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What is dysorthography?

Dysorthography is a writing disability that develops in children as a difficulty to write words correctly and follow grammatical rules. They have difficulties with sounds and writing. This disorder tends to affect children who have other language disorders or delays, such as dyslexia.

Prognosis:

Dysorthography develops in childhood and it is necessary to treat it as soon as possible so it does not affect the child’s development. It is important to see a specialist if symptoms of this disorder are noticed in order to help the child.

What are the symptoms?

It affects some people more than others, but the most common symptoms tend to be:

• Spelling mistakes
• Article confusion and misuse
• Not using apostrophes or using them incorrectly
• Confusing letters, writing words together, or mistaking spoken and written words
• Difficulty spelling

Medical tests:

This disorder should not be confused with common grammatical mistakes that children often make when growing up. To adequately diagnose, the following traits should be taken into account; difficulties spelling, mixing up letters, or difficulties separating words and syllables.

The tests to asses this disorder include:

• Aural tests
• Tests to check for difficulties writing and learning language rules

What causes it?

There are many things that have been thought to cause dysorthography, they include:

• Intellectual causes: these can delay learning basic grammatical rules.
• Linguistic causes: difficulty in language acquisition and lack of vocabulary knowledge.
• Educational causes: depending on the cognitive style that the patient has, different teaching methods may present more challenges.
• Perceptual causes: linked to the visual and auditory process.

How can it be prevented?

It is crucial that parents and teachers work together for early detection of this disorder. Parents should provide support at home while teachers provide support in the classroom.

What is the treatment?

In order to treat this disorder, the cause should be found. It is often caused by a visual or hearing impairment, pronunciation issues, or even an unfavourable study environment. Depending on the cause and the level of impairment, the speech therapist or childhood psychologist may suggest a treatment aimed at resolving related issues and learning and using correct spelling.

What specialist should I see?

The specialist that diagnoses and treats this disorder is a speech therapist.