I just wanted to make clear that I don't know that DD has dysgraphia. I have been following other posts about it and so made mention to a question I had made about it. Sorry to be unclear. She is supposed to use the computer for her work which is so important since she cannot spell or write well enough to read. I will be asking the school to assess her.
Does she have difficulty with reading?
I'm coming in to this a bit late, but just saw your reply under another post asking about dysgraphia. Before I read this reply (with the mention of reading difficulty) I was going to mention that writing challenges sometimes go hand-in-hand with ADHD. My dysgraphic ds was once diagnosed with ADHD (which he doesn't have) but at the time I spent a considerable amount of time reading about how writing can be a challenge for kids with ADHD (thinking that might be his challenge!) (and clearly I have a challenge with run-on sentences lol).
Anyway, if you're wondering about dysgraphia there are a few things you can look for just to see if there's anything obvious going on (there are different ways dysgraphia presents, so if these *don't* sound like your dd, that doesn't mean she's not dysgraphic... I'm posting them more so you can see if anything matches what you see in your dd, which might be reason to move forward and check out your concerns re it.
* Does she have odd posture or pencil grip when writing?
* Does she tire quickly when using handwriting?
* Does she reverse letters/numbers?
* Does she have uneven spacing of letters/words on the page when she writes?
* Does she drop words or switch numbers/drop signs when copying?
* Does she have uneven pencil pressure when writing?
* Does she hold either her arm or wrist while writing?
* Is there a noticeable difference in the quantity of words and complexity of thought when your dd answers a question verbally vs writing down the answer?
Those are things you can look for at home as red flags for dysgraphia.
Another thing you can do is measure her handwriting speed - have her write the full alphabet, upper and lower case for each letter, and time her. Then divide to get the measure of # of letters per minute. You can find "letters per minute vs grade level" info online - the numbers will vary, but you can get a sense if she's relatively slow from just looking at this in a general way. Also look at the letters she's written - is she forming letters consistently top to bottom, does she stop and think before she writes a letter, etc.
Best wishes,
polarbear
