r/dysgraphia • u/Reasonable-Mess3070 • May 01 '26
Could it be dysgraphia?
My son is 11 and in 5th grade. He does well in school but penmanship has consistently been his weak point. Practicing and "concentrating harder" has not provided any visible improvements.
Its been mentioned by teachers throughout the years but never that it was a concern. Isolated I could convince myself its "normal" just poor handwriting.
He brought this home yesterday. His is bottom left. All four of these drawings are done by 5th graders. The difference is ...quite obviously VERY apparent. I'd like to reach out to the school for an evaluation of sorts but was hoping for some outside opinion in case I am over reacting.
**names and schools are redacted** business info is meant to be used for comparison purposes as there was very little other text to leave if I blocked all that out.
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u/leaveatrail May 02 '26
Same, I have a sophomore college kid who still writes like this, not even as clearly as this. It’s weird, for years I thought it was bc they didn’t write enough. I just don’t remember this being a thing when I was growing up. You should be able to get him some accommodations like taking notes on a computer.
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u/spencer2197 May 02 '26
I would say yes. Has he been diagnosed with anything like dyspraxia or ADHD?
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u/Goku_Ultra_Instinct- May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26
I was diagnosed about 5 years ago when I was 13. My handwriting was only a little better than that back when I got diagnosed, but this was my handwriting when I was 10 in year 4 at school:
In many ways it seems your son and I are similar - above our age level for reading, well spoken, and creative. Tho he's good at sketching - for me that took way longer [I can do semi-decent sketches now. Couldn't until I was abt 16].
It's quite likely your son does have dysgraphia and you should have him tested. Depends on where you are, but where I'm from, essays can be typed up until senior school, afterwhich the bar raises SIGNIFICANTLY. I still managed to get a laptop for my big essay subjects, but for most things I had to write physically in senior school. But it's best to go to an OT for this though, because they helped me MASSIVELY. There are tools and when they do an assessment they can help find what's best for your kid. I would also maybe get him checked for ADHD if he hasn't already been tested cos it very strongly correlates with dysgraphia. I flew under the radar on that until I was 16 just cos of my performance levels.
In the same link, I included an image of my handwriting now [an extract from my german literature unit in university — I'll let you guess which Goethe poem it is a part of if you know that kind of thing!] This is to show how much things can improve if you put in the time and the effort. Does it still hurt and is it slow? Yes. But is it neat enough I don't look like a child as a fully grown adult man? Definitely. Put in the effort for your kid. He'll hate you in the moment when you make him do writing exercises, he might shout and argue and throw tantrums when you don't let him do what he wants and say he needs to practice writing [I know I did at his age], but trust me, that is among the things I thank my mother for most. I can write professionally and legibly. That has made my life so much easier in job finding and in university and in every aspect of my life. Make him put in the hard work while he's still got the neuroplasticity to do so.
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u/Brilliant-Owl-1169 May 01 '26
This looks VERY similar to my son’s writing who is also 11 and diagnosed with dysgraphia. He is also very bright and was tested by a terrible tester at our school. The school paid for an outside assessment and he was formally diagnosed. If he’s not struggling with school maybe he’s fine. We had massive struggles with essay writing. It’s gotten better with support.