Dysgraphia. Causes, signs and methods of correction of dysgraphia in adults and children Manifestations of dysgraphia in the written speech of children

Dysgraphia is a specific writing disorder that manifests itself in persistent errors. It develops due to the immaturity of the higher parts of the central nervous system. The disease does not allow children to master the grammatical features of the language.

According to statistics, more than 50% of primary schoolchildren and more than 30% of middle school students have dysgraphia. This characterizes the form of speech impairment as unstable. The prevalence of the diagnosis is explained by the fact that about half of kindergarten graduates go to school with phonetic-phonemic underdevelopment or general speech underdevelopment. These problems make the process of fully mastering literacy impossible.

Depending on the severity of disorders in the writing process, speech therapists distinguish:

• dysgraphia (writing is distorted, but functions as the main means of communication);
• agraphia (primary inability to master writing, complete loss of the skills necessary for this).

Since writing and reading are inextricably linked, dysgraphia and dyslexia (reading impairment) are very often diagnosed at the same time.

Types of dysgraphia in primary schoolchildren

Taking into account the immaturity of certain writing operations, the following types of dysgraphia are distinguished:

• Articulatory-acoustic dysgraphia (there are disturbances in sound pronunciation, articulation, and phonemic perception).
• Acoustic dysgraphia (problems related to phonemic recognition).
• Agrammatic dysgraphia (underdevelopment of the lexico-grammatical aspect of speech).
• Optical dysgraphia (immaturity of visual-spatial imagination).
• Dysgraphia, caused by the immaturity of language synthesis and analysis.

Dysgraphia in adults and children is not always represented in “pure” forms. Mixed problems are very common.

Modern classification of dysgraphia

Modern speech therapy distinguishes specific and nonspecific writing disorders. The first group includes:

• dysgraphia (dysphonological, metalinguistic);
• dysorthography (syntactic, morphological).

Nonspecific writing disorders are associated with pedagogical neglect, mental retardation, etc.

Causes

Mastery of writing is closely related to processes such as phonemic perception, sound pronunciation, lexical and grammatical development, etc. Therefore, it is believed that dysgraphia is caused by reasons that underlie alalia, dyslalia, dysarthria, aphasia, and mental retardation. This refers to underdevelopment or damage to the brain in the prenatal, postnatal and natal periods resulting from:

• pregnancy pathologies;
• asphyxia;
• birth injuries;
• uneven development of the cerebral hemispheres;
• somatic diseases that negatively affect the nervous system.

Among the social factors that contribute to the occurrence of dysgraphia in children:

• bilingualism in the family;
• incorrect or unclear speech of people around you;
• inattention to children's speech on the part of parents;
• lack of speech contacts;
• teaching the child the basics of literacy too early.

Children at risk for dysgraphia include:

• with a hereditary predisposition;
• children of left-handers (including retrained left-handers);
• with various speech disorders;
• with a constitutional predisposition;
• who have undergone neurosurgical interventions.

The causes of dysgraphia in adults are different:

• a brain tumor;
• neurosurgical treatment.

Symptoms of dysgraphia

Signs of dysgraphia are repeated typical mistakes of a persistent nature that are not associated with ignorance of the norms of the native language. Children can change the structure of a word, replace voiced sounds with paired unvoiced ones, and disrupt the separateness and unity of spelling of terms. At the same time, they write too slowly and sloppily.

• With articulatory-acoustic dysgraphia, errors in written speech are directly related to the mistakes the child makes during oral speech. That is, he writes words the way he pronounces them.
• With acoustic dysgraphia, the student pronounces sounds correctly, but his phonemic perception is poorly developed. In writing, he replaces letters that correspond to phonemically similar sounds (voiced - unvoiced, hissing - whistling, etc.).
• With dysgraphia, which has developed due to a violation of language synthesis and analysis, there is a violation of the division of words into syllables, and sentences into words. The student rearranges syllables and letters, does not add endings, connects words with prepositions, but separates them with prefixes.
• With agrammatic dysgraphia, multiple agrammatisms in written speech are identified. Children incorrectly change words according to cases, numbers and genders, and cannot coordinate them with each other. Prepositional constructions are also violated.
• With optical dysgraphia, graphically similar letters are mixed/replaced in writing (instead of “l” - “m”, instead of “zh” - “x”).

Dysgraphia is often accompanied by:

• neurological disorders;
• increased distractibility;
• decreasing memory capacity.

If you notice similar symptoms, immediately consult a doctor . It is easier to prevent a disease than to deal with the consequences

The best doctors for the treatment of dysgraphia

The level of development of speech function is assessed by a speech therapist.

The main task of diagnostic measures is to differentiate dysgraphia from ignorance of spelling rules, as well as to determine the form of pathology. The examination includes the following stages:

• Study and analysis of written work.
• Study of general and speech development.
• Examination of hearing, vision, state of the central nervous system.
• Study of the state of the articulatory apparatus, manual and speech motor skills, determination of the dominant hand.

The speech therapist also evaluates:

• sound pronunciation;
• phonemic synthesis, analysis;
• auditory differentiation of sounds;
• syllabic structure of words;
• lexicon;
• grammatical structure of speech.

When the development of oral speech has been studied, a written speech examination is carried out. The child completes tasks for copying handwritten and printed texts, takes dictation, and composes descriptions based on pictures.

