LD Expert Podcast with Jill Stowell
Is It Dysgraphia? Why Is Writing So Hard?
Jill Stowell
Jill Stowell: Does your child have amazing ideas but completely shuts down when it's time to write? Maybe they can talk for 20 minutes about dinosaurs, the Revolutionary War, or their latest business idea—but ask them to write three sentences and suddenly they have nothing to say. I remember a high school student like that. He was smart, popular, and athletic, but he was in danger of losing his spot on the football team because of his grades - he simply did not do any assignment that involved writing. If your bright child hates writing, this episode will help you understand why—and why handwriting is still more important than most people realize.
Welcome to the LD Expert Podcast, your place for answers and solutions for dyslexia, learning, and attention challenges.
I'm your host, Jill Stowell, founder of Stowell Learning Centers and author of Take the Stone Out of the Shoe. Before we jump into this topic of dysgraphia, I'd like you to try something. Grab a piece of paper and write your full name with your non-dominant hand. It's awkward, right? I'm guessing it was slow and doesn't quite look like what was in your head. Imagine if every time you had to write a sentence, organize your thoughts, remember how to spell words, and get them onto paper, it felt that difficult.
Dysgraphia literally means: Difficulty with writing. With dysgraphia, the brain struggles to coordinate the physical act of writing with processing information and written expression. Dysgraphia is more than just messy handwriting, but I've heard more than one parent describe their child's handwriting as atrocious.
There are usually challenges with the physical writing process - with remembering how letters are formed or with spacing on the page. They may use a mix of capital and lowercase letters and sometimes even go back and forth between cursive and printing. Words might float above or below the lines or squish together.
Sometimes students say that writing hurts their hand. And because we don't experience that when we write, it may seem like an excuse or avoidance. But often, these students have an awkward pencil grip or they are using their muscles inefficiently so it creates tension and pain.
Spelling tends to be poor and inconsistent. They might spell the same word in different ways in the same paragraph. And, one of the most challenging things for parents and teachers is that these students are often far more sophisticated in their oral language than their written language. They struggle to plan, organize, and express their thoughts on paper.
One of the difficulties with dysgraphia is that it's really an umbrella term for writing difficulties that can arise from different underlying causes. Writing is thinking on paper, and it's one of the most complex things we ask students to do. To do it well, the physical writing process - fluidly forming the letters, and spacing or organization on the page need to be automatic. You have to understand the phonetic code of the language and know what words look like, and you have to be able to use the executive function skills of planning, organizing, evaluating, and adapting your thoughts and language.
If any of these skills are weak or inefficient, it's going to stress your attention and working memory and writing is going to be harder than it should be. Writing requires so many skills to work together efficiently and automatically that when one or more of those skills isn't working well, writing can become painfully slow and effortful and something to avoid.
Kids can be very bright and have dysgraphia. Some of the brightest, most verbal, and creative students I've worked with have struggled terribly with writing. And it's so confusing because sometimes they can explain their ideas beautifully but they can't write them.
Dysgraphia can be a challenge all on its own - like my high school football player. But it often overlaps with dyslexia, ADHD, and other learning challenges because reading, writing, attention, language, and executive functioning are highly interconnected. That doesn't mean they're the same thing, but they do often co-exist.
A couple of practical questions: Parents sometimes wonder - How messy is too messy and should I make my child do it over if it's messy? If you know that writing is really hard for your child, help them understand that the purpose of writing is so that they or someone else can read it. So teach them that when they erase, they have to erase completely, and not to make extra marks on the page.
Call attention to the lines and margins and help them to get into consistent habits for where to start and where to try to place their words. If their writing is readable - not perfect - but readable, let that be good enough. It probably took them a lot of effort and redoing the page is defeating.
Another question people ask is: Could anxiety be causing this? Sometimes anxiety is part of the picture—but often it's a result of the struggle rather than the cause of it. If writing feels hard every single day, it's perfectly understandable that a child would begin to avoid it.
