issues with writing. Now, dysgraphia is no longer a diagnosis. However, there is currently a diagnosis called specific learning disorder with impairment in written expression. This diagnosis refers to trouble conveying thoughts in writing, rather than transcription issues.

Evaluators still have ways to identify the transcription challenges, however. Some of the tests for broader writing issues include sub-tests for spelling. There are also tests for fine motor skills (the ability to make movements using the small muscles in our hands, wrists and fingers). And there are tests for motor planning skills (the ability to remember and perform steps to make a movement happen).

Several types of professionals can evaluate kids with writing issues. Psychologists test for learning issues. Occupational therapists and physical therapists test fine and gross motor skills. There are also other specialists who help kids with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) able to do this.

Trouble with writing can be caused by other learning challenges. For example, poor spelling can be the result of reading issues like dyslexia. Poor handwriting might be caused by DCD (sometimes referred to as dyspraxia).

To get the appropriate help and support for your child, it’s important to know the cause of the child’s difficulties. A full evaluation would be a good first step and can help you understand these challenges, along with your child’s strengths.

What Can Help Manage the Symptoms of Dysgraphia?

There are a number of things that can help your child with dysgraphia challenges. These include supports and services at school, therapies outside of school, and strategies you can try at home.

Types of Support and Accommodations for Dysgraphia

Appropriate Therapies: The main treatment for handwriting issues is occupational therapy (OT). Therapists can work with kids to improve fine motor skills and motor planning. Physical therapy can help with arm position and posture.

These therapies may be available free at a public school via an IEP. Some parents may also pay privately for therapy outside of school, depending on resources available.

School Supports: Kids with dysgraphia may get supports at school through an IEP or a 504 plan. There are a number of accommodations for writing issues. Kids may also get assistive technology and other tools. These can range from simple pencil grips to dictation software. As much as possible, create a classroom that is dysgraphia-friendly with accommodations like the following:

1. Yes, DO Teach Cursive Writing: Cursive writing has fewer starting points than disconnected print letters, which translates to improved writing speed, more consistent letter sizing, and neater overall appearance of writing. Watch a free webinar on the importance of cursive writing instruction for students and use cursive writing books from Handwriting Without Tears to teach cursive writing as early as first grade. Remember that cursive writing helps promote more connectivity between the two hemispheres of the human brain.

2. DO Teach Typing: Typing can be easier than writing once students are fluent with keyboards. Teach typing skills starting as early as kindergarten and allow for ample typing practice in the classroom. Many schools and districts have typing programs to support their students’ budding typing skills. Great online typing programs include Nessy Fingers Touch Typing (which costs money), TypingClub and the games at Typing.com.

3. DO Provide Access to Speech-to-Text Tools: Assistive technology accommodations can support students with dysgraphia in their classroom writing tasks in all grades. There are several free, easy-to-use speech-to-text dictation tools. Students can use Google’s Voice Typing tool, Dragon Dictation, or Apple’s Speak Screen functions.

4. DO Use Graph Paper for Math Assignments and Tests: Graph paper helps students with dysgraphia stay in the lines, which becomes increasingly important in the later grades when they’re faced with more complex math tasks. Reduce unintended errors by providing graph paper for student tests or as a background for homework assignments. Consider using the free printable math grids like those available at Do2Learn (please see Dysgraphia Resources below here).

5. DO Allow for Note-Taking Accommodations: Copying notes from a whiteboard can be a particular challenge for students with dysgraphia. Allow students to take pictures of lecture notes to review later. Students can use a free optical character reader (OCR) like Prizmo Go (for iOS) or Google Keep (for Android) to automatically read text from the photos to review those notes.

6. DO Be Deliberate about Hanging Students’ Written Work: Classroom writing is difficult for students with dysgraphia. Written assignments may take two or three times as long to complete, and often they will look sloppy even if the student has tried to produce their best work. When displaying student work, consider waiting to hang assignments until everyone has finished so students with dysgraphia don’t feel shame at having everyone else’s work on display while theirs is still in progress. Another option is to hang typed work so students with dysgraphia can be proud of the finished product that hangs alongside the work of their peers.

These are just a few things that may help a student with dysgraphia in the classroom. But mainly it’s important to be creative about accommodations and to communicate with students about their individual needs.

Help at Home: There are many ways you can help your child with writing issues. Here are just a handful:

1. Locate a good drawing exercise for improving handwriting.
2. View an expert explaining how to use dictation software on a mobile device.
3. Discover tools that can help with writing difficulties.
4. Watch a video on how different pencil grips might help your child.
5. Try a variety of multi-sensory techniques for teaching handwriting.
6. Download tools, apps and other resources to help with handwriting. (See Dysgraphia Resources below here.)