A speech therapy conclusion is made based on data on typical errors.

Treatment of dysgraphia

Correction of dysgraphia is carried out taking into account the form and mechanisms of impairment of written speech. The activities carried out are aimed at:

• filling gaps in phonemic processes and sound pronunciation;
• formation of the grammatical aspect of speech;
• vocabulary enrichment;
• development of clear and coherent speech.

The analytical and synthetic aspect plays a fairly large role in the structure of speech therapy exercises for the correction of dysgraphia. For each child, a speech therapist develops an individual development plan for spatial and auditory perception, memory, attention and thinking. Oral communication skills are reinforced through various written exercises.

To eliminate the main diseases that cause dysgraphia, rehabilitation measures and drug therapy are carried out. Help to achieve good results:

• hydrotherapy;
• massage;
• physiotherapy;

Danger

Dysgraphia does not pose a health hazard, but it hinders the child’s adaptation and communication with others. The neglected form does not allow children to study in general education institutions or enter colleges and universities.

It is very important that not only parents, but also qualified speech therapists, neurologists, and teachers deal with the problem. Writing disorders cannot disappear on their own, therefore, during schooling, a child with dysgraphia should study with a speech pathologist.

Prevention

Activities to avoid dysgraphia should be carried out before the child enters primary school. Preventive work includes the development of higher mental functions, due to which the following is noted:

• normal acquisition of writing and reading skills;
• improvement of visual and auditory differentiation, spatial representation;
• restoration of graphomotor skills;
• normalization of sensory functions.

With children prone to dysgraphia, it is necessary to draw, sculpt, and perform tasks to develop speech and expand their vocabulary.

This article is posted for educational purposes only and does not constitute scientific material or professional medical advice.

Dysgraphia is a specific written language disorder that manifests itself in persistent errors. It occurs when the formation of the higher parts of the central nervous system is disrupted. Dysgraphia interferes with mastering the grammatical features of a language.

This problem is quite relevant for our country. In Russian schools, the number of students diagnosed with dysgraphia reaches 30% of the total number of children.

Causes

Symptoms

The symptoms of dysgraphia are very diverse and depend on the etiology that caused it. Children with dysgraphia are most often smart and intelligent, but they have a lot of mistakes in their notebooks. Parents are perplexed as to what is causing their beloved child’s poor performance. They think that this is either the child’s unwillingness to study at school, or that he has a bad teacher. In the early grades, children who have great difficulty with written language may perform well in other subjects and have good intelligence. But they do not write capital letters in words; they make many mistakes in dictations.

Poor performance at school, criticism from parents and teachers leads to the child refusing to attend classes. Very often he becomes an object of ridicule from his classmates, begins to worry greatly about this and withdraws into himself. He writes dictations very slowly, often in poor handwriting. Sometimes children with dysgraphia try to deliberately change their handwriting, in the hope that in this way some mistakes will not be noticeable to the teacher. They often confuse the letters “P” and “b”, “Z” and “E”.

In the specialized literature there are several classifications of dysgraphia (by type and form).

Kinds

Table: “Forms of dysgraphia.”

Diagnostic measures

School teachers should promptly diagnose dysgraphia in children and refer them to a specialist for correction. Very often they get an appointment with a speech therapist after a long “influence” of teachers.

All children must be examined by a speech therapist, who fills out a speech card. In it he indicates the state of general and fine motor skills. The specialist must describe the articulatory apparatus, sound pronunciation, and indicate reading and writing problems. In the speech card, the speech therapist must write a brief description of the child and the speech therapy diagnosis. After the corrective work has been completed, he fills in the appropriate columns and reflects the results of the classes.

Early diagnosis of this disorder helps combat dysgraphia in the initial stages of development. If it was not corrected in childhood, then its manifestations can be observed in adults.

Treatment

Dysgraphia is included in ICD-10, and psychiatrists treat this disease. In English-speaking countries, special training programs have been developed for dysgraphics; unfortunately, in Russia there is no such opportunity yet.

Correction of dysgraphia should begin in kindergarten. This disease can be overcome only with the help of special techniques and techniques that speech therapists are fluent in. The standard school curriculum will not be able to eliminate dysgraphia in primary schoolchildren.

No one can correct it completely, but the correct spelling of words can be brought closer to ideal.

A session with a speech therapist can take the form of a game. Younger students use magnetic letters to create words. This method reinforces the visual perception of letter elements. The child should write dictations to improve auditory perception of sounds. At home with your parents you can play historian, write letters on paper using a fountain pen and ink.

Particular attention should be paid to the choice of pens and pencils. It is best for a child to buy pens with uneven surfaces; they massage the distal ends of the fingers, thus sending additional signals to the brain. Felt-tip pens and pencils must also be chosen that are not smooth in shape (for example, triangular).

Optical dysgraphia can be corrected with regular written exercises.

To quickly master the skill of writing, you can use a gel pen. It will help you write out the elements of the letters more clearly.

In order to correct handwriting you need an average of 3 weeks of classes. For these purposes, you can buy a special copybook or school notebook. When writing words, you need to write letters in each cell.

Optical dysgraphia can be eliminated by training visual memory. The student is asked to draw several letters with chalk on the board, in the air, or fashion them out of plasticine.

