Disorders of Written Expression

The act of writing even a single word requires the careful coordination of multiple cognitive operations that take an idea—such as “round, red, crispy fruit”—and produce the motor responses required to form the letters that communicate the spelling: APPLE. This act can be produced in an array of physical formats such as handwriting, typing, oral spelling, or even drawing with a stick in the sand. Dysgraphia refers to impairment in one or more of the mental operations involved in written language production. Most dysgraphia research concerns individuals who were fully literate prior to a neural injury that resulted in acquired dysgraphia. This contrasts with the smaller body of research literature on developmental dysgraphia that occurs in individuals who experienced significant difficulties in learning to produce ...