As a retired teacher I wish I had heard this years ago. My granddaughter has dysgraphia, diagnosed recently, and this video has certainly helped me understand her difficulties with pencil and paper.

Great video. A few things here peaked my interest. Dr King mentioned two forms of dysgraphia. As an adult with dysgraphia, I would like to know which one I have. I have never looked into my diagnosis. Since high school, It hasn’t been to much of an issue. Historically for me it always felt like what we know about dysgraphia is a so little compared to what could be known. Like with most things, once I get an answer to a question. The result is always more questions. One thing that I wish I had a better understanding of as a child was how dysgraphia effected me outside of writing. Dr kings explanation of automation really felt like putting other issues I have had into language. I had the misfortune of being given piano lessons. I also had the misfortune of being put in a “typing” class in high school long after my diagnosis. I would describe the class as “unhelpful” if I were trying to minimize the frustration I experienced with that. Lacking the ability to create “automation” or as I described it to people as “fine motor skill muscle memory”, feels like it impacted me in far more outlets than just writing. It almost feels like the name dysgraphia itself minimized the grandeur of the learning difference.

Love this!!! It is super helpful. Thank you!!

This is the best video I've seen on Dysgraphia. A great deal rang true. I would be interested to hear Dr King's views on whether there may be different causes resulting in different types of dysgraphia and whether SpLD and other LDs needs a rethink in terms of categorisation.

Thank you so much Mara and Beth for making this video, this was so reassuring, informative and helpful to me as a Dad trying to help support my son. PS Have joined thriving with DG on facebook and look forward to helping/sharing resources with Beth and with other parents. Thank you again have a great week everybody.

Oh, yeah! Dr King didn't mention calculators and GPS. I can't see the point of demanding dysgraphic kids find a way to do mechanical calculations. You go out into the real world and literally everybody is using calculators. Ask an adult to do a calculation even in his head and he will say, "It's more accurate if I do it on my calculator." No confidence in his own brain! Also, GPS in a big city can be a godsend for a person who can't read city maps easily. My daughter loves GPS. And I used to worry before it cam along, "How is my daughter ever going to be able to drive if she can't stand looking for detail in a picture?" GPS solved that issue for her.

I'd disagree with a couple of points Dr King makes. 1) she claims that kids with dysgraphia throw in random capital letters. That was no true for my daughter. Maybe, it was not true for her daughter either. I've studied various languages and read a few books on linguistics and have a couple of courses under my belt about human communication. So, maybe, that's why my observation is different from Dr King's. My daughter would write a capital H and not a small h because she couldn't distinguish in her handwriting between an "h" and an "n". They both looked the same on her page. She also wrote a capital "D" not a small "d" because she didn't want to remember how to make a "d" and a "b" each time she wrote the letter. If Dr King looks more closely at these supposedly randomly thrown in capital letters she may see what the dysgraphic child is doing. 2) Speech to text! I do wonder how that would work with pupils who are in French immersion as my kids were. Would speech to text capture their words spoken with an English-Canadian accent and not a French-Canadian or European French accent? I think it should be possible for kids to be in pretty sound proof cabinets doing their speech to text assignments. Not everyone loves the classroom. For my son, who could make the letters and type, it was still torture for him to write an original assignment on a keyboard. It was never something he enjoyed doing. He could type dictated sentences easily, but ask him to write an original story and he usually got very angry and couldn't do it. Maybe, speech to text would have been the solution for him. Maybe, then, he could create original compositions. I guess Dr King loved the classroom. A lot of kids don't. Surely we can accommodate their wishes. I knew 1 student at library school who hated working n a library. Crazy to be in library school, I think. Anyway, she xeroxed every article we had to read and she went home and read them and wrote her reports. She finished as the Fine Art Librarian at the University of Guelph. I guess she finally learned to love to work in a library. I agree with Dr King that some kids once they learn to type or use speech to text don't have any more issues with writing and taking notes and so forth. They excel in the classroom. However other kids less able to read. Less interested in information that they have read or heard may have a lot of trouble in the classroom and if taking the notes for them is an option, it should be promoted. Maybe, a student like my daughter who takes detailed notes should be used to provide the notes for these less gifted students, right? To sum up, I agree for a student who is gifted, dysgraphia won't pose much of a issue, but, if the student has other issues or comorbidities, then, other solutions must be tried. We have to think outside the box.