There are several books and manuals, for example “Optical dysgraphia”. They provide examples of special activities. Parents can purchase these books on their own and study with their child at home.

Parents should be patient and not scold their children for writing mistakes. You cannot force him to study for hours and deprive him of proper rest and entertainment for bad grades. The child must completely trust his parents, there should be no panic fear of them. Only through joint efforts with teachers and psychologists can dysgraphia be overcome.

Example lesson

There are many speech therapy techniques for correcting dysgraphia.

One of the exercises to do at home is called “Proofreading.” To perform it, you need any text with a medium font. The book should be boring for the child, and he has never read it before. Parents suggest finding and underlining the vowels in the text first, for example, only “O”, then only the letter “A”.

After the vowels are finished, you can move on to consonants, preferably those that are problematic for the child. The child should do the exercise every day, but it should not last more than 5 minutes. When practicing, good lighting is a must.

After a week of such classes, you need to switch to two letters. For example, we find them in a word and underline one and cross out the other. The letters chosen should be “somewhat similar to each other” for the student, for example “L” and “M”, “R” and “T”. To process a pair of letters, you can use any text that was previously written by the child.

Preventative work

Prevention of dysgraphia is divided into primary and secondary. Primary preventive work is aimed at preventing the pathological course of pregnancy and childbirth, reducing perinatal pathology and birth injuries in newborns. Neonatologists should develop measures to reduce the factors of infection of the newborn. It is necessary to carry out earlier diagnosis and treatment of neurological symptoms.

Secondary prevention of dyslexia includes timely identification of the disorder and pedagogical work. Preventive measures should be carried out with the participation of a psychologist, parents, speech therapist and educators. Prevention of grammatical errors should begin in the preschool period. In kindergarten, educators must pay attention to how the child pronounces sounds and constructs speech sentences. The teacher must correct the speech errors of preschoolers.

Dysgraphia is a writing disorder associated with rearrangement, omission, replacement of letters in words, parts of sentences, and distortion of endings. Primary schoolchildren and left-handers are at risk. In some students, this pathology is combined with dyslexia, a reading disorder. Dysgraphia in adults and children can be corrected only with the help of special correctional classes with a speech therapist and teacher.

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Causes of pathology

In adults and children, dysgraphia can result from:

• organic damage to the speech centers in the brain (traumatic brain injury);
• mental disorders;
• brain surgery;
• infectious inflammation of the membranes - meningitis, encephalitis.

In adults, dysgraphia can be caused by strokes and brain tumors. In children, the development of pathology is promoted by:

• maternal infections in the prenatal period;
• asphyxia;
• hypoxia.

Children with delayed speech and mental development, general speech underdevelopment, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are at risk. Associated reasons include:

• bilingualism in the family;
• social and speech deprivation;
• overload of the central nervous system (early literacy training);
• child's unpreparedness for school;
• constant absenteeism;
• agrammatism in the speech of people around the child;
• unfavorable family situation.

The child may also have impaired visual and auditory perception, memory, and spatial orientation.

Types and forms of dysgraphia

Psycholinguists and speech therapists distinguish the following types of dysgraphia:

1. 1. Acoustic - lack of differentiation in the auditory perception of sounds, which is reflected in writing by replacing, mixing letters that sound similar.
2. 2. Optical - a violation in the visual perception of graphic symbols. Pathology of recognition, the relationship between sound and image of a letter in visual representation. Symbols are mixed when writing. Patients often confuse the following letters: p-n, u-i, ts-sch; p-i, m-l, sh-i; p-t, b-d, n-k. Mirror writing is observed (in left-handed people). In severe cases, separate letters are placed without connecting them into syllables and words.
3. 3. Motor - the child has difficulty mastering motor skills in writing. There is also a discrepancy between the visual image of the letter and the actions during writing.

The following forms of dysgraphia are distinguished:

1. 1. Articulatory-acoustic - associated with difficulties in articulation, sound pronunciation, and phonemic perception. The child writes as he speaks, so oral speech is initially corrected, and then written.
2. 2. Acoustic - associated with the replacement of letters that sound similar. Pronunciation practically does not suffer; voiceless, voiced, hissing, and whistling sounds are mixed. Hardness and softness are also incorrectly formulated - “lubit”, “pismo”, “uli”, “Marya”, etc.
3. 3. Violation of language analysis and synthesis - this form of dysgraphia manifests itself in replacement and omission, repetition, attribution of extra letters in words, contamination, separate and combined writing of prepositions and prefixes (“passes”, “not found”).
4. 4. Agrammatical - grammar in sentences and phrases is violated (“good cat”, “modest girl”). Schoolchildren have excellent pronunciation and spelling of words, but there are errors in declension and conjugation. In addition, there are inaccuracies in endings, placement of words and phrases.
5. 5. Optical - manifests itself in cases of problems with visual-spatial orientation. The child does not catch the differences between the visual images of letters, especially those where the same elements are present - sticks, ovals.

The most common forms of dysgraphia and writing disorders associated with difficulties in language analysis and synthesis occur among elementary school students (2nd, 4th grade). There may also be mixed variants of the disorder.

