Anyone ever heard of dysgraphia?

Question

My 8yr old son has been diagnosed. Just wondering if anyone else is out there dealing with it and how your living with it or overcoming the problems associated with it. What worked best or is helping you?

I need to clarify, I was interested in how many other people have this( or experience with it) and what they were doing for school, work home, or in their life. I was looking for what i can do as my son gets older and how i can help him. He was diagnosed in Feb. of this year so I've pretty much exauhsted every web page i could find on it. I was hoping for someones personal experience instead of the text book explanations.

Answer 1

Yes, when kids write letters backwords, it is often mistakenly called dyslexia, but it is actually dysgraphia.

My son was affected by it. Tracing, and practice. I bought pads of tracing paper. He practiced his letters using the tracing paper. He could not look at a lot of letters and write them properly.

Coloring is good too...Should strive to stay in the lines.

He did not start writing using cursive until he was 12. He actually wrote cursive backwards. The easiest way to read his cursive was a mirror. He had a wonderful special ed teacher that year, who seemed to be able to get him going in the right direction there.

His writing now is actually very good. So just hang in there. Make sure the school works with him. You must stay on them all the time (or at least I had to do that). You must be your child's advocate, don't trust anyone else to do it.

Good Luck

Answer 2

What is Dysgraphia?
Dysgraphia is a neurological disorder characterized by writing disabilities. Specifically, the disorder causes a person's writing to be distorted or incorrect. In children, the disorder generally emerges when they are first introduced to writing. They make inappropriately sized and spaced letters, or write wrong or misspelled words, despite thorough instruction. Children with the disorder may have other learning disabilities, however, they usually have no social or other academic problems. Cases of dysgraphia in adults generally occur after some trauma. In addition to poor handwriting, dysgraphia is characterized by wrong or odd spelling, and production of words that are not correct (i.e., using "boy" for "child"). The cause of the disorder is unknown.

Is there any treatment?


Treatment for dysgraphia varies and may include treatment for motor disorders to help control writing movements. Other treatments may address impaired memory or other neurological problems. Some physicians recommend that individuals with dysgraphia use computers to avoid the problems of handwriting.

What is the prognosis?


Some individuals with dysgraphia improve their writing ability, but for others, the disorder persists.

What research is being done?


The NINDS supports research on neurological disorders such as dysgraphia, with the goal of finding ways to prevent and treat them.

Select this link to view a list of studies currently seeking patients.

Organizations

National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD)
P.O. Box 1968
(55 Kenosia Avenue)
Danbury, CT 06813-1968
[e-mail]
http://www.rarediseases.org
Tel: [phone] Voice Mail 800-999-NORD (6673)
Fax: [phone]

Answer 3

Latin
Dys: abnormal, dysfunction
graphia: write, draw
So I would think dysgraphia is either a problem with the ability to write, or it is the inability to correctly discern when an examiner writes a letter or such on your skin. Never known anyone with either.

Answer 4

I'm sorry, I've never heard of it, but I hope some of the others can help you out. Have you done a search on it?