Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Isn't this a red flag for something else, such as ADHD or dyslexia? I thought dysgraphia was a motor disability that makes writing laborious and slow, not an attention or visual recognition issue.

My son has dysgraphia, extremely slow processing speed and severe ADHD. He has always been an excellent speller (no punctuation problems either). However despite years of handwriting and typing training, his writing is atrocious, his typing slow, and it's all quite fatiguing.

I'm wondering whether there are different types of dysgraphia? Or whether your child also has concurrent dyslexia? Or...?

Note that MCPS, for some scandalous reason, does not recognize or test for dyslexia (the most common learning disability in children!), so if your child was tested by the school, they could have passed over that.

NP here. I'm slowly learning that these LD diagnoses are helpful but are super fuzzy around the edges and/or are co-morbid with some universal non-NT (or only occasionally NT) traits. My dyslexic kid has all the traits of dysgraphia. Does he have dysgraphia? Or is it dyslexia? Or does it really matter? He also can't spell to save his life.

Sorry, I have no point here. Just to say that it's all confusing.

Anonymous wrote:


There are different types of dysgraphia and different levels of severity. In any case, it seems that the trend among the "experts these days" is to move away from the words dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia and go right to the heart of the matter: a language-based learning difference that affects X,Y,Z. Of course, most of us use the words that get the message across quickly... but just emphasizing that they are all related and intricately linked.

For what it's worth, with my son, who has very severe dysgraphia, there is a visual processing issue at the core. Like he can't even trace a straight line, much less reproduce a shape from memory, and he is 14. He has every red flag for dyslexia but has no trouble reading, has always loved it. His spelling was horrible, typical, dyslexic-looking spelling, despite all his reading.

OP, I homeschooled him for a couple of years and did kind of a multi-pronged approach: classical homeschooling grammar/spelling texts that are very gradual, model a rule, state the rule, require it, and use a lot of repetition AND a more multi-sensory approach to spelling/grammar. Especially with spelling I just searched any program directed at dyslexics--again my child isn't dyslexic but he really benefited from these.

Some of our resources:

*listened to the book Grammar-Land several times

*IEW Fix-It Grammar

*Grammar for Well-Trained Mind

*Giggly Guide to Grammar

Some of these books were kind of dull and some were cutesy. The key was short lessons and a lot of repetition. My son did learn and he is an excellent writer now.