In adults, “pure” forms of dysgraphia are rare; the state of writing depends on the severity of the primary defect. An optical variety with agrammatisms can be observed, which is caused by impaired motor skills and visual-spatial orientation. Patients confuse letters that are similar in their spelling: b-v, b-b, sh-shch, g-r, o-a, etc.



Example of optical and agrammatic dysgraphia



Symptoms

You need to pay attention to the following signs of dysgraphia in children and adults, which you can identify on your own:

• repeated errors not related to the rules and norms of the language;
• replacing and mixing letters that are similar in spelling and sound;
• errors in endings, agrammatisms;
• omissions, rearrangements, additions of letters and syllables;
• violations in the combined and separate use of words with prepositions and prefixes;
• barely legible lettering;
• failure to maintain the correct height, slipping off the line;
• different inclination of letters, replacement of lowercase and uppercase ones.

Other symptoms in children include inattention, distractibility, hyperactivity, and memory impairment. The risk group includes left-handers, including overeducated people, and those who attended a preschool speech therapy group.

Adults who have had neurosurgery, brain disease, or stroke may experience confusion, slurred speech, and decreased vision and hearing.



Diagnostics

Diagnostics is carried out by a group of specialists:

• neurologist;
• neurologist (if necessary);
• ophthalmologist;
• psychologist;
• speech therapist.

The tasks of diagnosing written speech disorders include distinguishing dysgraphia from ignorance of the norms and rules of the Russian language, and determining the form of pathology.

Assessment of the patient's condition goes through the following stages:

1. 1. Analysis of visual and auditory perception.
2. 2. Assessment of the socio-psychological state of the central nervous system (CNS).
3. 3. Study of articulation and speech skills.
4. 4. Analysis of written work.
5. 5. Motor skills study.
6. 6. In-depth analysis of oral speech (pronunciation, vocabulary, phonemic perception).

The child is offered various practical tasks: dictation, description of illustrations, copying text from the source, reading syllables. The conclusion indicates the degree of dysgraphia, the type, and the relationship between the writing impairment and the state of oral speech.

Particular attention is paid to children with left-handedness; doctors do not recommend retraining them, as this will lead to a mismatch in the functioning of the brain's signaling systems.

In adults, the study consists of studying writing and handwriting features; a self-diagnosis method is also used, in which the patient himself monitors errors.

Correction methods

Correction is carried out taking into account the severity of the defect, its cause, and the patient’s age. If dysgraphia is observed without disorders of the central nervous system, visual, motor, or auditory perception, then regular classes with a speech therapist will help. If there are reading disorders (in children), motor skills, the central nervous system, or somatic diseases, medications, physiotherapy, massage, gymnastics, and physical therapy (physical therapy) will be required.

Common correction methods:

• exercises aimed at comparison, distinguishing letters (optical form);
• tasks for the development of attention, visual, auditory perception, memory, thinking;
• speech games (in case of violation of language analysis and synthesis);
• working with grammar;
• phoneme recognition task;
• automation of unpronounceable sounds ("r", "l").

The child can attend speech therapy classes or study at home with his parents. It is permissible for adults to perform written exercises independently, but under the supervision of a speech therapist. Oral lessons with children can be conducted by parents and a specialist. A speech therapist works with adults in this way.

Automation of certain sounds, especially "r", is more successfully realized if help is sought at an early age. In adults, they are more difficult to place, since the perception is already programmed to be “erroneous”.

The table provides examples of exercises for independent work:

Name	Target	Description
"Labyrinth"	Motor development	The child is asked to draw a line without breaking it, and only needs to move it with his hand; the sheet cannot be touched.
"Construction"	Development of attention and optical-spatial analysis	Folding letters from elements (sticks, ovals, hooks), deciphering patterns, searching, inserting missing characters
"Composition"	Improving your pronunciation	Finding objects for a given sound, determining the place in a word, composing words by ear, sentences, poems
"Say the opposite", "Find the whole"	Formation of lexico-grammatical structure	Searching for words and phrases with different meanings, guessing an object in parts, solving riddles
"Chain"	Formation of the phonemic system	Naming words starting with the last sound ("bus - sun") or syllable ("cow - jam")

Prevention

At an early age, the prevention of dysgraphia is the development of visual, auditory perception, and fine motor skills. Parents need to be careful about premature learning; they should not rush their child to count and write; all loads should be given in doses and in the form of games.

You can offer the following tasks:

1. 1. “What kind of object” - outline images are shown, by which the child must identify the object.
2. 2. “Find similar” - the illustration asks you to find identical objects.
3. 3. “Search for the unnecessary” - the child is asked to show an unnecessary object.
4. 4. “What is this” - based on the scattered details in the picture, they are asked to determine what is depicted.
5. 5. “Seguin board” (box of shapes) - they offer to insert the shapes into the corresponding holes.

In adults, the prevention of writing disorders includes correcting handwriting, reading fiction books, and describing illustrations.

Parents need to take into account that working with a student’s disabilities should take place in a positive environment; there is no need to yell at the child if something doesn’t work out for him. You can introduce a reward system - give a small gift for each correctly completed task.

Dysgraphia is a writing disorder manifested in the replacement or omission of letters, syllables, and words; combining words in a sentence or incorrectly separating them and other types. In simple terms, the child makes incomprehensible, repeated errors in writing, which cannot be corrected without special correctional work with a speech therapist.