Dysgraphia Resources

Dysgraphia: What You Need to Know - by Understood
https://www.understood.org/en/learning-attention-issues/child-learning-disabilities/dysgraphia/understanding-dysgraphia

10 Tips to Help Children with Dysgraphia
https://www.focusandread.com/blog/post/3828864

BEST Websites for Dyslexia & Dysgraphia
https://helpforstrugglingreaders.blogspot.com/2013/10/best-websites-for-dyslexia-dysgraphia.html

Creating a Dysgraphia-Friendly Classroom - by Jessica Hamman, edutopia
Here are 6 ways to support students with dysgraphia—a learning difference that affects a person’s ability to produce written work.
https://www.edutopia.org/article/creating-dysgraphia-friendly-classroom

8 Tools for Kids with Dysgraphia - by Understood
These tools and apps can make writing easier. She may already use some of them at school, but it can help to have them at home, too. Most tools are sold in online catalogs for occupational therapists.
https://www.understood.org/en/learning-attention-issues/child-learning-disabilities/dysgraphia/8-tools-for-kids-with-dysgraphia

Dysgraphia-I Created an App for That - by Amberlynn Gifford Slavin, ADDitude
It’s called SnapType, and it helps kids keep up with their peers in class when their penmanship holds them back.
https://www.additudemag.com/dysgraphia-i-created-an-app-for-that/

FREE Printable Math Grids - from Do2Learn
http://www.do2learn.com/academics/Mathematics/index.htm

For information about customizable tools for readers and learners of all ages, please visit: FocusandRead.com ---Tools for challenged readers of all ages!

Image courtesy of: Brennan Innovators, LLC and Pixabay

Struggling to Write Those Ideas on Paper?

In today's world, it is more important than ever to be able to organize thoughts and get them down on paper or screen. Offline and online media is everywhere, and if we want to be "heard" by others, we need to be able to express and convey those thoughts WELL.

Being able to express oneself is a unique skill and even a gift for some individuals. When you encourage and cultivate this capability in your child or student, you give her the invaluable power to meaningfully share her thoughts and ideas with the world. To help her get started, you might find the following 5 steps (adapted from teacher-writer Karen Dikson) beneficial in organizing thoughts and beginning to get those ideas down on paper or screen:

5 Basic Steps to Writing Success

1. Practice, practice, practice!
2. Find examples of good writing!
3. Use Pinterest or graphic organizers to organize ideas & resources!
4. Brainstorm and plan what to write.
5. Use a tablet to get ideas down faster and more efficiently.

When Dysgraphia Adds to the Writing Challenge

There can often be an additional component for some children or teens when it is time to express their ideas and get them down on paper or screen. This component makes writing nearly impossible for a significant number of individuals. It is called dysgraphia, a handwriting challenge characterized chiefly by very poor or often illegible writing or writing that takes an unusually long time and great effort to complete. When present in children, dysgraphia is classified as a learning disability. When it occurs as an acquired condition in adults, it can sometimes be the result of damage to the brain (as from stroke or trauma).

When a person of any age or ability struggles with dysgraphia, writing takes far longer (if it can be produced at all) to complete. As a result, dysgraphia all too often negatively impacts learning success and self-esteem. To provide support for an individual with dysgraphia, keep in mind that technology can go a long way to help. A laptop or tablet device will take pressure off the proper formation of hand-written phrases and sentences, allowing the individual to focus on his ideas instead. A digital app, mp3 player or other recording device can be just the thing to free a "great thinker" and finally enable the expression of wonderful, innovative ideas. In addition, consider the following strategies from the Learning Disabilities Association of America to help someone you know challenged with dysgraphia:

Helpful Strategies for Dysgraphia

1. Suggest use of word processor
2. Avoid chastising student for sloppy, careless work
3. Use oral exams
4. Allow use of tape recorder for lectures
5. Allow the use of a note taker
6. Provide notes or outlines to reduce the amount of writing required
7. Reduce copying aspects of work (pre-printed math problems)
8. Allow use of wide rule paper and graph paper
9. Suggest use of pencil grips and /or specially designed writing aids
10. Provide alternatives to written assignments (i.e., video reports, audio reports, etc.)

