How To Treat Dysgraphia

Dysgraphia is a learning disability characterized by decreased fine motor skills that affect handwriting and other skills like tying shoes. The Greek prefix 'dys' means difficulty or impairment and the root word 'graphia' means writing by hand. Other basic skills compromised by dysgraphia include correct spelling, mastery of grammar rules, and the organization of thoughts needed for successful outlining and writing. Three types of dysgraphia have been identified. Language-based dysgraphia involves impairment in the capacity to change phonetic sounds to written communication. Dyslexia is a specific language-based dysgraphia where words or letters may be read backward or left out. Non-language type dysgraphia is based on a physical inability of the fine muscles to move the pencil correctly to produce letters and words. Discover how to treat dysgraphia effectively.

Occupational Therapy

After a diagnosis of dysgraphia is made, many children and adults are referred to an occupational therapist for intervention. Dysgraphia in children may be diagnosed early when a child first tries to learn to write manuscript letters but is often diagnosed later. For many individuals, dysgraphia appears after trauma or due to a physical condition such as Tourette's syndrome, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Asperger's syndrome, or a stroke. Occupational therapists often help patients strengthen hand muscles by drawing, coloring, puzzle assembly, and pegboard exercises. They also introduce writing aids like special pencils with grippers attached to improve hand positioning while writing on paper with slightly raised lines to help with the positioning of written words. Occupational therapy can take place in a private office, hospital, or school setting.

Keep reading to learn about the next type of therapy for dysgraphia.

Educational Therapy

An educational therapist is an educator who works on an individual basis with a student usually outside the school setting. Educational therapy is not the same as tutoring, although academic studies may be involved. An example would be a student who may experience dyscalculia working with a tutor by practicing multiple math problems to master skills and with an educational therapist exploring the relationships of numbers to each other and identifying basic mathematical facts. Building overall confidence in the student is an important part of the educational therapist's job. When working with children with learning disabilities, this professional might work on building the student's self-esteem, offering reassurance, and serving as a go-between for the student, parents, and teachers. Educational therapist services are not covered by insurance and will have to be paid out-of-pocket. Finding a reliable educational therapist can be done by asking your child's doctor for a referral or contacting the Association of Educational Therapists (AET).

Continue to reveal home treatments for dysgraphia.

How To Treat It At Home

Parents can take steps early to help a child with dysgraphia succeed. Adopting a relaxed approach to writing and not pressuring the child to 'practice more' or 'try harder' can decrease anxiety related to writing. Parents can invest in a good children's typing program online and help their son or daughter find an alternative to handwriting. When your child is doing handwritten assignments, monitor their hand position in gripping the pencil or pen. Buy pencils with grips to facilitate proper finger placement. It might be helpful to coach your child in saying each word as he writes, as the auditory input makes connections in the brain that will help build letter-forming memory. Dysgraphia presents many challenges, and in considering how to treat it at home, you might offer to help by serving as a scribe to your child. Let her dictate a sentence and you write it. She will write the second sentence, dictate the third one for you, and so on. This gives your child an opportunity to strengthen thought processes and think about what they want to write next. The actual writing can then be done with less anxiety.

Learn about treatments for dysgraphia in a school setting next.

How To Treat It At School

One of the best things teachers can do to help students with dysgraphia is to decrease the pressure associated with the act of writing. Offering alternatives to handwriting allows the student to focus on what he knows instead of the mechanics of writing. Oral testing allows the student to share verbally and strengthen her use of vocabulary and sentence structure. Dysgraphia causes students to need more time to form letters and words. Even filling in circles like the ones often used on standardized tests requires extra time and effort. Removing time limitations from tests can optimize learning and minimize the student's unease with the physical act of writing. When a student is handwriting notes, essays, or test answers, the teacher can relax the requirement for neatness and give credit for effort and substance in what is written. Another adaptation for the student with dysgraphia would be to scale down their assignments and grade on the quality of learning instead of the quantity of feedback produced by hand.

Learn about how technology can help dysgraphia now.

Using Technology To Help

Today's students are not limited to textbooks, paper, and pencils. They have the world at their fingertips and can access information about any subject in seconds, using technology to help. Two commonly used assistive technology tools are graphic organizers and word prediction software. Programs are available to check and correct spelling and grammar. Sentence expansion software offers help for students who might be struggling to organize their thoughts effectively. Word prediction software supplies guesses at words based on letters typed, and as more letters are typed, additional word possibilities appear. This can be helpful for students struggling with correct spelling who can recognize the needed word and click on it to have it added to the sentence. The most recent and widely used technology for writers is speech recognition software which turns spoken words into text. Students with dysgraphia can concentrate on forming and speaking their thoughts and ideas verbally, and the printed copy will be produced for editing and review.