Today, this disorder of written speech is increasingly found in children. According to studies, dysgraphia in children occurs in 80% of all cases among primary school students and in 60% among middle school students. Experts attribute this persistent form of speech disorder to the fact that many children entering first grade already have either a phonetic-phonemic disorder or general speech underdevelopment. Such violations do not allow the child to fully master literacy.

With a pronounced disorder of written speech, it is customary to talk about agraphia, i.e., a complete inability to write. Very often, writing impairment is accompanied by reading errors (dyslexia or alexia).

Types of dysgraphia

The classification of dysgraphia is carried out taking into account the immaturity of written skills and mental functions. The following forms of dysgraphia are distinguished depending on the violation of one or another operation of written speech:

Acoustic

This type of disorder is accompanied by a violation of phonemic recognition. A child may not distinguish vowels that are similar in sound, for example: o-u (golobi - doves), soft and hard consonants (shlapa - hat, cranberry - cranberry, lestr - chandelier, album - album), confuse voiced and unvoiced consonants (dictant - dictation , naztupila - stepped), hissing and whistling sounds (masina - car, eggplant - eggplant), complex sounds (affricates) with their components, for example: ts-s, ts-t, ch-t, ch-sch. With acoustic dysgraphia, the child pronounces the sounds themselves correctly and his hearing is preserved.

Optical

Optical dysgraphia in younger schoolchildren is associated with unformed visual and spatial concepts. It is usually celebrated in the second grade, when the child is already familiar with writing all the letters of the Russian alphabet.

• Children begin to add some extra elements to the letters: loops, sticks, hooks or subtract them, for example: p-t, l-m, b-d, i-u, o-a, i-sh, a-d;
• They confuse letters that are located differently in space (v-d, t-sh);
• They write letters in a mirror image (in the other direction) - this letter is typical for children who write with their left hand, as they can write letters, numbers and signs in any direction.

Ungrammatical

Agrammatic dysgraphia is determined by the imperfection of the lexical and grammatical aspects of speech. In this case, children cannot use many words correctly. For example, they are familiar with strawberries, they ate them, but in speech they rarely mentioned this word, unlike the word strawberry, so the word strawberry began to be replaced with strawberry. These children find it difficult to select antonyms and synonyms for words, describe objects, and name more than five actions that an object can perform.

In written work, we observe the imperfection of oral speech; if a child forms the plural form with errors (ears, trees, peni, sleeves), then he will write in exactly the same way.

Children with this type of dysgraphia will have problems in forming the diminutive form of nouns (nests, little goats), prefixed verbs (to lock - to lock, looked out - looked), relative adjectives (metal, leather, fur, and not mental, leather and fur), in the coordination of various parts of speech (a beautiful cup, the blue sea, the boy was going), in the correct use of prepositional-case constructions.

For example, “the boy was looking out of the tree,” “the car was driving on the road,” “there was a lamp hanging on the table.” With this type of dysgraphia, there are difficulties in constructing sentences that are complex in structure, omission of sentence parts, and violation of the sequence of words in it. Often such deviations occur in bilingual families, where parents speak different languages, and the child has to speak a foreign language in parallel with Russian.

Articulatory-acoustic

It occurs when a child has problems with sound pronunciation in oral speech. The child both speaks and pronounces words to himself when he writes them. For example, he does not clearly pronounce the sounds s, z, z, which means he can easily write not “funny hare”, but “funny hare”.

If in oral speech a student replaces the sound r with l, then when writing he can also do this, since children with this disorder, in addition to problems with sound pronunciation, have imperfect phonemic recognition, as in acoustic dysgraphia.

Some live examples of the errors described above from my practice:

Dysgraphia due to underdevelopment of language analysis and synthesis

This type of dysgraphia is very common in children's work; it is associated with imperfections in processes such as perception, analysis and synthesis. It is difficult for a student to determine whether a certain sound is in a syllable or a word or not, to name its place in a word, to indicate it with a number, to name all the sounds in a word sequentially. For example, not [g, p, y, w, a], but [g, p, w]. It is difficult for such children to come up with words for a given sound or a certain number of sounds. It is often difficult for them to assemble a word from sounds, especially if they are given in the wrong order (k, a, z, e, r, l, o - mirror).

For these children, it is difficult to distinguish concepts such as sound, letter, syllable, word, sentence, text. In the letter we can observe omissions of letters, syllables, words (stana - country, clone - clown), addition of letters, syllables (spring - spring, soborishche - gathering), rearrangement of letters, syllables (kulbok - ball, hammer - hammer), jams on a letter or syllable (water pipeline - water supply system, birch - birch), incomplete spelling of words (shops - store, beautiful-beautiful), combined or separate spelling of words (on stepped - stepped, jumped up - jumped up, under the birch tree - boletus, at home - at Houses). Problems in the design of sentence boundaries.

Along with the above classification of types of dysgraphia, there are also nonspecific writing disorders associated with delayed mental development in a child, mental retardation, etc. The cause of nonspecific dysgraphia can be pedagogical neglect.

