About Dysgraphia

Dysgraphia is a term used for students who have trouble writing, a "disorder of written expression". Most learning disabled students experience difficulty with handwriting and so are also dysgraphic. However, the term is not based on strictly defined criteria.

Sometimes it refers to exceptionally poor handwriting, sometimes to a more profound learning disability. When a student's handwriting difficulties are severe enough to meet special education criteria, something needs to be done!

Dysgraphic students often reverse letters and numbers, write words backwards, write letters out of order and have overall sloppy handwriting. There are lots of mistakes (spelling, punctuation) and they often get "stuck," losing their thoughts as they write.

Students with ADD/ADHD often struggle with writing and handwriting, mostly because they have a hard time organizing information. ADHD students usually process information quickly and lack the fine-motor skills to write as quickly as they think of things. Others have difficulty because of a disability impacting auditory or language processing. Sometimes low confidence in regards to words leads to difficulty with language expression.

The term dysgraphia applies to:

• Strong verbal but weak writing skills

• Mostly illegible handwriting

• Trying to avoid writing (or drawing)

• Getting tired quickly when writing

• Mixing print & cursive, upper & lower case

  Irregular letter sizes, spacing, and styles

• Reversing or leaving out syllables

• Not finishing/leaving out words or letters

• Slow and labored process

• Holding pencil and body awkwardly

• Struggling to express thoughts on paper

Dysgraphia and LearnThatWord

We're not into hype. That's why I'm repeating the offer we make to everyone -- it applies even more so for students with learning disability!

1 - Start a free account. To get personalized spelling tutoring and performance reports, choose premium membership, either via monthly plan or Pay-Per-Result tokens. You can always upgrade later once you see it works well. Moving from handwriting to keyboarding is often a good transition as well, since many students with dysgraphia do better with a keyboard.

2 - Focus on consistency! You will need to use LearnThatWord regularly for a month or two to see results. Aim for sessions of 15-25 words every day. Minimum is three sessions per week.

Students with dysgraphia often feel very frustrated around words. The brain first needs to relax, unlearn its defense mechanisms and trust it can improve. LearnThatWord is an embarrassment-free environment and there are no negative consequences when making a mistake. It simply triggers a chain of practice reviews.

3 - See the number of words learned goes up, along with confidence! Our program focuses on Mental Orthographic Images (MOI), helping the brain build a pattern for when a word "looks right." Since there are so many forms of learning disability and dysgraphia can be the expression of all kind of underlying causes, we can't promise you that it will work. However, a lot of people tell us that it made a big difference for them, so please give it a chance.

4 - Not working, despite regular sessions? You're not thrilled after a month or two? We'll refund your fees. If you’re not happy, we’re not happy! 

Consider these additional tips to support handwriting:

• Graphic organizers/drawn pictures to "note" the thought
• Pencil grips
• More time/break the task up
• Help with spacing with a highlighter
• Use paper with raised lines