Learning Disabilities And Dysgraphia

Running head: LEARNING DISABILITIES AND DYSGRAPHIA

Children with Dysgrapia and Other Learning Disabilities

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Abstract

There are many types of learning disabilities that are prevalent among children in the world today. This paper will not necessarily explore in detail the prevalence of the disorders, but explore the different types, causes, and treatment for the variety of learning disabilities among children today. This paper will focus particularly on one disorder. This learning disorder is called dysgraphia. To make it simple, dysgraphia is a disorder of written language expression that is more prevalent in children than in adults. Dysgraphia can be seen in letter inconsistencies, irregular letter sizes, and a struggle to use writing as a tool to communicate with other people.

Children With Dysgraphia and Other Learning Disabilities

Learning disabilities are a major problem in the world today. Almost every day, there is news of a child or an adult that has a learning disability that greatly affects their lives. The diagnosis of a learning disorder is given when there is a clear impairment in school performance or in daily living activities (Butcher, Mineka, & Hooley, 2004). Learning disabilities can result in a person having low self-esteem, possibly dropping out of school at an early age, and possibly depression or criminal behavior. Approximately one in seven children that attend a public school struggle with some type of learning disability in their lives, which causes them to not reach their full potential in the classroom. Ten to thirty percent of elementary school children suffer from difficulties during the act of writing (Rosenblum, & Weiss, & Parush, 2004). There are many learning disabilities such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, and dyspraxia. Dyslexia is a reading disorder where the child cannot identify different word sounds. Dysgraphia is a developmental writing disorder that leads to problems with creating sentences that make sense to others. Dysgraphia can be the result of low classroom efficiency. Dyscalculia is a developmental arithmetic disorder which causes trouble with calculations or with abstract math concepts. Dyspraxia is just a problem in fine motor skills that can cause difficulties in learning. True learning disabilities are due to anomalies in the brain functions, which can be inherited. Also, toxins in a person's early environment can also cause learning disabilities.

Dysgraphia is the one particular disorder that this paper will focus on the most. The term dysgraphia has customarily been used in reference to a disorder of written language expression in childhood opposed to a disorder of written language acquired in adulthood. Written language is the brain's way of executing sequential symbols to communicate thoughts and information. Writing is the most likely to be insulted, injured, and have adverse genetic influences because it represents the last and most complex skill of development. Activating phonological information is a necessary stage of the spelling process (Miceli, & Capasso, 2006). Dysgraphia is identified in letter inconsistencies, mixture of upper and lower case letters, irregular sizes and shapes of letters, and unfinished letters. Some people that have dysgraphia write legibly, but write very slowly or very small. Most people may characterize dysgraphia as a child just being lazy, careless, or sloppy. Dysgraphia cannot be diagnosed solely by looking at handwriting of a person. A qualified clinician must directly test the person. Such tests include writing self-generated sentences and paragraph. Also, the patient may have to copy age appropriate text. The clinician not only examines the finished work, but also the process that is taking place. The clinician may look at posture, positions, pencil grip, tremor of the hand, or cramping factors. The examiner may asses fine-motor speed by finger tapping and wrist turning. Truly, dysgraphia creates a problem in remembering and mastering the coordination of muscle motor movements required in writing letters or numbers. Dysgraphia can be caused by a neurological problem or brain damage. In the journal article Progress in Cognitive Neuroscience Research on Dysgraphia: Introduction, the author explores different research on dysgraphia and investigates the disability from a neuropsychological standpoint. The author reports that dysgraphia is impairment in the parallel of neurological system and fine motor skills. This journal article presented some valuable information on the subject of dysgraphia.

While dysgraphia may be broadly categorized into three main categories, there are many individual variations that may affect treatment and prognosis. The three main categories of dysgraphia are dyslexic dysgraphia, motor dysgraphia, and spatial dysgraphia. First in dyslexic dysgraphia, spontaneously written text is illegible. When the student tries to spell orally, they do a poor job, but when they draw or copy a written text; it is fairly normal in appearance. The student's finger-tapping speed is normal in dyslexic dysgraphia. Finger-tapping speed is a measure of fine-motor speed in a patient. Next in motor dysgraphia, both spontaneous and copied text is illegible, oral spelling is normal, and drawing presents a problem. Finger-tapping speed is abnormal for these patients. Last in spatial dysgraphia, patients display illegible writing in a produced or copied manner. Oral spellings in these patients are normal and finger-tapping speed is normal. Drawing for these patients presents problems.

While there have been many studies on the treatment of dysgraphia, there is no cure for this disability other than treating it the best way possible and training the brain to grow out of it. It is unclear how greatly treatment

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