Reasons for the imperfection of written speech

The reasons for the development of dysgraphia can be both previous injuries or diseases of the brain, as well as socio-psychological factors. Many experts note a hereditary predisposition to this disease. Underdevelopment of some individual areas of the brain is genetically transmitted to the child from the parents. Mental illnesses in relatives can also become a prerequisite for dysgraphia in a child.

Researchers studying the etiology (translated from Greek as the study of the causes) of this disorder note the presence of pathological factors affecting the child in the prenatal and postnatal periods, as well as at the time of birth. This includes infections and other diseases suffered during pregnancy by a woman, bad habits of the mother, early and prolonged toxicosis, birth injuries of the newborn, rapid or prolonged labor, asphyxia (oxygen starvation), meningitis, head injuries, a short period between pregnancies (less than one and a half years ) and so on.

The causes of dysgraphia can be both organic and functional. Functional reasons, in turn, are divided into internal, for example, long-term somatic diseases, and external - incorrect tongue-tied speech of others, frequent lisping with the baby, lack of verbal communication with him, inattention to the child’s speech development, bilingualism in the family, etc. Experts consider children at risk to be children whose parents began to teach them to read and write very early when the children were completely psychologically unprepared.

Dysgraphia is often observed in children suffering from delayed mental and speech development, with a diagnosis of minimal brain dysfunction, general speech underdevelopment and attention deficit disorder.

In addition, this disorder can also occur in adults. The causes of dysgraphia in this case are head injuries, brain tumors, and strokes.

Symptoms and manifestations of dysgraphia

It is not so easy to independently determine dysgraphia in a child. As a rule, parents learn what dysgraphia is only when their children are in elementary school, when they are just learning to write. By mistake, a pathological violation of writing can be confused with the beginning of mastering the norms of the language or simple ignorance of grammar.

Errors in writing with dysgraphia have nothing to do with the child’s inability to apply spelling rules. These errors are numerous, similar, and unique. Substitution of letters, violation of the continuous and separate spelling of words, omissions and rearrangements of letters and syllables in words, incorrect changes in words and the formation of new words, mirror spelling of letters - these symptoms should alert both teachers at school and parents.

Thus, acoustic dysgraphia manifests itself in children in early preschool age. If by the age of 7 a child does not distinguish sounds that are similar in acoustics, then when subsequently learning to write, he often changes one letter to another.

Another symptom of underdeveloped written language is illegible handwriting. Such children write very slowly and unevenly. Often the height and width of letters fluctuates, capital letters are replaced with lowercase ones and vice versa. If a school teacher sees this problem, he will be able to tell about its presence.

Diagnostic methods

Diagnosis of dysgraphia comes down to the study of oral and written speech and its analysis. Based on the results obtained, correction of the disorder in the form of speech therapy is prescribed.

To identify the causes of impaired written speech, it is necessary to undergo examination by a number of specialists. Consultations with a neurologist, ophthalmologist and otolaryngologist are mandatory. The development of speech will be determined by a speech therapist.

Examination for the presence of dysgraphia in children is carried out in several stages. Initially, vision and hearing are diagnosed, and the condition of the central nervous system is assessed. Then they examine the child’s motor skills and the structure of his articulatory apparatus. Determine the child's leading hand (right-handed or left-handed).

An assessment of the state of the child’s phonemic processes and sound pronunciation, his vocabulary, and speech literacy is required. After a thorough study of oral speech, specialists move on to analyzing writing. At this stage, a child or adult suffering from dysgraphia rewrites printed or written works, writes letters, syllables, words from dictation, and analyzes words of various sound-syllable structures. They are given exercises to make sentences from words, deformed sentences, reading tasks, etc.

After all procedures and studies are completed, a speech therapy report is issued with subsequent recommendations for correcting violations.

Correction and treatment

When a child’s written speech is discovered to be unformed, parents immediately have questions about how to treat dysgraphia, what to do with this disorder, and whether complete correction is possible. With a competent approach from specialists and the support of parents and teachers, overcoming dysgraphia in younger schoolchildren is possible.

Parents should be patient, as this process of working to overcome dysgraphia in a child is not quick. It may take months and sometimes years of painstaking work. It is more difficult to work with older children because, along with writing problems, other accompanying deviations arise.

Correction of the disorder is tailored to the type of disorder and the age of the child. Based on the results of the studies, measures aimed at preventing or treating dysgraphia are prescribed.

Eliminating a problem such as dysgraphia is impossible quickly and alone. It is possible that to correct dysgraphia, the child will need the help of specialized specialists, such as a neuropsychologist, psychotherapist, or child psychologist. Speech school for children with more severe written language disabilities will be more appropriate and productive than regular school.

The main contribution to the correction of the disease is made by the work of a competent speech therapist. It is this specialist who prepares exercises to fill gaps in sound pronunciation, lexico-grammatical structure of speech, in the formation of phonemic recognition, sound-syllable structure of words, spatial representations, motor skills and other mental functions.

