Dysgraphia, anyone?

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I was never officially dxed with dysgraphia. Not sure if it was even recognised much in the 60s and 70s. However I was described as having difficulty with writing, At the age of 11-12 I had extra handwriting lessons and improved a little. My handwriting is legible but rather crudely formed though I am a laborious ,slow writer. The faster I try to write the worse my handwriting gets to the point of being quite illegible . I was also described as having problems with drawing. I probably draw at the level of a 6 year old or so. I am wondering how many people with dysgraphia also have a problem with drawing as I do.

No one with dysgraphia? I'm surprised.

Definitely poor handwriting, even had special out of school lessons as a child to try and help.

Funnily enough I was held back a year in preschool, one of the reasons was that my drawing abilities were below my age. My teenage daughters like to tease me about this.

My handwriting is so bad that they used to make me stay in from recess in 5th grade to do lines. I have trouble with writing my letters the same spacing and angle each time. In other words, steriotyped symbolic images give me a hard time. My smiley faces are always lopsided too.

Interestingly though, that same problem with adhering to symbols makes me pretty good at drawing from life, especially fluffy things with semi-random patterns to their hair:

^ I like the drawings. I've heard nowadays typing instead can be an option. That wouldn't have helped me especially in exams as I am a slow typist.

Yep I've got all three Dysgraphia Dyscacula and (mild) dyslexia.

Needless to say my handwriting is less then stellar although I try hard I still manage to mix use lowercase and capital letters during a sentience plus my handwriting is never uniformed. not to mention my hand actually hurts when I have to take the time and print neatly vs writing 'normally'

I'm ok with numbers but I was very poor at geometry.

My handwriting is bad but not dysgraphic.

I suck in drawing.

I thought I would be diagnosed with dysgraphia, but was told I only have fine motor skills deficits, though Wikipedia says fine motor deficits that cause bad handwriting is part of dysgraphia.

I really do not understand the DSM-V specific learning disability criteria in therms of their writing. There is no bad handwriting section. There is "With impairment in written expression: spelling accuracy, grammar and punctuation accuracy, [and] clarity or organization of written expression". None of them are relating to handwriting, so if you were looking for a diagnosis of dysgraphia, you wouldn't find it officially.

So maybe I would have dysgraphia under the old criteria (unsure)?

Dysgraphia occurs, usually, when handwriting is illegible. Where letters cannot be made out. Worse than chicken-scratch.

If it is "bad," but people can read what is written after a little consideration, most diagnosticians wouldn't diagnose dysgraphia. Even under the old criteria.

So speed of writing in order to write legibly is not considered? If so this seems to be a gross error. It certainly penalises people in terms of getting accommodations who can only write legibly if writing slowly .
My handwriting is poor if writing slowly but becomes difficult to read if I increase my writing speed.

I'm the same way. If I'm rushed, my handwriting is really poor.

However, the reality is that dysgraphia is not usually diagnosed if legibility is possible, under any circumstances.

Perhaps there should be an "intermediate" diagnosis, so that accommodations can be made.

I've been dxed with it. I write like a 6 year old with bad penmanship. But not as bad as a doctor ha ha.

http://www.dysgraphiahelp.co.uk/myself/ ... ysgraphia/

Suggests writing doesn't always have to be illegible. This was also the view of several members of a dysgraphia facebook group.

Of course, it's possible that the diagnostic criteria have changed over time.

For me, I could be considered motor dysgraphia under this since I have poor fine motor skills (below average, 16th percentile). Maybe a bit of spatial, but that was more as a kid. I didn't use margins and font was big with big spaces between each word (like this). Teachers always complain that they can't read my writing and that "it's as bad as a doctor's". I am able to type longer stuff now for tests and exams so it's legible.

I notice that my writing is the worst with an inky pen, then pen, then regular pencil, and I write the best with a mechanical pencil. I buy mechanical pencils so teachers can read my writing better.