# @edutopia on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/COG5Y4yjTV5
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/20303851-edutopia-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/1d5cb025ea.jpg
- **Posted:** 2021-04-25T23:41:57.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Edutopia (@edutopia) — https://gondola.cc/edutopia

## Caption

Dysgraphia, a neurological disorder that interferes with a person’s ability to produce written work, is an “invisible disability,” says literacy specialist Jessica Hamman. In the early grades, students with dysgraphia can struggle with letter formation, word spacing, punctuation, and capitalization, while later on it can manifest as poor writing fluency and illegible handwriting. ⁣
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Students with dysgraphia are often working very hard to keep up, and Hamman notes that they’re generally “acutely aware of what they’re not capable of relative to their peers.”⁣
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“Dysgraphia can be remediated with occupational therapy to strengthen fine motor skills, support written expression, and speed up language processing,” she adds.⁣
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Here are a few ways teachers can support students with the disorder:⁣
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✏️ Teach cursive: “Cursive writing has fewer starting points than disconnected letters, which translates into improved writing speed, more consistent letter sizing, and neater overall appearance of writing,” Hamman notes. This can start as early as first grade.⁣
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💻 Teach typing: Once the student is comfortable with a keyboard—as early as kindergarten—teach them typing skills. Online games can help. ⁣
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💬 Provide access to speech-to-text tools: Offer students free, easy-to-use tools like Google Chrome’s voice typing, Apple’s Speak Screen, or Dragon Dictation. ⁣
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➗  Supply graph paper for math assignments: “Graph paper helps students with dysgraphia stay in the lines, which becomes increasingly important in later grades when they’re faced with more complex math tasks,” Hamman writes. ⁣
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📓 Allow for note-taking accommodations: For students with dysgraphia, taking notes can be daunting, so let them “take pictures of lecture notes to review later,” she advises. ⁣
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📌  Be deliberate about hanging students’ written work: Writing assignments can take students with dysgraphia a long time to complete, so “consider waiting to hang assignments until everyone has finished so students with dysgraphia don’t feel shame at having everyone else’s work on display while theirs is still in progress,” or hang their typewritten work instead, Hamman advises.⁣
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#Dysgraphia #TeacherTip

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dysgraphia, teachertip

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