Students who struggle with writing aren't generally lazy or unmotivated. They're overwhelmed. They've learned that writing is difficult, slow, and exhausting.
So think about this question. When your child, or student, struggles with writing, what do you think they're struggling with? Is it handwriting? Is it spelling? Is it getting started? Is it organizing their thoughts? Or is it something deeper that's affecting all of those things? Once we understand that, we can begin to provide the right support.
If your child struggles with writing, I don't want you to walk away from this episode thinking, "Well, writing is complicated. I guess we're stuck!" There are some simple things you can do to support the writing process. I'm going to give you 3: One for making the letters, one for getting started, and one for getting ideas onto the page.
#1: If your child is a young learner or a struggling reader, don't rush through handwriting instruction. Slow down and make it meaningful. Being able to form letters accurately helps bring the physical writing process to an automatic level. We don't want to have to think about how to form the letters.
When your child is learning a letter, talk about the parts of the letter as they form it. For example: the lowercase letter g. They need to start at the top and form the circle part going from right to left; then make the hook that goes below the line. Noticing how the letter is formed and labeling it or talking it through, helps the symbol to visually make sense. This is helpful for our dysgraphic and our dyslexic learners…of any age.
You can use large paper and a fat crayon or chalk on the sidewalk to make it a more sensory experience. The reason we're taking the time to do this isn't to create beautiful handwriting. It's to eliminate confusion and make letter formation automatic so the brain is free to think about bigger things.
#2 Getting started. I've seen so many students - when it's time to write - their face just goes blank. They aren't resisting writing because they're lazy. They're stuck.
One of my favorite ways to help children get unstuck is something called Lazy Eights - basically the infinity sign or the number 8 laying on its side. I've used this with countless students over the years. Drawing lazy eights in the air or on paper for 20 - 60 seconds can help students relax, regulate, and transition into writing.
#3 Getting past "I don't know what to write." Here's something I wish every teacher knew. It's much easier to answer a question than it is to write about a topic. Instead of: Write about your summer vacation. Give them a question or, even better, teach them to turn a topic into a question. What was your favorite thing you did this summer and why? Then ask your child to close their eyes and picture the answer. That gives them a place to begin.
In today's world, you may be wondering, "Do kids really need handwriting anymore? Can't they just type? Or use speech-to-text? Or AI?" That's a great question. And here's the answer: Handwriting is really important!
Researchers have found that when people physically write letters by hand, different brain networks are activated than when they simply type or trace those same letters. Handwriting appears to support early literacy development, including letter recognition, spelling, and reading. In other words, handwriting isn't simply about producing neat letters on a piece of paper. It's helping to build the brain systems that support reading and learning.
Reading and writing are teammates. They're constantly talking to one another in the brain. So it shouldn't surprise us that kids who struggle with reading often struggle with writing, and vice versa. This doesn't mean every child needs perfect penmanship or pages of handwriting drills. That's not the goal. But brain development is.
Writing by hand actually helps students become more capable thinkers, readers, writers, and communicators. It also seems to support regulation and attention. And that's why writing matters so much.
In our next episode, we're going to tackle some of the big questions parents are asking today: Should my child use AI? Is typing an accommodation or a crutch? When should we use speech-to-text? And perhaps most importantly, what skills are we actually trying to teach our children when we ask them to write?
Because in today's world, the question isn't whether our children will use technology or AI. They will. They are. The question is how we can use those tools wisely while continuing to develop the underlying skills they need to learn, think, and communicate with confidence.
At Stowell Learning Centers, we help children and adults move beyond learning and attention challenges -including dyslexia and dysgraphia- by strengthening the underlying skills that make learning easier. When those skills get stronger, everything changes — reading, writing, focus, confidence, even the stress around school.
If you're listening and thinking, this sounds like my child, you can learn more, explore free resources, or connect with one of our learning specialists at stowellcenter.com. You can also follow us on social media. We're @stowellcenter on all platforms.
If this episode encouraged you, please share it with another parent or educator who needs to know that real change is possible.
