Dysgraphy is a disorder in the field of speech therapy associated with violations of the patient’s writing process. This phenomenon is due to the insufficient formation of some functions of the psyche, which are responsible for the control and implementation of writing processes. Dysgraphy can be recognized by the presence of systematically repeated errors in the letter, which do not disappear, and their elimination requires special methods. For the diagnosis of dysgraphy in a patient, an analysis of the tasks written by him is carried out, as well as by special methods, the specialist evaluates the skill of his oral speech.
The content of the article:
Causes of dysgraphy
Mechanisms of dysgraphy
Classification of dysgraphy
Symptoms of dysgraphy
Correction of dysgraphy
Prognosis and prevention of dysgraphy
Dysgraphy
Dysgraphy is a specific violation of writing in a patient. As mentioned above, the written speech of dysgraphic patients is significantly damaged. According to some data, the disorder can be detected in half of students in primary school and in a third of students in secondary school. The analysis of these data suggests a very high prevalence of dysgraphy and its resistance among children. The reason for this is that a large number of children with any speech therapy disorders or with disorders related to the perception of sounds are admitted to the first grades of schools and kindergartens. Due to the presence of these disorders, children cannot fully acquire knowledge and develop oral and written language skills. It should be noted that if a dysgraphic child is in a comprehensive school, his learning process should take place with the participation of a speech therapist, and specific errors in writing made by a dysgraphic patient should not affect the overall academic performance in such humanities as Russian language and literature.
Dysgraphy and aragraphy are often confused. These speech disorders differ in a number of common features, but there is still a difference: with dysgraphy, written speech undergoes distortions, but still persists and can function. With aragraphy, the patient has an inability to master writing, the skill is recognized as completely lost. Dysgraphy is often accompanied by reading disorders, for example, dyslexia.
Causes of dysgraphy
As mentioned above, dysgraphy is associated with the writing skill that a person develops. Therefore, there is a connection with all sides of the patient’s oral speech. An important role is played by the states of sound reproduction, phonemic perception, lexico-grammatical side, coherence and intelligibility of speech. Therefore, the development of dysgraphy may have the same reasons as other speech therapy disorders, for example, dysarthria or alalia.
As in the case of, for example, dysarthria, dysgraphy can be caused by brain lesions, its underdevelopment during the mother’s pregnancy and in the postpartum period. Often, the causes may be the pathological course of pregnancy, injuries sustained during delivery, asphyxia. Neuroinfectious diseases, for example, meningitis and encephalitis, somatic diseases in a severe stage also cause lesions of the child’s central nervous system and, as a consequence, dysgraphy.
In addition to the factors caused by the physical condition of the patient’s central nervous system, socio-psychological reasons play a great role in the formation of writing disorders. This may be bilingualism in the family, private contacts with speech disorders, lack of speech communication, as well as inattentive attitude of parents to the child during the formation of speech and writing skills. The early start of a child’s literacy training can also cause difficulties with writing, since psychologically he is not yet ready to accept such a volume of information. In addition, dysgraphy may appear in children with a certain constitutional predisposition and mental retardation.
The appearance of dysgraphy in patients in adulthood is due to the presence of a history of traumatic brain injuries, strokes, and neurosurgical surgical interventions. Brain tumors can also contribute to impaired writing function.
Mechanisms of dysgraphy
Dysgraphy is characterized by some complexity of its mechanism. Since written speech is a complex process with many levels, most analyzers are involved in its formation. These include visual, speech-hearing, speech-motor, and motor. Their interaction is responsible for the writing skill of the patient. The more developed a person’s oral speech is, the greater the probability of a high level of writing skill development. However, written speech can be developed only in the process of purposeful learning, while the development of oral speech does not require compliance with this rule.
The mechanism of dysgraphy may be due to the fact that the process of establishing the dominant hemisphere responsible for the development of speech functions occurs untimely. Ideally, all related processes should be completed by the beginning of school. In case of lateralization delay, the development of writing is disrupted, which leads to the appearance of corresponding diseases. Dysgraphy is often accompanied by a violation of the formation of perception, memory, thinking, syllabic analysis, perception of space, phonemic processes and other similar factors.
Psycholinguistics also gives its assessment of the mechanism of the appearance of dysgraphy. It is assessed as a violation of the operation of the origin of the written manifestation of one’s speech: structuring, dividing sentences into words and phrases, and the like.
Classification of dysgraphy
Currently, dysgraphy involves the allocation of five forms. Each of them depends on which particular letter operation is not formed or is broken in the patient:
articulatory-acoustic dysgraphy is caused by a violation of the perception of phonemics, articulation, difficulty in sound reproduction;
acoustic dysgraphy is caused by a violation of phonemic recognition;
a form of dysgraphy caused by the lack of formation of language synthesis;
agrammatic dysgraphy is caused by difficulties in the development of speech vocabulary and its grammar;
optical dysgraphy is associated with the fact that the patient has not developed visual-spatial perception.
It is worth noting that in speech therapy, in addition to strictly defined forms of dysgraphy, mixed ones are often diagnosed. By the way, mixed forms are somewhat more common in practice.
In addition to this classification, there is another:
specific violations of the letter;
non-specific violations of writing (related to the pedagogical and socio-psychological side of the violation).