Implementing one or more of the above strategies and combining them with the 5 steps for writing success will enable your child or students to be well on the road to improved writing---AND without the usual struggles and "pain" so often experienced by reluctant, organization-challenged or dysgraphic individuals. We hope you will see the transformation in the very near future!

Writing Resources to Help Your Child or Students

How To Inspire Your Kids to Write and Why It’s So Important
by Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S.
https://psychcentral.com/blog/how-to-inspire-your-kids-to-write-and-why-its-so-important/

Books that Teach About the Writing Process (for Gr. K-5)
from This Reading Mama blog
If you teach writing to young learners, this book list has over 15 books to help you teach young writers all about the writing process.
https://thisreadingmama.com/books-teach-writing-process/

5 Steps to Help Your Kid Write a Better Essay
by Karen Dikson and Parent Toolkit
https://www.parenttoolkit.com/academics/news/general-parenting/5-steps-to-help-your-kid-write-a-better-essay

Dysgraphia Resources to Help Your Child or Students

The BEST Dictation Software for 2019
Here's the short list of the best dictation apps, with more information following, such as how we chose them, tips for using dictation software and detailed descriptions of the apps.
https://zapier.com/blog/best-text-dictation-software/

10 Tips to Help Children with Dysgraphia
Does your child struggle to write on the appropriate lines provided? Do you know or teach a child who is challenged and/or frustrated with simply forming basic letters and words? This article will provide strategies and tips to help children challenged with dysgraphia.
https://www.focusandread.com/blog/post/3828864

For information about customizable tools for readers of all ages, please visit: FocusandRead.com ---Tools for challenged readers of all ages!

Image courtesy of: Brennan Innovators, LLC and Pixabay

10 Tips to Help Children with Dysgraphia

Does your child struggle to write on the appropriate lines provided? Do you know or teach a child who is challenged and/or frustrated with simply forming basic letters and words? A child or student with these issues just might be challenged with dysgraphia.

Dysgraphia is a neurological disorder characterized by writing disabilities. Specifically, the disorder causes a person's writing to be distorted or incorrect. In children, the disorder generally emerges when they are first introduced to writing. They make inappropriately sized and spaced letters, or write wrong or misspelled words, despite thorough and apporpriate instruction.

Children with the disorder may have other learning disabilities; however, they usually have no social or other academic problems. Dysgraphia in adults generally occurs after some trauma. In addition to poor handwriting, dysgraphia is characterized by wrong or odd spelling, and production of words that are not correct (i.e., using "boy" for "child"). The cause of the disorder is unknown, but in adults, it is usually associated with damage to the parietal lobe of the brain.

1. First, CHANGE the paper used for writing.
A person with dysgraphia experiences significant challenges in the writing process. These challenges involve the inability to organize information that is stored in memory AND getting words on to paper by handwriting or typing them.

These 2 challenges prevent dysgraphic persons from understanding the spacing between letters, words, and sentences. In order to help your child visualize the space and to minimize frustration, first consider replacing your child’s lined paper with graph paper or turn the lined paper sideways, with each letter getting its own block/space and leaving an empty block/space between words.

You might also try using various kinds of highlighted printing papers. There are a few online sources for such supplies. (Please see FREE downloadable templates available via the link provided below here, too.)

Also, consider changing the color of the writing paper. A particular pastel color for paper may help alleviate some of the visual stress caused by white papers. Just the "right" colored paper for your child could make a positive difference, if only in the way he approaches the writing task.

2. CHANGE the writing tool or instrument your child uses.
Dysgraphia affects fine motor control. Because of this, gripping a pencil or pen lightly isn’t natural. Encourage your child to write as if she were holding a feather, or take it a bit further and give her an actual quill and ink. Feathers are delicate and children tend to handle them much more gently than they do a solid object like a pencil. If a quill is not readily available, consider using chalk, as it will crumble when pressed too hard. Also, consider the use of a thicker pen/pencil for improved grip. In addition, a soft or cushioned pencil grip added to a writing instrument can provide more comfort, stability and security for the user, especially if sensory issues are present.

As for writing surfaces, the bigger, the better! Use an easel or a large sheet of white poster board. Another option is to use sliding glass doors on which to write (with washable markers or transparency pens) as they are huge and the glass surface naturally encourages my children to write much more softly than they would on other surfaces. An added benefit is that these large glass doors can easily and quickly be washed.

In addition, adding a soft and comfortable pencil grip or holder to the writing tool currently used can provide much support for a struggling writer. These types of pencil grips can be found online from various special needs sources.

