Dysgraphia, difficulty when writing 2017/05/25

How do your children write? Would you say they have good or bad handwriting?

Look at their notebooks... they could have a dysgraphia problem...

Dysgraphia is a small difficulty in the way they write which precisely means “bad handwriting”

It’s a disorder accepted between Specific Learning Disability (SLD) alongside dyslexia (difficulty reading), dyscalculia (difficulty learning numbers and calculations) and dysorthography (difficulty writing). This last one must not be confused with dysgraphia, since it implies problems when “translating” the spoken language to written language

In Italy there is a law that talks about SLD (Specific Learning Disabilities) and it’s the n. 170 of 2010, in which not only the previously mentioned disorders are acknowledged, but also some guidelines are given for the diagnosis, school training and support measures for the family members

Dysgraphia is a graphic disorder which doesn’t penalize the person’s capability of learning. It means that a child with this disorder has difficulty forming words and numbers manually, meaning, writing and nothing else

It must be pointed out that, even if a teacher teaches the ABC’s correctly, each one of us customizes our own writing and the way we draw, write or doodle. Writing is very personal and it requires a complex learning process: requires precision, concentration as well as knowledge. So, before talking about dysgraphia, we must consider if our children write badly because of the way they slide the pencil or if they really suffer from a small nervous disorder

Apparently, dysgraphia, and in general all of the specific learning disabilities are related to a disfunction of the central nervous system. Once this is stablished, we don’t remind the child constantly to “write correctly” because the discomfort and fatigue from striving will only drive the child to anxiety and low self-esteem if the child doesn’t “get better”. Instead, a reteaching of writing done by qualified professionals will give excellent results with the coordination of movements of the hand and the pen.

Always ask your pediatrician for advice to get a more objective opinion