Symptoms of dysgraphy
Like any speech therapy disorder, dysgraphy is distinguished by a number of specific symptoms. As a rule, these are errors in the letter that the patient repeats systematically. Moreover, it is worth noting that a person does not make these mistakes because of ignorance of the rules and norms of the language. Most often, errors are associated with the replacement or displacement of similar letters or similar sounds. Patients often skip letters and syllables in words, swap them, add extra letters. Words are often written together, and in sentences there is no consistency of words and word forms with each other. At the same time, it is noted that the speed of writing the text is quite low, and the handwriting is indistinguishable. Considering all these factors, it should be remembered that it is possible to diagnose “dysgraphy” only after the patient has mastered writing skills, that is, not earlier than 9 years. The diagnosis made before this age may later turn out to be false.
Articulatory-acoustic dysgraphy is also diagnosed by errors in writing, but in this case they are associated with incorrect pronunciation of sounds. Simply put, the patient writes in the same way as he hears a particular sound. Most often, this phenomenon occurs in children with speech underdevelopment from the phonetic and phonemic side. Errors are similar both in oral speech and in writing.
Acoustic dysgraphy does not imply a violation of the pronunciation of sounds, but their perception is formed incorrectly. Thus, the patient replaces some sounds on the letter with those that are similar to them in pronunciation, for example, hissing to whistling, ringing to deaf, and so on. Dysgraphy caused by violations of language synthesis does not allow the patient to correctly appeal with letters and syllables in a word: he swaps them, adds superfluous or does not add the endings of words. For children suffering from this form of dysgraphy, it is characteristic to write prepositions with words together, prefixes, on the contrary, are separated from the word on the letter. In the case of diagnosis of the disease among schoolchildren, this form is the most common.
Agrammatic dysgraphy has the following characteristic features: the patient incorrectly changes words by case, confuses declensions, cannot determine gender or number. There is an inconsistency in the formulation of words in the sentences, some members of the sentence are omitted. Speech in patients suffering from this form of dysgraphy is underdeveloped and rather inhibited. This disorder is accompanied by other speech therapy disorders, for example, dysarthria, alalia and others.
Optical dysgraphy manifests itself in such a way that the patient mixes and replaces letters with visually similar letters on the letter. In this case, either literal optical dysgraphy (violation of the reproduction of isolated letters) or verbal optical dysgraphy (violation of the spelling of letters in words) can be detected. The most common mistakes in patients are adding unnecessary elements to letters or not writing the necessary ones, “mirroring” letters and the like.
In patients suffering from dysgraphy, it is often possible to diagnose symptoms that are not related to speech therapy. As a rule, these are neurological disorders and disorders, for example, hyperactivity, memory disorders, decreased performance. It is difficult for patients to concentrate on anything, they are often distracted during training or work.
Diagnostic measures to detect dysgraphy usually include consultation not only of a speech therapist, but also of other specialists: neurologist, ophthalmologist, ENT. It is necessary to exclude the possibility of hearing and vision defects. Assessment of speech function is given by a speech therapist. For this purpose, diagnostic measures of written speech are carried out. In this case, it is important to clearly distinguish the presence of disorders with ignorance of the rules and norms of the language, with the patient’s illiteracy. Next, the specialist determines the form of dysgraphy.
Diagnostic measures to establish dysgraphy in the patient are carried out comprehensively. At the first stage of the examination, the patient’s written works are analyzed. Next, the child’s development, his speech skill, and general development are evaluated. After that, specialists study the state of the central nervous system, the organs of hearing and vision, articulation apparatus, hand motor skills and speech motor skills. It is also determined which hand the patient uses when writing.
Correction of dysgraphy
Correction of dysgraphy involves systematics. The program is developed individually, taking into account the specifics of a particular case. The form of the violation must be taken into account.
To overcome the violation, the specialist sets the task of filling in the gaps in the processes important for the formation of writing skills. Work is underway on the development of speech, on its coherence. The patient is given special tasks for the development of vocabulary, the formation of speech grammar. In addition, auditory and spatial perception are corrected, memory and thinking processes are developed. After the development of oral speech skills — on their basis — the written skill also develops.
In addition to the speech therapy complex, medication courses, physiotherapy, massage and physical therapy are often added to the correction.
Prognosis and prevention of dysgraphy
In order to help a patient suffering from dysgraphy, it requires the involvement of not only specialists in the field of speech therapy and neurology, but also the participation of the child’s environment. Speech therapy should also be provided in the process of studying at school.
To prevent the occurrence of a violation, certain work should be carried out even before the beginning of the writing learning process. It is necessary to develop mindfulness, memory, thought processes, spatial perception, auditory and visual differentiation and similar aspects responsible for mastering the skills of writing. It is necessary to correct violations of oral speech in time, to develop vocabulary.
During the school period, the interaction of a speech therapist and a teacher of Russian language and literature is important. The dictation of a child suffering from dysgraphy or suspected of it should be checked jointly by both specialists. With the help of them, you can both confirm the violation and trace the dynamics of its development or, conversely, regression. At the same time, specific dysgraphic errors should not be taken into account when evaluating works.
You can find out more detailed information about dysgraphy, as well as get acquainted with the list of clinics in Moscow, where the diagnosis and treatment of the disorder is carried out, on our website. Here you will also find the necessary contact details.
