If your child cannot write a simple sentence without mistakes, do not rush to accuse him of laziness and ignorance of the simplest grammatical rules. The reason may be dysgraphia , an ailment that, according to various statistics, occurs in about 12–20% of children. The task of parents and teachers is to identify the problem, determine the causes of dysgraphia in children and help cope with it, which is quite possible with the right approach.

Dysgraphia is a persistent writing disorder not associated with a delay in intellectual development, caused by disorders of mental functions, in particular, unformed lexical-grammatical and phonetic-phonemic aspects of speech. 

A child with dysgraphia often confuses the spelling of simple words.

We can talk about dysgraphia if the child constantly makes phonetic mistakes while writing, for example, he confuses the spelling of the letters “z” and “s”, “p” and “b” (“voice” instead of “eyes”, ” double ” instead of “hollow “). This problem is also evidenced by the fact when mistakes are made in words, the spelling of which should not cause any doubts – a child with dysgraphia often skips and reverses letters and syllables, confuses endings, etc. To recognize the problem and understand what to do – improve the spelling or start treatment of dysgraphia in children, you need to contact a speech therapist. You can talk about dysgraphia if a child constantly makes phonetic mistakes while writing, for example, confuses the spelling of the letters “z” and “s” , “P” and “b” (“voice” instead of “eyes”, ” double ” instead of “hollow”). This problem is also evidenced by the fact when mistakes are made in words, the spelling of which should not cause any doubts – a child with dysgraphia often skips and reverses letters and syllables, confuses endings, etc. To recognize the problem and understand what to do – improve the spelling or start treatment for dysgraphia in children, you need to contact a speech therapist.

Forms and signs of dysgraphia in children

Specialists, depending on the type of writing violation, distinguish 5 main types of dysgraphia :

• Articulatory- acoustic dysgraphia . Children suffering from this form of dysgraphia incorrectly pronounce certain sounds (for example, they confuse “r” and “l”), while the child fixes his speech mistakes in writing. In this situation, if a child encounters a letter that he cannot pronounce correctly, it is replaced by another or skipped altogether. For example, when faced with the word “kite”, a child with this type of dysgraphia can replace it with ” koshun ” or ” koshun “. 
• Acoustic dysgraphia . This form of dysgraphia , such as acoustic, is manifested in the fact that children confuse letters that denote sounds similar in pronunciation. Most often, the child encounters difficulties in distinguishing between voiced and deaf pairs, along with hissing whistling sounds, for example, b-p, v-f, d-t, z-z, s-sh. 
• Violation of language analysis and synthesis. Children suffering from this form of dysgraphia can mix syllables from different words in one word ( for example, instead of the word “crab sticks” use ” little crabs “) or write the prefix separately from the word, and the preposition – together (“just get away”, ” vlesu “), and also do not add the endings. 
• Agrammatic dysgraphia . With this form of dysgraphia, children tend to misunderstand the basics of grammar. So, for example, they may not agree on words in gender, number and case (for example, “forest squirrel”, “Masha ran away”, etc.).  
• Optical dysgraphia . Children with optical dysgraphia have difficulty writing individual letters. This can manifest itself in the form of writing in the wrong direction “circles” for the letters “p” and “I” or “tails” for the letters “y” and “d”, etc. 

In addition to the main forms, in practice there are also mixed forms of dysgraphia .

Causes of dysgraphia in children

Before answering the question of how to help correct dysgraphia , it is important to identify what caused this disorder.

As medical practice shows, this deviation can be a consequence of the pathology of pregnancy, the consequence of birth trauma and infectious diseases, as well as the result of depletion of the nervous system. Dysgraphia is also often diagnosed in left-handed children and children who try to read and write too early.

Dysgraphia treatment in children: what parents need to know

• This problem cannot be ignored. Not only is a child suffering from dysgraphia unable to master the process of reading and writing normally, he is constantly in psychological stress due to the discontent of teachers and ridicule of peers.
• Dysgraphia is not a sentence; timely and competent correction will help correct the situation. Parents should identify the problem as early as possible. If you start to study with a child even at preschool age, then the situation can be completely corrected in 90% of cases.
• Recommendations on how to treat dysgraphia in children should be provided by an experienced speech therapist. The child should also be shown to a neuropsychiatrist, who can identify concomitant disorders. A tutor may be needed to help children master the school curriculum.
• An indispensable condition for eliminating dysgraphia is systematicity. It is important to conduct classes regularly.
• Dysgraphia is a consequence of certain disorders and diseases. Depending on the underlying cause, the attending physician may prescribe therapy for the underlying disease, including medication.

Exercises for Children with Dysgraphia – Correcting the Disorder

The tasks below for children with dysgraphia will help in correcting its various forms.

Exercise “Strikethrough letters”. For this exercise, you will need any book with a sufficiently large print, the text of which will not be of interest to the child. In order for the child to focus on the task, it is better that the plot of the book does not distract him. The task for the child in this case is to cross out certain letters on the page. You can start with a single letter that is easy to spell, such as “a” or “o”. After a few sessions, you can complicate the task and move on to crossing out two letters – those that the child most often confuses, for example, “d” and “t”. 

Exercise “Speaking writing”. The essence of the exercise is that the child is asked to write sentences, saying aloud everything that he is currently writing, emphasizing the sounds that are pronounced least clearly in fluent speech. When performing this exercise, you should pay special attention to the letters at the end of a word or before the letters denoting a dull sound (for example, in the words “forehead”, “tooth”, “spoon”, etc.). 

Writing short dictations. During the lesson, the child writes a small dictation with a pencil (up to 200 words), which is then checked by an adult. In this case, the mistakes made are not corrected in the text, but are noted in the margins. After checking, the notebook is returned to the child so that he erases the “incorrect” letters and corrects his mistakes.