𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 & 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐀𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬

2. Dysgraphia

"Dysgraphia is a deficiency in the ability to write, primarily handwriting, but also coherence. It is a transcription disability, meaning that it is a writing disorder associated with impaired handwriting, orthographic coding, and finger sequencing (the movement of muscles required to write)."

As you can see from the above description, dysgraphia is a lot like dyslexia but with one major difference - as opposed to dyslexia where words seem to "float" off the page and letters get jumbled, dysgraphia has to do with the writing aspect.

I've struggled a lot with my dysgraphia over the years and even more so after becoming a writer. And a lot of times, because of that, it surprises me that I've been able to write this much at all. However, it has taken years and years of overcoming to get to this point.

Because of my learning disability, even simple things like holding a pen or pencil can be hard and that comes from how I hold it. I can't say this happens with everyone who has it but I do know it's a major problem for some. Due to an awkward grip that just comes naturally to me when I hold a pencil, it causes painful cramps in my hands. This usually happens when I write for a long period of time which is one of the main reasons I prefer to type rather than write on paper.

It actually helped me some though when my mother started me on different textbooks or worksheets rather called 'Handwriting Without Tears' that are specially designed for people who have my disability. With that, I was able to learn how to hold it differently which to a point has curbed some of those painful cramps (although being honest, I still grip the pencil too tight).

Another great thing about those books is that they helped me write better - a problem I always had since first learning how to write was that I was never able to close my letters all the way. So for example, sometimes my 'O's looked like 'C's, etc. Having really sloppy handwriting can be a big problem when it comes to dysgraphia and it's usually just something that happens naturally. Although, I can't say I've found the best way around that because my handwriting, even at 24, still looks like a child's and I did end up relapsing after doing better with it for a while. It's the reason I try to avoid signing papers of any kind because it tends to be embarrassing for me when people see it.

Typing, though, has also helped in other ways to further my writing career. I've always had problems trying to put my thoughts down into words on paper and for years, that has been the hardest part about having dysgraphia. But for reasons even I can't explain, using a computer and seeing the words on a screen instead of on paper seem to help tremendously. Although I do still struggle with things like writing a fight/battle scene or sometimes even continuing the plot of a story. It's not that I don't know what I want to happen - I can see it all perfectly clear in my head - but when it comes to writing it down, everything escapes me and I have no idea where to begin. It's why usually I try to summarize as much and as best as possible when it comes to scenes that stump me. So if a scene I write in a story looks a little rushed or wasn't as detailed as you expected it to be - well, that's usually why lol :P

Also, for some reason, my writing always tends to slant across a page - I can be writing a perfect line and somehow, it always ends up slanting downward or upward. As well as I have the added problem of not spacing between words well which makes them look like I just jumbled them together on the page.

Dysgraphia does have some things in common with dyslexia though, don't get me wrong. For example, I transpose letters a lot and sometimes whole words as well. As a kid, I'd always mix up my 'b's and 'd's all the time. And it also took me a lot longer than my sisters to learn how to write. I was years past what's perceived as the "normal" age to learn.

It's also impaired my ability to learn foreign languages - it's why I retain very little of whichever language I try to learn. Which is extremely frustrating to say the least when I can only remember random words - and not helpful ones either *sighs*. Hm, also, learning to play instruments is more difficult for me although I can play the piano a tiny bit.

I also tend to skip over connecting words while writing like 'a', 'and', 'the', 'or', 'an', etc. That tends to be a pain when I go back and proofread, I admit. Not to mention sometimes I'm sure it can make my work hard to read, although I try my best to fix it in editing.

Another thing that dysgraphia has in common with its 'mother' branch is the misspelling of different words. Believe it or not, I am a horrible speller :P I always misspell certain words, especially longer ones or ones that have a lot of the same letters like beautiful, conscience, separated, etc. Which is why I have formed a very close, personal bond with my beloved, spell-check ;)

In school, I also used to struggle a lot with grammar - along with Math, English was one of the subjects I hated the most. I could never remember the names for different words and what they did - like nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs. I knew how to write a sentence and how to use them but picking them out of the sentence itself and knowing their names and uses was tough.

Other problems I've had and still deal with to this day is pronouncing words wrong, losing my place while reading (I tend to run my finger across the words to keep my place in a book, which I've actually been made fun of for in the past), reading words aloud at times during reading, as well as not being able to understand certain terminology.

For example, I can't read old Victorian-style books. I love period dramas but can't ever read the books they're based off of because the terminology they use is too hard for me to follow. It takes half my energy just to understand what they said, let alone keep up with what's going on. So I tend to avoid those when I can and thankfully for me, my mother never enforced me reading them during school hours.

And on that same note, I tend not to be able to understand scientific terminology either. When I was a kid, I just loved science and even astronomy as well. I loved being able to learn new and amazing things about the universe beyond us. But as I got older, it became more difficult to understand until it got to a point where I literally was sitting down, trying so hard to understand chemistry that I gave myself a headache. I tried so hard to understand atoms and neurons and black holes and all of the terminology that went along with it but in the end, it just wasn't possible for me. I literally had to learn through a curriculum for much younger kids when I was already in high school just so I could pass that subject.

I think that was one of my saddest moments that I've ever had in going through all of my issues though. For the most part, math and grammar hasn't greatly inhibited anything I really wanted to do in life but not being able to understand the ins and outs of astronomy was a very hard thing to accept.

And lastly, because of the awkward grip that's pretty much ingrained into all those who have dysgraphia - I'm not the best at drawing. I try really hard and while I do enjoy drawing, it's not something that, even after years and years of practice, I've ever been able to master (most of my drawings look like they were done by a child). Despite that though, I do still draw to a point haha :)

So Dysgraphia does have some things in common with Dyslexia, probably more so than its other branches but with certain differences. It's still an inhibiting learning disability and at times can be very frustrating to deal with. But with help and different tips/tricks in learning, some of the more prevalent symptoms of it can be overcome. Remember, some of us writers are actually living proof of that ;)

I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter and that I'm not too boring when I talk about this stuff? Hope not anyway! lol Next up, I'm going to discuss my issues with Asperger's Syndrome - I hope y'all will check that out as well :)