Because our fingers still make mistakes

I saw my 6 year old having my trouble with writing. So I’m trying to get the school to help as they are moaning about her writing & speed. I see her making my mistakes her reading out loud is far better than mine although I see she misses out words too. We have tried handwriting but it upsets her as she’ll write a t in place of a p. She battles with speech and expressing herself. I taught her how to talk by singing the words to her. Now with harder words if I can pronounce it I’ll sing it which helps her pronounce it. Homework spelling has been a nightmare as she’s in year 1 but they are giving her year 2 spellings because she is above her class in reading. For me I learnt to spell by writing them over and over again and it was painful for me. It’s been painful for her too. After watching a clip on dyslexia I saw dysgraphia and they are both us I see it. School says she isn’t dyslexic because she is good at reading I swear she could read before she could speak Mommy came at 25 months. Our handwriting is bad but our typings fine. I started her typing her homework 3 days ago she is doing her homework in a 5th of the time it used to take. How do I get the school to help her.

Thank you so much for this. Really great practical accommodation guidance. It’s so hard to know how & when to add technology at the fear of removing the opportunity to learn to write.

That is where they are wrong. The different types of Adhd can be hyper active yes and not being able to Attentively focus but there are others where the hyper activity lies within the brain and nervous system. Meaning hyper senses and reactions, fast reflexes able to think of many more things at once compared to others and once focused, controlled can both be able to think of everything and nothing. Choosing thru all thoughts to focus on. Pushing all thoughts at once to the side but clear, focus and control the mind and will. Where you can think faster than normal of many different things, being able to Attentively see, hear and notice things normal others can't. Also, once controlled one side of hemisphere where you push and control your thoughts to run in the background and still see, hear focus on both. Being and meaning within the mind/body as well as what goes around you. Then choosing which catches your interest to focus on.

Would you happen to have information for adults?

Great video. The months order is very relatable.

This was gold. Thank you both for this discussion. My son was newly diagnosed with Dysgraphia and some dyslexia (minor compared to his dysgraphia). We have started the IEP process, and I've been spending so much time researching into this,trying to figure out the best accommodations for him. I am incredibly thankful to have watched this video.

brilliant. Thank you!

Has there been discussion about transition between different types or maybe evolution into a subtype? I've been diagnosed, and I can definitely classify my childhood self as being the hyperactive-impulsive type. By the early 20s, I am neither of those, very physically composed and also being very thought out and deliberate in my choices to the point of near-indecision. But meanwhile still having the common traits of ADHD. See previous paragraph.

Someone watching this most likely has symptoms of ADHD and the editor is making them listen to this guy and read the text at the side at the same time.

What I find funny about this video (great video btw) is just all the distractions in the background. I couldn't help but to hear the buzz of the person's phone near the end, the ambulance sirens throughout.

How can you tell the difference between someone with ADHD and someone who does not understand why they should focus on something or disagrees that they should and isn't even trying?

I have been diagnosed with inattentive type, but I would like to know about sluggish cognitive tempo, and how that fits in. Some of those descriptions sound like me. I wonder about the nomenclature, though, as “sluggish cognitive tempo” sounds like a euphemism for stupid.

Definitely combined.

Very valuable matter 1

Thanks for posting this!

Why not base spelling on say - past tense sayed -> said ? the letter 'a' is preserved in the spelling. Is this too difficult.

When do you start orthographic mapping with words like said, the, etc. After teaching all the sounds?

We are working towards reading all words by sight. We have words that follow regular sound patterns and words that have heart parts but all words become sight words.

Can you please explain why you can't introduce the and a as /th/ /ee/ and /ay/?

Great discussion. Thank you!