Dysgraphia: How to Recognize Signs of Dysgraphia in Your Child

This article provides helpful signs and symptoms for dysgraphia. Integrated Learning Strategies (ILS) is a learning and academic center. As a reminder, ILS is not a health care provider and none of our materials or services provide a diagnosis or treatment of a specific condition or learning challenge you may see in your child or student. If you seek a diagnosis or treatment for your child or student, please contact a trained professional who can provide an evaluation of the child.

Many parents and educators have a hard time recognizing the signs and symptoms of Dysgraphia in their child or students. Children struggling with dysgraphia often struggle with written language and how well they are able to express and organize their thoughts on paper. Many times there is a disconnection in the brain that prevents a child from retrieving the information needed from their short-term and long-term memory to execute the writing process.

Children with dysgraphia are not lazy or unintelligent. They simply struggle with written expression. Sometimes just holding a pencil or writing in a straight line can be difficult for these types of students. Children with dysgraphia will often show signs of trouble in areas such as visual-spatial, fine motor, language processing, spelling and handwriting, grammar and organization of written language.

It’s important to know the differences of what dysgraphia is and what it is not, especially if a child could potentially be misdiagnosed with another type of learning challenge. It could mean the difference in how to help a child and what intervention is right or wrong for their specific needs. Parents and teachers often mistake dysgraphia for dyslexia. While dyslexia is related to a reading problem, dysgraphia is solely connected to a child’s writing ability.

How to Recognize the Signs

Here are some helpful tips to determine whether your child is showing signs of dysgraphia or if it may be another learning challenge.

Handwriting Exercises for Big Emotions and Hand Strength

To improve your child’s hand grip strength, emotional grounding, fine motor development and skills for reading and writing, the Rewiring the Brian Handbooks may help. They provide instructions and fun activities to help children build their cognitive development for higher learning.
Both handbooks, beginner and intermediate, provide parents, teachers, Occupational Therapists, Pediatric Therapists, and educators with several fun, playful learning activities to ignite learning. The handbook includes some of the following features:

• Instruction to Rewiring the Brain
• How handwriting exercises benefit your child’s learning development
• Line exercises for letter development and recognition
• Mazes, dot to dots, tracing, coloring, hole punch activities and more
• Curves, boxes and shapes

Each digital handbook targets a child’s emotional and educational development. It is based on the level of the child instead of their age. You may have a child who is 8-years-old, but is still at a beginning level.

• Rewiring the Brain Part I Beginner Level – 63 pages of exercises and activities
• Rewiring the Brain Part II Intermediate Level – 40 pages of exercises and activities

Activities should be done for at least 20 minutes per day. Repetition and practice is key. All activities require adult supervision in the beginning and can be used in conjunction with music therapy and gross motor development if needed.

Print Your Own Copy

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Integrated Learning Strategies is a Utah-based center dedicated to helping mainstream children and children with learning challenges achieve academic success. Our services provide kids with non-traditional tutoring programs within the Davis County, Kaysville, Layton, Syracuse, Farmington, and Centerville areas. Areas to find Integrated Learning Strategies include: Reading tutors in Kaysville, Math tutors in Kaysville, Common Core Tutors in Kaysville, Tutors in Utah, Utah Tutoring Programs