Dysgraphia

Hi Guys Taylor Moreland here.

This is intro to special education to 14.

Today I'm going to be talking to you about the

specific learning disability known as dysgraphia.

I'm going to talk about what exactly the specific learning

disability entails.

The characteristics um, causes signs to look for.

I want to talk about statistics, um, Where it lies

in the DSM five, some specific learning disabilities it can

often be compared to as well as in teaching strategies

we, as teachers can use, um, in order to support

students with the specific learning disability as future teachers.

Okay. First, I want to ask you, have you ever

had trouble putting your thoughts on the paper?

Think about it.

Yes, we have.

I mean we're college students.

We've come this far and we are given a lot

of writing assignments, especially as education majors.

Um, so oftentimes our thoughts can feel a little bit

unorganized and sometimes it can feel pretty frustrating to actually

put what we are thinking or information that we know

we need to put down on a piece of paper.

It's often hard to find now.

That's where I want to bring dysgraphia in.

Is this specific learning disability is when a student or

child um begins to struggle with finding the information to

put on a piece of paper with in their brain.

Um This that impairs handwriting, it impairs their spelling, their

speed of writing.

Um So amount of time it takes for them to

actually write an assignment out.

Um It can affect, you know, just the overall visual

um look um of the way they right um As

well as the way that they retrieve information within their

brain and then express it on a piece of paper.

Now it is a neurological disorder, remember that?

So I'm gonna go into causes or I guess I

wanna more so call them connections to impairments within the

brain. Um There are no real causes that's not cannot

be connected to genetics.

Um Though often um Sometimes if a family member has

had another specific learning disability um specifically dyslexia or um

spur selective language impairment.

Sometimes dysgraphia can be found within offspring.

So, but it is not often um connected to genetics.

So I want to talk specifically about impaired Ortho graphic

coding and difficulty in the usage of finger movements, a

sequential movements specifically.

So when I talk about impaired Ortho graphic coding, let's

talk about how we retrieve information in our brain in

order to express it specifically.

So we're going to go if we're going to write

something down on a piece of paper in order to

actually retrieve the information we want to right, we have

to retrieve it from our long term memory and then

store it in our short term in order to later

express it using sequential movements um that the brain uses

to know, pass that on and then right at the

same time and express it on a piece of paper.

Now when this Ortho graphic coding which is the storing

of the information within the short term and retrieval as

well from the long term.

This basically Ortho graphic coding.

This retrieval and storing of the information is um sort

of impaired, it's impaired.

And then um this leads to that difficulty um in

sequential movements, which makes it hard to in any way

express what one is thinking onto a piece of paper

and using their hands to write.

Okay, we're going to go over to the characteristics or

things to look for in students.

Now there is poor handwriting, but don't just look for

poor handwriting and think, oh no, dysgraphia, no.

Um poor handwriting is often due to just maybe an

unorganized child.

Um, Oftentimes for handwriting statistically is common in males rather

than females.

So, you know, don't first look for poor handwriting.

Look for the other characteristics known as um, difficulty with

spelling. Um, maybe a student takes a little bit too

long um, to complete writing assignments.

Um, look for incorrect spacing.

So either little or two, no spacing and then also

look for interchangeable use of capital and lower case letters.

Um, basically all of these bullets I've listed are, you

know, true signs that dysgraphia is most likely present.

Next, I want to talk about how dysgraphia can be

compared um, to other specific learning disabilities and how often

times when dysgraphia is present.

There is also another specific learning disability that is also

present, though it is its own specific learning disabilities.

So dysgraphia is specific learning disability specific to impaired written

expression. Oftentimes this specifically disability is compared to the specific

learning disability that entails impaired reading or impaired language um

known as a selective language impairment or the impairment of

reading which is dyslexia.

Now you can have one or the other or you

can have both.

Um but they are their own specific learning disability.

That brings me over to these statistics First, I want

to talk about where this um Specific learning disability lies

in the DSM five.

So when I was looking in our textbook actually, um

do you know the D.

S. M.

Five labels this specifically that specific learning disability known as

um specific to impaired written expression like I said earlier.

So it's often not um termed as dysgraphia.

Even in our book, dysgraphia does not exist even when

you go into the search, Dysgraphia is not mentioned once.

It is specifically under the foundations of specific learning disabilities

known as written expression impairment.

Now, Specific statistics, I want to talk to you about

real fast is that um they range from about 5

to 20 of students have a written impairment such as

dysgraphia around the world.

So this is, you know, something you do want to

look for in your future students, but it is not

truly truly common.

Um not as common as other specific learning disabilities that

have to do with um reading and language.

This one specific to the written expression.

Um, so it is not as common.

Oftentimes as I said before, it does not work alone.

So you know, if a student does have dyslexia, yes,

sometimes you know you should look for, is there impaired?

Is there writing impaired?

Is the language impaired?

You know what I mean?

Okay. And last but not least I want to talk

about teaching strategies and we need to know this because

we need to use these in order to support our

future students.

Um if you know one does or a few have

the specific learning disability known as dysgraphia.

So usually using a computer, it's often helpful um use

of technology in order to assist students with specific learning

disabilities, but in this case sometimes a computer or typing

is not much different than writing, so it can still

be compared to written expression because you still have that

um finger movement if you if you know what I

mean, that sequential, which as I said before it is

difficult. So speech to text sometimes, but most of the

time a translator.

So basically, you know, their language is not impaired, therefore

they can relay what they're thinking um out loud and

somebody can write down what they're thinking and you know,

um maybe give the student a little bit extra time.

Um That's, you know, a lot of times students with

specific learning disabilities need extra time anyway.

This specifically extra time on writing assignments.

As I said, another characteristic of this specific learning disability

is you know, taking a little bit too much time

to complete assignments.

So another thing is breakdown directions, be specific, create checklists,

you know, so a student is, you know, they have

that difficulty with retrieving that information.

Um So if they haven't broken down for them, it

might make things a little bit easier.

Um as well as highlighting keywords.

Vocab words that you're looking for specific to the assignment

and consider using mind maps or brain dumps and encourage

practice at home.

Thank you so much.

This has been great.

I hope you've learned more about dysgraphia.

Dysgraphia

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