What Causes Dysgraphia?

Handwriting

What causes Dysgraphia? We still do not know very much about dysgraphia, but it is thought the cause of this disorder could be due to a language disorder and/or damage to the motor system.

 

At present there is hardly any research on dysgraphia and therefore it is difficult to give definitive answers to this question.

 

Dysgraphia Sub-types

 

However, there does appear to be several sub-types of dysgraphia. Deuel (1994) divided dysgraphia into three sub-types:

Dyslexic Dysgraphia

Motor Dysgraphia

Spatial Dysgraphia

 

*What are the different types of dysgraphia?


While dysgraphia may be broadly classified as follows, there are many individual variations that affect both treatment and prognosis:

 

1. Dyslexic Dysgraphia
In 'Dyslexic Dysgraphia', spontaneously written text is illegible, especially when the text is complex. Oral spelling is poor, but drawing and copying of written text are relatively normal. Finger-tapping speed (a measure of fine-motor speed) is normal.


2. Motor Dysgraphia
In 'Motor Dysgraphia', both spontaneously written and copied text may be illegible, oral spelling is normal, and drawing is usually problematic. Finger-tapping speed is abnormal.

 

3. spatial Dysgraphia
In 'Spatial Dysgraphia', people display illegible writing, whether spontaneously produced or copied. Oral spelling is normal. Finger-tapping speed is normal, but drawing is very problematic.

 

* Deuel, D. Developmental Dysgraphia 1995.

 

What is interesting with this Deuel's research in 1994 is there is no mention of; Phonological Dysgraphia and Visual Dysgraphia that was mentioned by

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and stroke (NINDS) - ( Dysgraphia 2.doc   NINDS), in June 2004.

 

Whilst this is no longer on the NINDS' website (or at least I couldn't find it today), does this mean that these two problems do not exist,

or there is no research to support this? For now, I am leaving them on the site, until we can find out any further information.

 

Phonological Dysgraphia
  1. Boy Listening**Phonological dysgraphia - writing words as a pure 'sound' spelling which is incorrect e.g. writing 'brought' as 'brot' or 'station' as 'stayshun'.

 

Visual Dysgraphia
  1. **Visual dysgraphia -writing words, which are correctly spelt apart from some letters being reversed, e.g. 'drink' as 'brink' or the bizarre or abnormal
  2. and irregular formation of letters. They may sometimes look fine but they have been produced in an abnormal order of pen strokes.

**Dysgraphia 2.doc   NINDS
June 2004

 

 

Reference:
*Deuel, Ruthmary K., M.D. Developmental Dysgraphia and Motor Skills Disorders.

Journal of Child Neurology, Vol. 10, Supp.1. January 1995, pp. S6-S8.