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My outline for this page is to expand on the types of dysgraphia, there are more than the 3 mentioned in the article, I will write about the symptoms of dysgraphia, I will include a section on testing for dysgraphia and coping http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Hkyoung01/sandbox&action=editstrategies, I will also add a section about the cause of dysgraphia. I will attempt to clean up the citations used in the article and find new ones suitable for the research done.

DID YOU KNOW: Dysgraphia occurs regardless of the ability to read and is not due to intellectual impairment. Dysgraphia has multiple different forms.

Dysgraphia
Dysgraphia is a deficiency in the ability to write primarily in terms of handwriting, but also in terms of coherence. It occurs regardless of the ability to read and is not due to intellectual impairment. Dysgraphia is a transcription disability, meaning that it is a writing disorder associated with impaired handwriting, orthographic coding (orthography, the storing process of written words and processing the letters in those words), and finger sequencing (the movement of muscles required to write). Dysgraphia is known as one of the most common learning disabilities and it often overlaps with other learning disabilities such as speech impairment, attention deficit disorder, or developmental coordination disorder.

People with dysgraphia can often write on some level and may lack other fine motor skills, for example they may find tasks such as tying shoes difficult, but it does not affect all fine motor skills. People with dysgraphia often have unusual difficulty with handwriting and spelling which in turn can cause writing fatigue. They may lack basic grammar and spelling skills (for example, having difficulties with the letters p, q, b, and d), and often will write the wrong word when trying to formulate their thoughts on paper. In childhood, the disorder generally emerges when the child is first introduced to writing. Adults, teenagers, and children alike are all subject to dysgraphia. The word dysgraphia comes from the Latin words ‘Dys’ meaning “impaired” and ‘Graphia’ meaning “making letter forms by hand”. Acquired dysgraphia is known as agraphia.

In the DSM-IV, dysgraphia is characterized as a learning disability in the category of written expression when one’s writing skills are below those expected given a person’s age measured through intelligence and age appropriate education. The DSM is not clear in whether or not writing refers to only the motor skills involved in writing, or if it also includes orthographic skills and spelling.

Factors Causing Dysgraphia
Dysgraphia is a biologically based disorder with genetic and brain bases. More specifically, it is a working memory problem. The brain response of individuals with dysgraphia is usually normal, but it fails to develop normal, functional connections amongst the different brain regions that are needed for writing. People with dysgraphia have difficulty in automatically remembering and mastering the sequence of motor movements required to write letters or numbers. Dysgraphia is not only a motor problem; it is also due to underlying problems in orthographic coding, the orthographic loop, and graphmotor output (the movements that result in writing) by one’s hands, fingers and executive functions involved in letter writing. The orthographic loop is when written words are stored in the mind’s eye, connected through sequential finger movement for motor output through the hand with feedback from the eye.

Types of dysgraphia
Dysgraphia is often, but not always, accompanied by other learning disabilities such as dyslexia or attention deficit disorder, and this can change the type of dysgraphia a person might have. There are three principal subtypes of dysgraphia that are recognized. There is little information available about different types of dysgraphia and there are likely more subtypes than the ones listed below. Some children may have a combination of two or more of these, and individual symptoms may vary in presentation from what is described here.

Dyslexic dysgraphia
People with dyslexic dysgraphia, have illegible spontaneously written work,their copied work is fairly good, but their spelling is usually bad. Their finger tapping speed (a method for identifying fine motor problems) is normal, indicating that the deficit does not likely stem from cerebellar damage.

Motor dysgraphia
Motor dysgraphia is due to deficient fine motor skills, poor dexterity, poor muscle tone, or unspecified motor clumsiness. Letter formation may be acceptable in very short samples of writing, but this requires extreme effort and an unreasonable amount of time to accomplish, and it cannot be sustained for a significant length of time. Overall, their written work is poor to illegible even if copied by sight from another document, and drawing is difficult. Oral spelling for these individuals is normal, and their finger tapping speed is below normal. This shows that there are problems within the fine motor skills of these individuals. Writing is often slanted due to holding a pen or pencil incorrectly.

Spatial dysgraphia
Spatial dysgraphia is when a person has a defect in the understanding of space. They will have illegible spontaneously written work, illegible copied work, and problems with drawing abilities. They have normal spelling and normal finger tapping speed, suggesting that this subtype is not fine motor based.