Among the effective methods for correcting dysgraphia are:

• special written exercises aimed at recognizing and distinguishing elements of similar letters in cases of optical dysgraphia;
• tasks aimed at developing perception, memory and thinking;
• To form language analysis and synthesis, many speech games are used: Typesetter, Ladder, Speech Arithmetic and others. Children learn to guess and invent riddles and puzzles;
• special work aimed at developing the lexical and grammatical structure of speech;
• for acoustic dysgraphia, interesting tasks are carried out on the formation of phonemic recognition at the level of sounds, letters, syllables, words, phrases, sentences and texts;
• in case of impaired sound pronunciation, tasks are given to produce sounds, automate them in speech and differentiate them from sounds similar in pronunciation. For example, with a distorted pronunciation of the sound [l], it is not only placed and automated, but also distinguished from the sounds: [l’], [r], r’] and [v], if the child confuses them in oral speech.

If there are organic causes of dysgraphia, drug treatment may be necessary. The attending physician may prescribe rehabilitation therapy in the form of massage, physical therapy, and physiotherapy. These procedures will help treat the organic cause, allowing the speech therapist to correct the disorder.

Exercises for self-study

It is impossible to completely solve this problem at home without the participation of specialists. But if parents follow the recommendations of the speech therapist and work with the child, following all the instructions, then the result of joint activity will not be long in coming. There are many exercises that parents can do with their child at home.

1. To train motor skills, use the Labyrinth exercise, when the child is asked to draw a continuous line. In this case, the child should only move his hand; do not allow him to change the position of the sheet. Finding objects and letters in story pictures. Drawing and shading of graphic dictations.
2. To develop attention and in case of optical-spatial disorders, it is recommended to perform tasks on constructing letters from elements, transforming the resulting letters into others; to decipher the diagrams and symbols used to designate the letters. For example, 2-p, 3-t. Search for given letters in objects, insert missing letters into words, sentences and texts. Exercises in which the child must cross out, underline or circle a given letter or several letters in the text will help to remember the visual image of letters.
3. Exercises aimed at correct and clear pronunciation of impaired speech sounds. An adult and a child look for objects with a given sound, determine the place of the sound in a word, come up with words and sentences for a given sound, learn poems and tongue twisters.
4. Games and tasks for the formation of the lexical and grammatical structure of speech, for example: “Say the opposite,” when you need to select words or phrases with the opposite meaning. Or “Find the Whole,” where the child is asked to guess and draw an object based on its parts. For example: the bottom, lid, walls, handles are the pan of eyes, eyelashes, forehead, nose, mouth, eyebrows, cheeks are the face. Guessing riddles using generalizing words naming the purpose, location, situation in which the object is located. For example: they grow in the garden or in the forest, compotes and jams are made from them, it is useful to eat them raw - berries.
5. Exercises to develop a child’s phonemic system. Determining the location of the sound (at the beginning, in the middle, at the end) with the help of a fish or squirrel. A fish is cut out or drawn and divided into three parts: the head is the beginning of the word, the body is the middle, and the tail is the end. Chain game, when an adult calls a word, for example, bus, and the child comes up with his own word for the last sound, for example, “sleigh”. The one who does not break this chain wins. You can also select a word with the last syllable, for example, fish - grandma - porridge, etc.

Daily and systematic home training to eliminate writing disorders will speed up the process of correction in the child.

Prevention of writing disorders in children

Prevention of written language disorders comes down to the development of higher mental functions in a child before he begins to master writing. Activities and educational games with children to develop fine and gross motor skills, games for attention and memory, exercises for the development of thinking in children, practicing a musical instrument - these are the best preventive measures.

How to teach a child to think, develop his intellect and memory? There are many play activities with a child that are aimed at developing mental functions. This is making pyramids and cubes, collecting nesting dolls and various construction sets, finishing poems and fairy tales, selecting pictures for a given sound or lexical topic (vegetables, fruits), solving riddles and puzzles, putting small objects on a thread or cord, sorting out different shapes and colors buttons or using all sorts of sorters for these purposes, games with cereals, finding differences, various games with objects, for example: put the bear under the table, take it from under the table, lift it above the bed, put it between chairs, etc.

Dyslexia is a mental disorder manifested by difficulties in learning to read or its absolute impossibility. Often accompanied by disorientation in space or even time. However, there is no effect on general intelligence or level of education. If the manifestation of dyslexia in adults is noticeable, it is not dangerous for society; such people simply look at the world from their reality, which gives them more strength and abilities in science or creativity.

Examples of this include: Salma Hayek, Tom Cruise, Pablo Picasso, and many others. Although in medical reality the diagnosis of “dyslexia” does not exist. This is a disorder that is part of a group of diseases that share one common problem - delayed psycho-speech development.

This concept was first mentioned in 1887 by the German ophthalmologist R. Berlin. Since that time, medical publications began to publish interesting cases in which children cannot be taught to read and write. For a long time, doctors believed that the problem lay in the deterioration of children's vision. But only in 1970, scientists agreed on the incorrect perception and processing of received information by the brain.

Dyslexia is often accompanied by a number of other mental disorders. For example, alalia (underdevelopment of speech with normal hearing function), aphasia (absence of already formed speech for a number of reasons), dysarthria (impaired mobility of the speech organs), and many others. For this reason, one person may exhibit signs of several mental disorders at the same time. Dyslexia is mainly diagnosed in childhood.

In this case, there is a high probability that the violations will be corrected. But it happens when an adult turns to specialists for help. One of the complex processes is the ability of the brain to distinguish between letters and sounds, to connect letters into words, and words into sentences. Disturbances of this process in most cases occur in the adult population. Here the work is definitely more difficult and it is not always possible to achieve the desired result.

