Probably, the term "dysgraphia" was encountered by readers. What is it, how is it manifested? Is dysgraphia a disease, and how can I get rid of it? We will try to answer all these questions in this article.
Definition of dysgraphia and dyslexia
The terms "dysgraphia" and "dyslexia" in medicine denote specific problems with writing and reading skills. A person in such cases, for various reasons, is not able to write correctly or fluently read.
True, these violations should not be confused with medical concepts such as agraphia and alexia, which indicate the complete inability of the patient to these types of activities.
As a rule, dysgraphia implies disturbances in higher mental activity, which are responsible for writing skills. This usually becomes a serious obstacle to learning literacy and language.
Causes of dysgraphia in children
In order to record the sentence heard, a person must not only remember the order in which the details of each letter are written, but also keep the semantic sequence of words and remember their distinction. If the child has violations in the differentiation of sounds, in their pronunciation, analysis, synthesis or in spatial representations, then this means that he may begin to develop dysgraphia.
In children, by the way, such violations can also be genetically determined. Many researchers studying the causes of this problem believe that pathological factors that affect the baby both in the womb and after birth have a strong influence on its development.
In addition, prolonged somatic diseases and head injuries may be at the heart of dysgraphia. An important role is also played by the lack of verbal communication of the child, his pedagogical neglect, etc. Interestingly, bilingual families also recorded many cases of dysgraphia in children.
Dysgraphia: what is it and what is it expressed in
A child suffering from dysgraphia, as a rule, finds it difficult to establish the sequence of letter details, which causes either a slowdown in the speed of writing words or an illiterate, but fairly quick letter.
Sometimes the cause of dysgraphia is a violation in the ability to process visual information - it is difficult for children to remember, and then reproduce what they saw in a notebook. In a situation where they do not distinguish certain sounds by ear, there is also confusion when writing them.
Features of the manifestation of dysgraphia
Dysgraphy in children is often manifested by errors in writing letters in a strong position, for example, left instead of left, or in missing letters even in a short word: km instead of com , etc. At a time when the usual spelling mistakes are observed in writing letters that are in a weak position: malaco instead of milk , etc.
Besides:
- the child not only skips letters and syllables, but also rearranges them ( onko instead of a window );
- can replace words by sound similarity;
- he adds extra letters and syllables to the word ( deti, command );
- distorts the graphic image of the letter (for example, mirrors the letters c, e, w );
- does not distinguish paired consonants ( b-p or v -f sounds the same for him);
- the mistakes that he makes turn out to be persistent for a long time without disappearing in the learning process.
All these signs should be an incentive for parents, suspecting dysgraphy in their child, urgently seek a consultation with a speech therapist.
The main forms of dysgraphia
Depending on the manifest violations, dysgraphia is divided into several forms.
So, there is articulatory-acoustic dysgraphia that occurs against the background of altered sound pronunciation. The child, as a rule, at the same time writes the words as he pronounces, for example: a fish instead of a fish or managed instead to make noise .
Acoustic dysgraphia is characterized by the replacement of sounds similar in sound when writing (dt, ss, ws, etc.). In this case , the child’s spoken language is correct.
Agrammatic dysgraphia is manifested in problems with the coordination of words. But it is interesting that this happens only in written language, and the child is speaking correctly. For example, he can write, not considering either gender, or case: kind mother or on the street . By the way, this type of violation is usually found already in the 3rd grade, when schoolchildren begin to learn cases.
There is also optical dysgraphia, which is characterized by a violation of visual analysis. The child in this case practically does not perceive the difference between letters with similar writing elements. The problem is caused by C and U, as well as P, L, S or E and Z and the like. In the handwritten version, these are letters: p-t, w-d, l-m, i-sh , etc.
But the most common violations of language analysis and synthesis. The child may not add words, write prepositions together or prefixes separately ( when walking , take ), skip letters and whole syllables, change their places or repeat.
Is dysgraphia an independent disease, and can it be prevented
One can safely say, speaking of the diagnosis of “dysgraphia”, that this is not an independent disease, since it usually accompanies some pathology of a neurological nature, impaired hearing, motor apparatus, auditory or visual analyzer.
The possibility of preventing this problem is still an open question. Experts believe that the prevention of dysgraphia is in principle impossible, since in modern medicine there is no clear understanding of the causes of this pathology. But it is absolutely real to identify the risk of dysgraphia or its early signs even before entering school, which can greatly facilitate the fight against it.