Symptoms and Side Effects of Dysgraphia
The symptoms to dysgraphia are often overlooked as being lazy, unmotivated, not caring, or visual-motor delays. In order to be diagnosed with dysgraphia, you must have a cluster, but not necessarily all, of the following symptoms:


 * Cramping of fingers while writing short entries
 * Odd wrist, arm, body, or paper orientations such as creating an L shape with your arm
 * Excessive erasures
 * Mixed upper case and lower case letters
 * Inconsistent form and size of letters, or unfinished letters
 * Misuse of lines and margins
 * Inefficient speed of copying
 * Inattentiveness over details when writing
 * Frequent need of verbal cues
 * Referring heavily on vision to write
 * Poor legibility
 * Handwriting abilities that may interfere with spelling and written composition
 * Having a hard time translating ideas to writing, sometimes using the wrong words altogether

Students with dysgraphia are not unmotivated, their disability causes them emotional trauma often due to the fact that no one can read their writing and they are aware that they are not performing to the same level as their peers. Emotional problems that may occur alongside dysgraphia include impaired self-esteem, lowered self-efficacy, heightened anxiety, and depression. They may put in extra efforts in order to have the same achievements as their peers, but often get frustrated because they feel that their hard work does not pay off.

Dysgraphia is a hard disorder to detect as it does not affect specific ages, gender, or intelligence. The main concern in trying to detect dysgraphia is that people hide their disability behind their verbal fluency because they are ashamed that they cannot achieve the same goals as their peers. Having dysgraphia is not related to a lack of cognitive ability, and it is not uncommon in intellectually gifted individuals, but due to dysgraphia their intellectual abilities are often not identified.

Teaching Students with Dysgraphia
There is no special education category for students with dysgraphia, but children with dysgraphia should be handled in a case by case manner with an Individualized Education Program. Students with dysgraphia often cannot complete written assignments that are legible, appropriate in length and content, or within given time. It is suggested that students with dysgraphia receive specialized instructions that are appropriate for them, this means that each set of instructions may be different for each child. Children will mostly benefit from explicit and comprehensive instructions, help translating across multiple levels of language, and review and revision of assignments or writing methods. They should have direct, explicit instruction of letter formation, and guided practice in order to achieve automatic handwriting performance before they use letters to write words, phrases, and sentences. Letters should be taught in both upper and lower case and students should have periodic review. Some older children may benefit from the use of a personal computer, or a laptop in class so that they do not have to deal with the frustration of falling behind their peers.

Teachers with dysgraphic students should decide if their focus will be on manuscript writing (printing), or keyboarding. In either case, students should be taught how to read cursive writing because it is used daily in classrooms by teachers. It may also be beneficial for the teacher to come up with other methods of assessing a child's knowledge other than written tests such as oral tests. This causes less frustration for the child as they are able to get their knowledge across to the teacher without worrying how to write their thoughts.

The number of students with dysgraphia may increase from 4 percent of students in primary grades, due to the overall difficulty of handwriting, and up to 20 percent in middle school because written compositions become more complex. With this in mind, there are no exact numbers of how many individuals have dysgraphia due to its difficulty to diagnose. There are slight gender differences in association with written disabilities; overall it is found that males are more likely to be impaired with handwriting, composing, spelling, and orthographic abilities than females.

Treatment
Treatment for dysgraphia varies and may include treatment for motor disorders to help control writing movements. As previously mentioned, the use of educational therapy can be effective. Other treatments may address impaired memory or other neurological problems. Some physicians recommend that individuals with dysgraphia use computers to avoid the problems of handwriting. Dysgraphia can be overcome with appropriate and conscious effort and training.

Occupational therapy could be considered to strengthen muscle tone, improve dexterity, and evaluate eye–hand coordination. Dysgraphic children should also be evaluated for ambidexterity, which can delay fine motor skills in early childhood. Diagnosing dysgraphia can be challenging but can be done at facilities specializing in learning disabilities.

It is suggested that those who believe they may have dysgraphia seek a qualified clinician to be tested. Clinicians will have the client self-generate written sentences and paragraphs, and copy age-appropriate text. They will assess the output of writing, as well as observe the clients posture while writing, their grip on the writing instrument, and will ask the client to either tap their finger or turn their wrists repeatedly to assess fine motor skills.