Dysgraphia: causes, symptoms and treatment

Writing problems in childhood can have very negative consequences.

Dysgraphia is one of the disorders whose effects are noticeable in the development of children around the world. around the world, as it has to do with difficulties in performing one of the most useful actions today: writing.

If this skill is not well internalized in childhood, this can lead to a much lower ability to communicate with other people, make lists and write to better organize the day to day, or opt for jobs of great added value, among other negative consequences.

In this article we will see which characteristics, symptoms and causes are related to dysgraphiaas well as the types of treatments recommended to mitigate its effects on childhood development.

What is dysgraphia?

It is known as dysgraphia the phenomenon by which a person (normally a boy or a girl) presents serious difficulties to write well, either by questions of spelling, calligraphy or both types of problems at the same time. These difficulties must cross the limit of what is considered pathological, through criteria taken into account by the professional who carries out the diagnosis.

It is, therefore, a group of disorders of written expression, which in turn can be included in the category of disorders of written expression. can be included in the category of specific learning disorders..

In practice, dysgraphia is often accompanied by other specific learning disorders such as dyscalculia or dyslexia. This is because brain alterations affecting one of these functions are usually caused by defects reaching the areas of the brain responsible for carrying out the others, since they are close to each other, if not closely related.

The components of writing that may be affected by dysgraphia are varied, and so are the symptoms of this disorder. Among the most prominent are the following, always taking into account the age range to which the person belongs.

• Inconsistent handwriting or so strange that it is difficult to read.
• Accentuation problems.
• Poor spacing between words, sentences and lines.
• Poor punctuation..
• Grammatical problems.
• Letter substitution..
• Strange word junctions.
• Improper pencil or pen grip..

It should be noted that dysgraphia can significantly limit the ability to learn, especially in educational institutions that are not prepared to meet the needs of children with this disorder.

As a consequence of a frustrating and emotionally painful schooling, the mark left by this type of problem can become chronic and affect adult life as well, given the obstacles in attending to the needs of children with this disorder.The school is both a place of learning and a place where the child is able to learn, given the obstacles to receiving a formal education.

It should be remembered that school is both one of the main contexts of socialization of children, as well as a way of access to stable career paths and with the ability to provide all the material resources necessary to live with dignity.

Types of dysgraphia

As we have seen, dysgraphia affects various aspects of the ability to write. However, beyond all these variations, cases of dysgraphia can be classified into two main typesaccording to the characteristics of the writing difficulties.

However, as in most psychological disorders, the symptoms of each type do not usually occur in a "pure" form. Therefore, they often partially overlap with each other and there is some ambiguity about which type of dysgraphia a patient has.

Dysgraphia

Consists of the presence of significant problems in the learning of spelling rules in the practice of writing.. It can greatly complicate school progress, and if its effects remain significant into adulthood, it also affects, among other things, employability. It is therefore important to treat dysgraphia as soon as possible, by seeking psychological therapy from the onset of the expression of its symptoms.

Motor dysgraphia

This form of dysgraphia has to do with problems with posture, coordination and integration problems of posture, coordination and integration between movements and visual information in terms of writing. as far as writing is concerned.

In addition to these two types, there are cases in which it is difficult to classify what is happening, since there is a great variety of symptoms and it is not easy to distinguish those in which there are problems at the psychological level and those in which what is wrong is something more basic, at the neurological level.

Prevalence: what percentage of children have it?

Although there is currently little data on the subject, it is estimated that about 3% of children have problems with orthopedic have problems in meeting spelling standards that can be considered dysgraphia, while the other difficulties associated with writing would occur somewhat less frequently.

Causes

What causes dysgraphia is not yet well understood, but it is likely that several causes are at work in most cases. For example, genetic predispositions may be at work, there may be genetic predispositions at work that lead to a brain design in which the neural structures that must coordinate to produce writing are not as well connected as they should be, or there may be perinatal brain injuries that affect these groups of neurons.

Thus, the causes of dysgraphia are nonspecific, in the sense that different variables may be acting as genesis in its appearance in the early years of development during infancy. In turn, the longer the stage in which there are serious problems in writing is prolonged, the more difficult it will be to overcome this phenomenon, as pessimistic expectations appear, giving way to a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Possibly several types of malformations and microlesions lead to similar results, since there is no easily identifiable brain region that alone is responsible for making writing possible.

In addition, dysgraphia may also be caused by a detrimental learning dynamicThe brain is not a single, easily identifiable brain region that is responsible for writing on its own.

Treatment for dysgraphia

Being a disorder that occurs in childhood, it is necessary to intervene in it as soon as possible so that its negative effects do not accumulate causing the child to remain in a situation of vulnerability in his or her learning trajectory.. The objective of these initiatives will be to compensate for this disadvantageous situation through an extra effort to write well, which must be channeled through appropriate learning and training techniques, so as not to produce exhaustion and frustration.

The main intervention technique is chaining, i.e., the improvement of specific skills that gradually become more sophisticated and can be integrated into previous learning. This procedure makes it possible to optimize the "training" in writing, maximizing the probabilities that some learning will give way to the following, and preventing the person from throwing in the towel.

On the other hand, this form of training and learning (which must be guided by a specialist) must be accompanied by interventions aimed at dealing with the problems of beliefs, expectations and self-esteem. problems of beliefs, expectations and self-esteem, which often go hand in hand with that often go hand in hand with dysgraphia. All this helps to increase the commitment to therapy.

At the same time, as long as there is no rapprochement between the level of writing that one has and the minimum required writing level, it is good to present alternatives in learning assessment methods, such as oral exams.

In this way, the development of other cognitive skills will not be impeded, thus avoiding the appearance of a serious learning bottleneck due to having difficulties in a specific area of behavior, in this case writing.

Bibliographical references:

• A. Suárez, Dificultades en el aprendizaje: un modelo de diagnóstico en educación. Editorial Santillana.
• Centre, INSERM Collective Expertise (2007). Dyslexia Dysorthography Dyscalculia. Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale. PMID 21348173
• Faust, M. (2012). The Handbook of the Neuropsychology of Language. Hoboken: Wiley - Blackwell.
• Helman, A. L.; Calhoon, M.B.; Kern, L. (2015). "Improving science vocabulary of high school English language learners with reading disabilities". Learning Disability Quarterly. 38 (1): 40 - 52.
• Rodis, P., Garrod, A., & Boscardin, M. L. (Eds.). (2001). Learning Disabilities & Life Stories. Boston, USA: Allan & Bacon.
• Rodríguez Silva, L.H.; Roehr-Brackin, K. (2016). Perceived learning difficulty and actual performance: Explicit and implicit knowledge of L2 English grammar points among instructed adult learners. Studies in Second Language Acquisition. 38 (2): pp. 317 - 340.
• Roux, F.E.; Dufor, O.; Giussani, C.; et al. (2009). "The graphemic/motor frontal area Exner's area revisited". Annals of Neurology. 66 (4): 537–45.