There has been a lot of debate about the causes of dyslexia, but every year something new is discovered in this area. Using various neuroimaging methods, it was found that the reason lies in the low activity of the posterior part of the left middle temporal gyrus. Because of this, information is processed incorrectly by the brain.

Scientists identify several main causes of dyslexia:

1. Hereditary predisposition is of great importance;
2. In the perinatal period, maternal infections (herpes, rubella), alcohol and drug intoxication, as well as anemia during pregnancy play a significant role. The process of prolonged labor or asphyxia of the newborn, fetal expulsion manipulations can lead to brain damage;
3. Incorrect development of the brain after birth is affected by traumatic brain injuries and severe infections (poliomyelitis, influenza, measles).
4. Insufficient verbal communication, a child’s neglect in knowledge, or, conversely, overloading him with educational information that is not appropriate for his age, can have an impact on the abnormal development of the brain.

Types and forms

There are two types and six forms of dyslexia. Kinds:

• the literal form is characterized by a problematic understanding of letters;
• verbal is based on the difficulty of reading words.

The forms of this mental disorder can be divided into two groups - some are associated with insufficient development of speech functions (phonemic, semantic and agrammatic), while others are manifested by a violation of mental functions (mnestic, optical and tactile).

What do all adult dyslexics have in common?

Common characteristics are difficulties with writing and the ability to quickly process verbal information. Dyslexia varies in adults, and symptoms often accompany cognitive weakness. Due to the inability of the brain to distinguish sounds, combinations, and link them into words, this is where symptoms such as anxiety appear in adults. When questioning, you can find out that it is difficult for them to express their thoughts, the stress mechanism turns on - they become confused.

Dyslexia and its symptoms in adults

It appears like this:

Dyslexia and its symptoms in adults receive attention in the group. But it should be remembered that all these signs are unlikely to appear in one individual. There may be one, maybe several, or it may be that they will be invisible to an ordinary person.

Methods for diagnosing dyslexia

First you need to contact a speech therapist. The speech therapist will find out how the pregnancy and childbirth proceeded. Conduct speech therapy tests to determine the maturity of the skills of an adult or child. Diagnostics includes recognition of sounds and letters, distinction of graphically similar letter signs. The patient will also carry out independent copying of simple text and dictation, as well as its retelling. Speech therapy diagnostic methods for children and adults are practically the same.

The test below will help identify dyslexia in adults:

If the total number of “yes” answers is more than seven, then you should immediately contact a specialist yourself.

Correction and treatment

A popular treatment method is speech therapy sessions. Different forms of dyslexia require a specific approach.

1. Treatment of an agrammatic form requires work on the formation of the grammatical foundations of the language.
2. Mnestic works on the development of auditory-verbal and verbal-visual memory.
3. Optical form is based on work on visual representation, synthesis and analysis.
4. Treatment for tactile dyslexia focuses on understanding spatial representation.
5. Phonemic is concerned with the correction of sound pronunciation.
6. Semantic works on mastering grammatical language norms.

If we talk about drug therapy in the treatment of dyslexia, it is recommended to take B vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids. More complex drug therapy is carried out for concomitant diseases. If adults suffer from nervous disorders and depression, then hippotherapy or dolphin therapy would be an excellent option in Moscow. It has been proven that communication with these animals improves mood and optimism. You can and should do breathing and movement exercises, dance and music, and go for a massage.

Social adaptation plays a significant role. Modern gadgets will help you not get lost, remember the necessary information and check your spelling if necessary. Therefore, you don’t need to sit at home all the time, surrounded by stress and fear. You can even go to work. The main thing is not to deal with large amounts of information.

The method of Ronald Davis, a doctor who developed a correction system based on educational literature and his personal experience in dealing with this disease, is effective. His technique proposes to “restart” the brain and learn to look at the world differently, fill gaps in memory, and get rid of disorientation and absent-mindedness.

Some methods for preventing dyslexia are presented below.

First of all, this is the early detection of violations, preferably at the kindergarten level. For this reason, children at risk for dyslexia should begin to be taught literacy earlier than their peers.

Implement and comply with measures to reduce childhood morbidity and injury. As well as high-quality observation of a pregnant woman in consultations, qualified assistance during childbirth. Regularly carry out high-quality work with children in disadvantaged families.

Begin the early development of a child only after examining him or her by a qualified psychologist, and only using the author’s proven teaching methods.

Exercises to prevent dyslexia:

1. Let the child read a word, and after several exercises, a phrase. And then offer to write it from memory.
2. Offer to find words in the apartment or in the yard starting with a specific letter. For example, the letter “O” means hoop, origami, cucumber.
3. Open the book, then ask the child to underline the vowels and consonants in different ways.
4. Draw a mirror image with both hands at the same time.
5. Play cities: you need to name a city starting with the last letter of the previous city. For example: Omsk - Korolev. If the child does not yet know the names of cities, then using this principle you can play with any words. For example, a cat is a pineapple, a chair is a lemon.
6. You can teach your child diminutive words of endearment. For example: pen - pen, table - table, red - red.
7. Invite your child to take turns taking dictation, first you write, then the child.
8. Develop fine motor skills - sort out buckwheat or sculpt figures from pasta.