Why Does My Child Have Difficulties With The Conceptual Aspects Of Writing?

Does your child have writing skills, as measured by standardized tests (or functional assessments of writing skills), that are significantly below those expected given the child’s chronological age, measured intelligence, and age-appropriate education?

Does your child have difficulties to compose written texts evidenced by grammatical or punctuation errors, lack of paragraph organization, spelling errors, and excessively poor handwriting?

Does the disturbance significantly interfere with academic performance or activities of daily living?

In case a sensory deficit is present, are the difficulties in writing skills in excess of those usually associated with it?

Based on your answers, it seems unlikely that your child has a problem with written expression. Children who have a learning disability in writing, also called dysgraphia, have difficulties with handwriting, spelling, and composition. They may take very long to come up with a topic, and their writing may consist of short sentences that lack detail. They usually don’t organize their story. The act of writing involves language, motor skills, and visual skills. Therefore, a disorder of written expression may include fine motor problems, memory problems, and visual-spatial problems. In case you are not sure about your child’s symptoms, it may be important to take him or her to a mental health professional.

Based on your answers, your child may be displaying some problems with expressing his thoughts with writing. It may be useful to plan a visit to a mental health professional. Writing problems often go underdiagnosed until middle school or even high school. Teachers are likely to think that the child is just not motivated or ‘not trying’. Besides, disorder of written expression is often accompanied by a reading or math disorder or ADHD. In case you notice any signs of a writing problem, it is important to not wait to get your child a thorough evaluation. A disorder of written expression belongs to the group of specific learning disorders.

Unfortunately, your child is displaying symptoms typically seen among individuals who have disorder of written expression. It may be of high importance to seek medical support. Children with a learning disability have problems with handwriting, spelling, and composition. Through occupational therapy kids will learn the mechanics of letter formation, and they will work on fine motor and sensorimotor skills. Other programs are focused on helping children to organize their ideas. Besides, adaptions to the children’s learning environment may help to provide ways to demonstrate knowledge through other means than written work. Nowadays, disorder of written expression is part of the specific learning disorder group.