Dys (Greek – something wrong or improper) + graphia (writing). An inability to write at all is called agraphia but this is very rare. What is a very common learning disorder is dysgraphia – messy, poorly spelled, difficult to read handwriting. Dyslexia (difficulty reading) often but not always is found along with dysgraphia.
Poor handwriting can sometimes be the result of improper teaching of basic writing skills but that would not be considered a “learning disorder” and can be easily corrected with just a bit of focused coaching.
The real disorder is not so easy to correct and depending on factors such as concomitant dyslexia, it may take years to set right. But, dysgraphia as with dyslexia IS treatable. Improvement with sound therapy is very possible and for many kids a complete recovery is possible.
Again, early detection is important. Any signs; bad spelling, messy handwriting, inability to write in straight lines, resistance to writing and even complaints of hand pain while writing should result in a proper professional evaluation of the child. The pros will look into all aspects including proper functioning of nerves and muscles and other possible physical sources like eyesight. Along with the physical tests they will use tests that study whether there is good coordination between the motor and perceptual parts of the brain.
A key issue always with any LD is how the child is developing and whether the child’s development is on par with other kids of the same age. Slower development of some parts of the brain can often be detected in kids that have learning disorders.
Dysgraphia is treatable, so if you have any suspicion that your child’s handwriting is not on par with her/his peers, do get it checked out and don’t get disheartened!
In our experience in dealing with developmental disorders, we have found that nutrition is very important. In my next post I will talk about that and a few other things that parents need to know…
PonnVandu 
im working on this at school
hell yahl
Hey Kenia, thanks for the positive response. Do let me know how your work on this is progressing. The more detail you provide the batter for all our readers!
Your post says dysgraphia is treatable. Outside of proper hand grip and increasing of muscle tone there are no treatments I have heard of for the treatment of dysgraphia.
Veronica, in all the learning disabilities one is dealing with spectrums – from slightly affected to severely affected. I t is also becoming recognised that the causes and functions are multifactorial, perhaps even at a genetic level. We simply can’t make sweeping statements about anything.
My practical experience with dysgraphia is that some of the time it is completely curable, most times we can make some improvements with therapy and some of the time next to nothing is achieved in therapy.
HI
Dysgraphia is a condition that CAN be inproved. Handwriting requires competence in visual-motor skills, visual perception skills leading to a state of increased visual attention.Improving these skils will create the perceptual foundation for improvement in hand-writing. Developimng the accurate visually-guided motor movments will then be the next stage.
Best wishes
Robert Lederman
robert
My son had vision threapy and it did not improve his handwriting much. Where can I read up on Visually-guided motor movements?
Veronica
Veronica, the first step in dealing with any developmental disorder (dysgraphia falls within this broad definition) is to have a complete evaluation done. Developmental child psychologists will start the evaluation and perhaps have inputs also from occupational therapists, pediatricians and special educationists and perhaps an ophthalmologist and neurologist. Once this has been properly done, you will know much more accurately what the problems are and how best to go about tackling them. In other words, choosing the right therapy depends on what the main components of the learning disorder are. First find that out, and the rest should fall into place.
Therapy can be very helpful, as Robert Lederman also points out above, but what sort of therapy will work best should be decided as scientifically as possible.
My son has seen a Dev Peditrition and Dev Psy. His neurologist poo pooed OT so I do not think he would of suggested anything for the OT to do. His Dev Ophthalmologist was the best in Northern VA. Our son did OT for Handwriting , Vision Therapy to improve his hand writing and he also went to a Gym run by another Neurologist that specialized in ASD kids and integrating OT,PT and Vision Threrapy as one. All where run by amazing staff who where on their game. No one ever stated that Dysgraphia was curable only that they could improve the situation somewhat. I saw it help many kids except for my son. I guess it upsets me that you are suggesting there is a cure for it when there is only remediation to improve the situation. Please do not give false hope.
Well, I can only express my own experience, which certainly is not comprehensive, and that is that I’ve seen lots of kids who had terrible problems with dysgraphia make tremendous strides with proper therapy. We have never had a child in our center who has not shown significant improvement, and to me ‘significant improvement’ is always the first goal, but it is also not the end of the road…
If I had a quarter for every time I came here.. Amazing post.