Dysgraphia & Handwriting Challenges
The brain processing issues that underlie Dysgraphia can be be addressed directly with sensory-motor exercises. This type of neuro-stimulation training enables users to overcome fine motor hurdles and dramatically improve handwriting for the long term.
Dysgraphia is a neurological challenge defined as a disturbance or difficulty in the production of written language related to the mechanics of handwriting and graphing. Skilled handwriting is a complex activity that entails an intricate blend of cognitive, kinesthetic, and perceptual-motor components. Two main outcomes are used to assess and define poor handwriting: product legibility and performance time.
There are several basic brain processes that underlie the mechanics of handwriting. Binocular teaming, or the proper focusing of the eyes, requires integration between the two hemispheres of the brain. Writing neatly on the paper is a fine motor activity that requires significant eye-hand coordination and well developed fine motor skills. Most handwriting problems are caused by a sensory integration disorder that inhibits coordination and integration between the many brain structures and systems involved in the writing process. The question for a dysgraphia treatment is this: how can the brain processing difficulties that make writing so challenging for some people be addressed?
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Problems arise because "dysgraphia" has no clearly defined criteria. A student with any degree of handwriting difficulty may be labeled "dysgraphic" by some educational specialists, but may or may not need special education services. Most learning disabled students experience difficulty with handwriting and probably could be considered "dysgraphic". However, the term is seldom used within public schools because of the lack of any generally recognized or measurable criteria.
Students with dysgraphia often have sequencing problems. Studies indicate that what usually appears to be a perceptual problem (reversing letters/numbers, writing words backwards, writing letters out of order, and very sloppy handwriting) usually seems to be directly related to sequential/rational information processing. These students often have difficulty with the sequence of letters and words as they write. As a result, the student either needs to slow down in order to write accurately, or experiences extreme difficulty with the "mechanics" of writing (spelling, punctuation, etc.). They also tend to intermix letters and numbers in formulas. Usually they have difficulty even when they do their work more slowly. And by slowing down or getting "stuck" with the details of writing they often lose the thoughts that they are trying to write about.
Students with an attention deficit disorder (especially with hyperactivity) often experience rather significant difficulty with formulas in general and handwriting in particular. This is because ADHD students also have difficulty organizing and sequencing detailed information. Some students can also experience writing difficulty because of a general auditory or language processing weakness. This leads to obvious difficulty with one of the more difficult forms of language expression...written language.
The Learning Breakthrough Program addresses the difficulties associated with poor handwriting by helping to develop and refine the motor skills that control writing motion. It is organized around a group of specially designed activities that improve eye-hand coordination, and other critical functions, and refine the neural networks that are crucial to the process of hand writing.
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