Bad handwriting, gnarled letters, crooked lines. It may not be that the kid is lazy to learn to write. And in a disorder called dysgraphia. We figure out how you can help him.
It all starts simple, banal and imperceptible. At first, it is difficult for a child to hold a spoon or fork. Then it becomes difficult for him to hold a pencil or pen correctly. When you trust him with scissors, it turns out that cutting the paper is also a whole problem. Further more. Closer to school, it becomes clear that it is difficult for a child to reproduce letters on paper. Punctuation problems – of course. And in almost every word there is a mistake.
At the same time, the child reads fluently – better than peers. But to write … Crooked lines, crooked letters. The kid cries and worries that he is not able to write as quickly and accurately as his classmates. He will try very hard, puff over every word, but still there will be a bunch of mistakes in the text, the letters will look in the wrong direction, and he will forget about punctuation marks altogether.
It’s not a reluctance to learn, no. This is a disorder called dysgraphia. As noted by the portal Scary Mommy, scientists call this ailment the disease of the century.
Dysgraphia is one of the types of dyslexia, when a person has difficulty learning written language. It is difficult for a child to write, but not to read or speak. The general level of his intelligence may not only be at the level of his peers, but even higher. But what punctuation is, he cannot understand. Dysgraphia is difficult to diagnose. Yes, and they go to the doctor only because the child does not write well, it is extremely rare. However, doctors say that 5 to 20 percent of schoolchildren with writing problems suffer from dysgraphia.
Dysgraphia is treated. Doctors advise to engage with the child more, focusing on games in which there are tasks related to letters: you can sculpt letters from plasticine, connect dots, copy letters according to samples. This is the very first stage of therapy: the child must first learn how to draw letters, and then write them. Only then can you move on to spelling.
In addition, experts advise to write in block letters, not in capital letters – first, clarity is important. In addition, this way the child will understand in which direction the letters are “looking”, will stop turning them over, as is often the case with the letter I. You can even type on a computer.
In general, there is nothing supernatural in correcting dysgraphia: neither medication nor specific therapy is needed. But you need a lot of patience. Therefore, try to understand that the kid is really not to blame. He tries. It’s just that his brain works like that.
And most importantly, praise your child for everything he did right. Even for the most simple, trifling, but correctly written short words.