Motor Dysgraphia

What Is Motor Dysgraphia?

Dysgraphia is more than just ‘poor handwriting’. It is a is chronic, persistent condition that affects function and is a significant long-term problem for children and adolescents. It is sometimes known as a “hidden” disability because it can be tricky to detect. That’s because children with dysgraphia have good intellect and seem to do well in other subjects.

Children and adolescents with dysgraphia display handwriting that is slow, illegible, consists of long and frequent pen lifts, lacks continuity and fluency and is well below the level expected for their age and cognitive level. Children with dysgraphia are not lazy. Usually, they must work much harder than other children to produce a small amount of writing, causing frustration and fatigue.

In all cases of dysgraphia, writing requires significant amounts of energy, stamina and time. Given the child or adolescent has not fully automatised their letter production, they have an increased demand on their memory and attention when writing. This means that their higher-level cognitive processes are constrained, and they are likely to forget the writing plan or story they held in their memory before they can write it down.

Signs of Motor Dysgraphia

• Slow writing

• Painful hand, wrist, upper limb when writing

• Illegible writing

•writing performance seems at odds with the developmental age

•very neat writing that takes a very long time to write

•children do not know what to write and will sit at their desk for a long time

•avoiding writing tasks

•produce short sentences or perhaps 1-2 paragraphs (when their peers can write pages and pages of text).

Occupational Therapy Intervention

It’s important to note that most children with dysgraphia will improve with early intervention. External support from an occupational therapist may be needed to supplement the school’s support program.

As an occupational therapist, my focus is on the assessment and treatment of motor-based dysgraphia; the motor and physical components of handwriting, and the functional output of writing.

Children who are diagnosed with dysgraphia will be entitled to reasonable adjustments to ensure they are not disadvantaged compared to their peers.

At least six months of targeted handwriting intervention is required before the label of 'motor dysgraphia' should be used. An educational psychologist or medical professional is required to give the final diagnosis of dysgraphia.