3. TEACH your child to type and effectively use a computer keyboard.
To help eliminate much of the stress of repeated writing difficulties, allow your child to express his ideas and thoughts with a word processor or computer keyboard. Providing this option can relax and enable your child to make more progress in learning in all content areas. Another option for this purpose is a portable keyboard/word processor called AlphaSmart. Although an older type of assistive technology, the AlphaSmart keyboards can provide the needed typing tool for a challenged writer and is available online either new or used.

4. INTRODUCE your child to gross motor skill exercises.
Show your child a few gross motor skill exercises to strengthen the arm and hand. Then incorporate these exercises into your child's daily routine. Make them fun, combining them with rhymes or your child's favorite kind of music. A good resource for these types of exercises is OT Mom Learning Activities (please see "gross motor" link below here).

5. INTRODUCE fine motor control exercises.
Introduce fine motor control exercises to strengthen the fingers and wrist. Add these to your child's daily activities as well. By combining these exercises with some relaxing instrumental music selections, your child may relax a bit more and be able to concentrate on the exercises more successfully. A variety of fine motor exercises can also be accessed via many special needs or OT websites such as OT Mom Learning Activities, too (please see "fine motor" link below here).

6. CONSIDER by-passing printing & proceed directly to cursive writing.
The move to cursive, too, can significantly reduce the levels of frustration experienced by many with dysgraphia, allowing them to relax and become better able to write. This might be a temporary by-pass of printing, or it could become more permanent, depending upon the results observed with the cursive writing.

7. DEVELOP & UTILIZE narration or speaking skills whenever possible.
Dysgraphia causes some individuals to experience a block between thinking something and writing it. Narration is an excellent tool for helping your child record her thoughts. Saying letters and words aloud as they are recorded on a small tech device (mp3 player or the like) or with a text-to-speech program will also be a benefit when it is time to write down those words. A handy list will have already been created.

8. WORK TOGETHER to evaluate & change your writing goals as needed.
Discuss at least once per week about how the accommodations are working to help your child. Even if your child is young, he can provide valuable input as to what is working and what is not. He may even have additional ideas to add or request, especially after you have begun to show him just a few helpful strategies or accommodations.

9. DEMONSTRATE and USE large "air writing" techniques.
Demonstrate and use large "air writing" of letters to develop a more efficient motor memory for the sequence of steps necessary in making each letter. You might also introduce "sand writing" which involves using the finder to write out letters in a sided tray of sand. These multi-sensory approaches often yield very positive results.

10.MAKE USE of a other multi-sensory techniques.
Make use of a variety of multi-sensory techniques to further develop handwriting skills. Visit Dysgraphia Resources to access more than 200 multi-sensory activities, tools and other resources to help your child with the challenges of dysgraphia (many of the resources there are FREE, too!)

Sources & Resources:

8 Strategies to Beat Dysgraphia from Homeschool Gameschool blog
http://homeschoolgameschool.com/8-strategies-to-beat-dysgraphia/

Strategies for Dealing with Dysgraphia by Regina G. Richards, LD Online
http://www.ldonline.org/article/5890

BEST Websites for Dyslexia & Dysgraphia from Help for Struggling Readers blog
http://helpforstrugglingreaders.blogspot.com/2013/10/best-websites-for-dyslexia-dysgraphia.html

Pencil Grips and Holders from Fun and Function
https://funandfunction.com/more/write-and-more/grips.html

AlphaSmart Keyboards
Portable assistive technology for keyboarding and word processing.
https://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aalphasmart%20keyboards

Fine Motor Activities from OT Mom Learning Activities
www.ot-mom-learning-activities.com/hand-exercises-for-kids.html

Gross Motor Skill Activities-from OT Mom Learning Activities
http://www.ot-mom-learning-activities.com/gross-motor-activities.html

Able Apps for Dysgraphia from Help for Struggling Readers blog
http://helpforstrugglingreaders.blogspot.com/2012/08/able-apps-for-dysgraphia.html

200+ Dysgraphia Resources---ALL in 1 Place from Brennan Innovators, LLC
More than 200 multi-sensory resources to help someone you know with dysgraphia.
https://www.pinterest.com/brennajn2000/dysgraphia-resources/?etslf=6371&eq=Dysgraphia

For information on digital & low-tech reading tools for ADHD, dyslexia and other challenges, please visit:
www.FocusandRead.com Tools for struggling readers of all ages!
www.BrennanInnovators.com Info & support for struggling readers
314-892-3897

Image courtesy of:
Brennan Innovators, LLC at www.focusandread.com