Parenting Children with Dysgraphia
See also: Writing SkillsDysgraphia is a specific learning difficulty, a bit like dyslexia and dyscalculia. Like them, it is a neurodevelopmental disorder and affects the ability to process information. Dysgraphia specifically affects the ability to write—both the physical act of writing, and the content and coherence of the writing.
Our page on Coping with Dysgraphia provides some advice to individuals about what they can do to develop their writing, or find ways round the issue. This page provides information for parents with a child with dysgraphia, including tips about how you can help your child.
Understanding Dysgraphia
Very little is actually known or understood about dysgraphia.
Indeed, until relatively recently, it was thought to be a part of dyslexia, rather than a separate condition. It is extremely common for dysgraphia to occur with other neurodevelopmental conditions and specific learning difficulties, especially dyslexia.
Dysgraphia is often associated with a cramped hand position when writing, causing discomfort. Writing can also cause considerable anxiety in children with dysgraphia. They may struggle with both the physical act of writing, and coordinating grammar, spelling and letter placement (in lines or in words). Their sentences may therefore be incoherent as well as their writing being hard to read.
We also know that dysgraphia is a lifelong condition.
This means that you cannot 'get over' or 'grow out of' dysgraphia. However, you can improve your ability to write—or, for parents, help your child to improve their ability to write.
Ways to Support Children with Dysgraphia
There are a variety of ways that you can support children with dysgraphia. Perhaps the three most important are:
As with any other specific learning difficulty, it is important to get an early diagnosis. This means that understanding and support are more likely, rather than your child's writing being seen as a 'problem.
Be prepared to advocate for your child at school and with other professionals. Your child is likely to need additional help and support, and it may not be forthcoming without considerable advocacy from you. You may also need to advocate for specific accommodations such as being able to take audio recordings of lessons, or provide a video report rather than a written one, because these are unusual.
Talk to your child about dysgraphia. Make sure that they understand that dysgraphia is about how they process information, and not about their intelligence. Also ensure that they don't think there is something 'wrong' with them, just that they think differently from other people. Crucially, you need to give them the tools to respond to any teasing or bullying, or even simple ignorance.
These three are very general, and apply to almost any specific learning difficulty.
There are also both general and specific things that you can do to support children with dysgraphia.
One important support is to help children develop their muscle strength through exercise, especially their upper body, arm and hand strength. Any exercise that requires coordination of these muscles is good, whether fine or gross motor skills. You might, for example, take your child to spend time at the playground, especially encouraging the use of monkey bars or climbing frame. Climbing—indoor on a climbing wall or outdoor—is another very good activity that requires hand grip and coordination.
On a smaller scale, there are also games and activities that you can try. For example, handwriting experts suggest using different senses and mediums to make marks (see box).
Change the senses involved
Try activities that help your child to focus on feeling the letter, not seeing it. For example, trace it on the palm of their hand, or on their back, and see if they can identify it, and then reproduce it on your hand.
Scale things up
Who says you have to use paper and pencil? Give your child a can of shaving foam, and let them write using that on the bathroom tiles, or spread out the shaving foam, and make large letters in it. Use a sandpit or find a muddy patch in your local park, where your child can write really big letters using a stick. Focus on using gross motor skills, rather than fine for a bit.
Have a play with clay
Clay or plasticine are really good mediums for experimenting with letters. Your child can roll up 'ropes' and use them to shape letters, or spread out the clay and make marks in it. Both these provide additional sensory feedback, which can be helpful. Rolling up the plasticine or clay also helps to strengthen fine motor skills.
Practice pinching
Do activities that involve a pinching movement, like using tongs or tweezers to move balls of paper around. This helps to develop the muscles needed to hold a pen or pencil.
Work both sides of the body
Writing is not a one-sided activity: one hand writes, but the other holds the paper, and keeps it steady. Doing exercises that use both sides of the body is therefore helpful. This might be big physical activities, like star jumps, or smaller things like using scissors, where you hold the paper in one hand and cut with the other.
Tell stories
Children with dysgraphia often struggle to organise their ideas. You can help them to develop more structured thought processes by encouraging them to tell you stories—perhaps retelling their favourite books, or possibly telling you about their day in a structured way. Speaking ideas out loud can also help to organise thoughts more clearly, so is a very useful skill for children with dysgraphia to learn.
Play drawing games like mazes or dot-to-dot pictures
Games that require pencil or pen control, but which really don't matter, can be a good low-jeopardy way to practise pencil control. Examples include dot-to-dot or maze puzzles.
Tools for Children with Dysgraphia
There are also tools that may be useful for children with dysgraphia.
It may be helpful to provide them. At the low-tech end, they include different types of paper, including paper with raised lines, or big pencil grips and chalks rather than pencils. Some children also find writing is easier on a slope, so a small easel may be worth a try.
At the much higher-tech end, tools include computers and speech-to-text software.
It may be helpful to introduce the use of keyboards and computers much earlier for children with dysgraphia than for their peers, simply because these tools can really help to remove some of the barriers to learning.
Audio recording equipment can also be very helpful for children with dysgraphia. It will mean that they don't have to take notes, and can concentrate on listening and understanding rather than worrying about writing. Being able to produce reports in different formats, including typing, may also be helpful, especially at secondary school.
A Final Thought
Parents always play a crucial role in the lives of their children.
However, this role is perhaps even more important for children with specific learning difficulties like dysgraphia, because you are their primary source of help and encouragement, from an early age. This is not easy—but hopefully this page will help give you some strategies.