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PART
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2
Because students with dysgraphia
are not able to process information that is sequential
in nature, they typically write very slowly or
too fast. When they write slowly, the length of
time it takes for them to write a letter or a
word causes them to lose their train of thought
making it difficult to follow the flow of thoughts
in their writing. Those students, who take the
route of writing too fast, typically do so because
they know they can’t produce an acceptable
product no matter how much time they take.
When a student
has what is called a general auditory or language
processing deficit, she may also be unable to
produce written communication that is legible
and coherent. This is not necessarily dysgraphia
because the issue is not sequential processing
but rather a general inability to express herself
verbally.
It is important
to remember that written communication is the
highest level of language development. The order
of language development includes: receptive, expressive,
pragmatic, reading, and writing. If there is a
breakdown in the development at any one of these
stages, subsequent stages will be impaired.
The following are
typical descriptors of dysgraphia:
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There
may be strong verbal skills but especially
inadequate writing skills |
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Punctuation
is generally random or non-existent |
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You
might see the same word spelled differently,
see letter (d-b) reversals, word reversals
(was-saw) phonic approximations (laf for laugh),
syllable omissions, and errors in common suffixes
(shun for tion) |
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The
quality of writing is most often illegible
regardless of the amount of time taken and
the focus to task |
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Students
change from print to cursive in the same word
and they mix up upper and lower case letters.
The size of their writing changes from large
to small and they vary the slant of their
writing |
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It
is common to find words missing and incomplete
words or letters. · |
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Students
have difficulty in using correct margins and
positioning their writing on the page. Keeping
their writing on the lines and having consistent
spacing between words and letters is difficult. |
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Typically
the student uses an atypical grip of their
writing utensil. It is typical to see that
they hold the instrument very close to the
paper or they hold their thumb over two fingers
and the movement for writing comes is from
their wrist and not their fingers |
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Self-talk
is typical and you may see a student watching
their hand as they write |
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Copying
is laborious even if it is neat and legible |
· If you believe
a student’s illegible writing issue is due
to behavior and it is actually dysgraphia, your
intervention strategies will be inappropriate
and will not result in improved writing
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