Writing Difficulties
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Translated from Arabic. Read the original.
Writing difficulties:
Writing difficulties are known as ” Dysgraphia ” or a lack of visual-motor coordination. Some children with a writing disorder cannot hold a pencil correctly, while others have difficulty writing only certain letters. These difficulties may be attributed to a disorder of directional orientation or to other difficulties related to motivation.
Writing occupies the highest position in the hierarchy of language skills and abilities; comprehension, speaking and reading are acquired before it. If a child has difficulty acquiring the first three skills, he will most likely also have difficulty learning to write.
Preliminary and basic skills for writing:
Many children fail to develop handwriting skills because they have not mastered a number of the basic skills needed to develop them. The preliminary skills include the following:
- The ability to control the fine muscles.
- The ability to hold the pencil correctly.
- Positioning the paper appropriately for writing.
- Perceiving the spaces between letters.
- Perceiving spatial relationships such as below – above.
- Perceiving direction from left to right.
- Judging the size of a shape – small or large.
- Distinguishing different shapes and sizes and being able to copy them.
- The ability to draw geometric shapes.
Writing skills:
To make learning to write easier, the child must acquire the following general writing skills:
- Preliminary writing skills.
- Ordinary writing skills.
- Spelling skills.
- Written expression skills.
1. Preliminary writing skills:
- The ability to touch, reach out, grasp objects and release them.
- The ability to distinguish similarity and difference between shapes and objects.
- The ability to use one hand competently.
2. Ordinary writing skills:
- Holding the pencil { the writing tool }.
- Moving the writing tool up and down.
- Moving the writing tool in a circular motion.
- The ability to copy letters.
- The ability to copy one's personal identification number.
- Writing one's name by hand.
- Copying sentences and words.
- Copying sentences and words from a distance (the board).
- Writing with the letters joined to one another.
- Copying in joined script, from the board for example.
3. Spelling skills:
- Distinguishing the letters of the alphabet.
- Distinguishing words.
- Pronouncing words clearly.
- Distinguishing similarity and difference between words.
- Distinguishing the different sounds within a single word.
- Linking sound to letter.
- Spelling words.
- Working out rules for spelling words.
- Using words correctly, in terms of spelling, in composition.
4. Written expression skills:
- Writing sentences and phrases.
- Ending a sentence with the appropriate punctuation mark.
- Using punctuation marks correctly.
- Knowing the simple rules of sentence structure.
- Producing complete paragraphs.
- Writing notes and letters.
- Expressing creativity in writing.
- Using writing as a means of communication.
With us, keep trying and you will certainly get there
Types of writing difficulty:
Children face several kinds of difficulty in learning to write:
- Not mastering the shape and size of the letter.
- Difficulty remembering the shape of the letter.
- Adding to or leaving out part of the letter's form, such as adding or dropping a dot.
- Being unprepared to use different shapes and sizes.
- Not controlling the spacing between letters.
- Spelling errors.
- Errors of meaning and grammar.
Writing difficulties and left-handedness:
Researchers agree that a pupil should be allowed to write with whichever hand he prefers, left or right. In any case, some of the difficulties faced by those who write with the left hand should be noted:
- Many of these pupils place their hand above the line while writing so that they can see what they are writing; this results from tilting the paper to suit the position of the body when writing.
- A pronounced slant makes the writing hard to read, and there is not enough evidence that right-handed writers write faster than left-handed ones.
Written expression:
Written expression, being the highest form of communication, depends on the development of abilities and skills in every other area of language, including speaking, reading, handwriting, spelling, the use of punctuation, the correct use of vocabulary and mastery of grammar. Given this complexity, it is not surprising that pupils with learning difficulties find written expression difficult as an effective means of communication.
Types of problem in written expression:
Pupils with difficulties in written expression have trouble expressing their ideas in writing. Other problems they face include weak grammar and vocabulary and a failure to master the basics of the process.
Pupils with writing difficulties have problems organising their ideas in writing. Many researchers believe there is a strong relationship between the ability to express oneself orally and the quality of written expression. Some pupils cannot express their ideas in writing because:
- Their experience is limited and inadequate. Pupils who have been exposed to varied oral language experiences, such as taking part in questions, enquiry and discussion, are better able to express their ideas in writing than those who have not been placed in situations requiring oral interaction with others. Teaching should therefore begin by concentrating on helping the pupil express himself orally until he has acquired enough experience to write about.
- Another group of pupils with learning difficulties consists of those who have acquired wide experience but cannot communicate through writing because they need training in positive writing experiences.
- Some pupils with difficulties in written expression cannot classify ideas and arrange them in logical order, so their writing is disorganised and unordered, and a single idea is often spread across several sentences and paragraphs. These pupils should be trained to connect ideas to one another in writing by being shown the relationship between ideas and sentences.
Grammar and morphology:
Many people with writing difficulties find it hard to apply the rules of the language, so their writing is marred by many grammatical errors that often distort the meaning. The difficulties these pupils face in grammar include:
- Omitting words.
- Ordering words in sentences incorrectly.
- Incorrect use of pronouns and verbs.
- Errors at the ends of words and imprecise punctuation.
Limited vocabulary:
There is no doubt about the importance of vocabulary for written expression: a person must know a large number of different words in order to express his ideas. It is noticeable that many pupils with learning difficulties do not know enough vocabulary, either because they lack experience {reading books and taking trips} or because they have not been sufficiently exposed to oral language experiences:
- Children who are given no opportunity to listen to and use oral language skills will have limited vocabulary. For such pupils it is important to provide experiences such as field visits and discussions in order to develop their vocabulary and increase the ideas that help them to write.
- There is also a group of pupils who have acquired good oral experience but have trouble retrieving the right word at the right time when writing. In training these pupils it helps to let them draw the idea before they begin to write, because drawing often supports sound written expression.
Gulf Children website
Reproduced from the Learning Difficulties and Autism page