Dysgraphia under the spotlight

This post was authored by Kate Hardiman, Educational and Developmental Psychologist, BA (Psych)(Hons), MPsych (Ed & Dev).

Dysgraphia or a Specific Learning Disorder (SLD) in Written Expression can refer to below average spelling, grammar and punctuation and/or organisation of writing. Sometimes dysgraphia co-occurs with dyslexia and the origin of writing difficulties are with the phonological pathways and understanding of phoneme to grapheme. But it is not always the case that dysgraphia accompanies phonological processing differences or oral language delays.

At times, ADHD and/or Autism can be co-morbid processing differences that contribute to executive functioning (EF) challenges. Writing is a complex skill and leans heavily on EF skills. Good writing takes original thought or the ability to synthesise the thoughts of others. It takes planning skills, organising skills, self-monitoring during the editing process, and more. It takes emotion regulation and frustration tolerance to face a blank page and tolerate the uncertainty of coming up with an idea or redrafting a paragraph. It takes the resilience of being judged, graded, assessed by teachers or peers (or blog readers) for the argument formed. For those students who experience rejection sensitivity the process of getting feedback on written work can feel personal. For others visual-motor integration underlies their challenges with writing and fine motor skills or motor coordination impacts their ability to produce legible handwriting. 

The assessment pathway for dysgraphia may be via a variety of assessment methods or professionals depending on the underlying cause of the writing difficulty. At times students may come with language and phonological assessments through a speech pathologist, observations from teachers, handwriting or motor assessments from occupational therapists. My job as an educational and developmental psychologist in an assessment for SLD in Written Expression is to connect the narrative between assessments and fill in what might be missing - what is this student's overall picture of learning? What has been the intervention response and rate of growth for the student? Are there learning difficulties across academic domains or in a single area? What pathway, phonological, executive functioning, or visual-motor, seems to be underlying the writing difficulties (sometimes the answer is more than one)?  It is this comprehensive overview that can be a useful lens when it comes to an educational psychologist's assessment for dysgraphia.