Typically, these include children from bilingual families, retrained left-handed, children with impaired sound reproduction, as well as concentration of attention and memory. Such guys should be shown to a speech therapist and conduct special testing with them to be able to start correction as soon as possible.
How to deal with dysgraphia
Correction of dysgraphia is, first of all, the joint work of parents, teachers and a qualified speech therapist, since mom and dad will not be able to solve this problem on their own.
It is important to remember that if a child has a violation in spoken language, then the correction of dysgraphia begins with a correction in pronunciation!
Classes at a speech therapist are conducted according to the developed system. For this, different speech games are used, as well as a special alphabet for folding words and highlighting their grammatical elements.
The child in the learning process must learn how exactly certain sounds are pronounced, and what letters correspond to them. A speech therapist works with the baby to distinguish between hard and soft or deaf and sonorous pronunciation of a sound, repeating words, selecting them according to given sounds, analyzing the sound and letter composition of the selected words, etc.
Often children are helped by the use of visual material to memorize the outlines of letters, for example: “O” - bagel or hoop, “F” - beetle, “C” - crescent.
Dysgraphia: correction exercises
To successfully overcome the problem, there are a number of special exercises.
- For example, the child is asked to highlight certain letters in the written text. To do this, a text that is boring for the child with a small number of paragraphs and a large font is selected, in which it is proposed to cross out in the words, for example, all the letters "a", then all the letters "o" and so on. During the day, this exercise takes no more than 5 minutes. After a week, you can complicate the task: the child is offered to select 2 letters, with one crossed out and the other outlined or underlined. “Paired” letters are selected, those that the child confuses when writing (they can usually be found by looking at your student’s workbooks).
- It is imperative to pronounce the words when writing, paying attention to sounds that are pronounced differently from the way they are written. That is, we say: “ Kufshyn stood on steel ”, and writing this down, the child should say: “Kuwshin stood on the STEEL” (naming those letters that will be written). The main thing is not to forget to “voice” the end of the word, since dysgraphy in schoolchildren often manifests itself by not completing words to the end.
- It is very important to train your handwriting. To do this, in the notebook in the box, invite the child to write so that each letter of the word fits only in one of the boxes and fills it all.
A few words about the technique of Mazanova E.V.
She described perfectly the work with children with a diagnosis of “dysgraphia”, E. Mazanova in her works devoted to different types of this pathology. For each of them, a speech therapist of the highest category developed informative and colorful workbooks and albums. The methods of this author are widely used by specialists for practical training and, judging by the reviews, bring tangible success.
So, for example, Mazanova advises for better memorization of the letter image to invite children to sculpt them from plasticine, write in the air, draw around the finished outline, try to find differences in optically similar letters, find a certain letter when superimposing several images on each other, etc.
But, despite the apparent availability and simplicity of the methods developed for the correction of dysgraphia, I want to once again draw the attention of parents to the fact that doing it yourself without regular consultation with a specialist with a child suffering from this pathology is unreasonable. You will lose valuable time and achieve minimal results!
A few tips for parents
If your child has a dysgraphia, do not scold him for mistakes, do not force him to rewrite the text many times, otherwise you will only achieve your child’s insecurity and place in him a dislike of writing and reading. Be sure to praise the child for every success, but do not praise. In addition, do not show your strong concern about the problem, so as not to develop a child's sense of inferiority.
It is necessary to take into account with the diagnosis of “dysgraphia” that this is usually a condition in which good visual memory develops (as a replacement for a defect), so these children should not be offered exercises where they need to correct the mistakes that were originally made. This may render the child a “disservice.”
Dictations in such cases are written slowly, with the pronunciation of all the letters and punctuation before the letter, and then during it.
It is necessary to prevent the development of dysgraphia in preschool age.
It is very important for parents to remember that dysgraphia and dyslexia do not occur suddenly! And the work to eliminate these pathologies should not be carried out at school age, when the child will have specific problems with grammar and spelling, but long before the start of training.
If the child has a lot of descriptions and mistakes in the notebook, and even having learned the rule by the way, he is still not able to apply it in a letter, you should contact a speech therapist. In the first lessons, he will determine the type of dysgraphia, especially the course of your child’s course, and then only offer a set of exercises to eliminate it.
Mistakes such children make cannot be overcome without special adjustments. Get ready that this is not an easy path, which will require your patience and perseverance in overcoming the problem. Good luck