Start Free Trial

What the Research Says About Writing and Dysgraphia

By Laura Lurns · Reviewed by Philip Weaver · Last reviewed

This page sums up the writing research we hold, area by area. It covers what dysgraphia means and its proposed types. It also covers teaching writing and handwriting across the school years. Most findings name their study. Then it says what the research we hold does not show. Then it lists questions we plan to answer on later pages.

TL;DR

  1. This page sums up the writing research we hold, area by area. Most findings name their study.
  2. Dysgraphia is a word for a pattern of trouble with handwriting, spelling, or getting thoughts onto paper. Experts disagree on what the word means. The International Dyslexia Association places the trouble in handwriting, and sometimes spelling. A US psychiatric manual, the DSM, lists trouble with written expression under specific learning disorder. Its 2013 edition lists spelling, grammar and organizing ideas, not handwriting.
  3. Santangelo and Graham (2016) pooled studies of teaching handwriting. Handwriting lessons made handwriting clearer and faster than other lessons or none. Handwriting improves most consistently with handwriting practice; motor work alone has not been shown to improve it.
  4. Handwriting practice makes handwriting better, but its effect on composing is not settled. Santangelo and Graham (2016) found gains in composing. A US federal panel, the What Works Clearinghouse, found few studies that measured writing quality. Those few found no evidence of a gain from handwriting and spelling practice.
  5. The research we hold has no validated way to sort one child into a type of dysgraphia.

What the writing research we hold covers

This page opens one of the ten areas in our research section. It reports what the studies we hold found, as strongly as they found it.

This page covers the word dysgraphia, proposed types, and the load of handwriting. It also covers teaching writing, handwriting across the school years, and feelings.

Read what a study does not show before you read what it found.

What the word dysgraphia means

This part covers what the word means in different places.

Dysgraphia is a word for a pattern of trouble with handwriting, spelling, or getting thoughts onto paper. People use the word for different things.

Experts disagree on what the word means. The International Dyslexia Association places the trouble in handwriting, and sometimes spelling. A US psychiatric manual, the DSM, lists trouble with written expression under specific learning disorder. Its 2013 edition lists spelling, grammar and organizing ideas, not handwriting.

One review says there is no professional agreement on exact criteria for dysgraphia (Chung and colleagues, 2020).

Our rule is to describe patterns on these pages. We do not put a name on a child.

Proposed types of dysgraphia

This part covers the types of dysgraphia that have been proposed.

The list you will see most often has three types: dyslexic, spatial and motor. It is credited to Deuel, in a 1995 paper. We could not get that paper. So we know it only from what others report.

One study sorted children by their test results (Döhla, Willmes and Heim, 2018). It found two groups of its own. It had no handwriting measure.

The research we hold has no validated way to sort one child into a type of dysgraphia. No study we hold repeats a split of dysgraphia into types in a new group of children.

Handwriting and composing at the same time

This part covers the load of handwriting while a child writes.

In one set of experiments, children recalled fewer words when writing them than when saying them. Adults did not (Bourdin and Fayol, 1994). The authors say the slowness of writing did not explain it. That was a word list, not a story. We could read only its summary.

One study looked at 193 first graders at one point in time (Kim and Schatschneider, 2017). Writing was judged on how well the ideas were developed. In its model, handwriting was one of several skills tied to writing. Spoken language, spelling and holding things in mind were others. These were links, not causes.

Teaching handwriting, spelling and composing

This part covers studies of teaching children to write.

Santangelo and Graham (2016) pooled studies of teaching handwriting. Handwriting lessons made handwriting clearer and faster than other lessons or none.

One review looked at help for school-age children with handwriting trouble (Hoy and colleagues, 2011). Help that left out handwriting practice did not work. Neither did help with too few practice sessions.

Handwriting improves most consistently with handwriting practice; motor work alone has not been shown to improve it.

One review looked at classroom handwriting programs for young children (Engel and colleagues, 2018). It found no clear support for one program over another.

In a 2014 review of 53 studies, Graham and Santangelo found that teaching spelling directly works. They also found gains in spelling while writing, not only on tests.

Two reviews support teaching children how to plan and revise (Graham and Perin, 2007; Gillespie and Graham, 2014). The first covered grades 4 to 12. The second covered students with learning disabilities.

Handwriting practice makes handwriting better, but its effect on composing is not settled. Santangelo and Graham (2016) found gains in composing. A US federal panel, the What Works Clearinghouse, found few studies that measured writing quality. Those few found no evidence of a gain from handwriting and spelling practice. The panel still thinks it helps. So teach composing as well.

Work on handwriting, spelling and composing side by side.

How handwriting changes across the school years

This part covers how handwriting changes from grade to grade.

One US study compared 900 children in grades 1 to 9 (Graham, Berninger, Weintraub and Schafer, 1998). Each grade was a different set of children. Copying speed rose from grade to grade. It leveled off in grade 9. Gains in how clear the writing was were, in its words, "primarily limited to the intermediate grades". Those grades describe groups of children in school. They are not a deadline for yours. We could read only the study's summary.

A second study tested two groups of Dutch schoolchildren twice in one school year (Overvelde and Hulstijn, 2011). We could read only its summary. One group was in grade 2, the other in grade 3. In the grade 2 group, fewer children met the study's bar for dysgraphia at the second test. The grade 3 group was a separate set of children, so the two groups do not make one line. There was no untaught group. So the change cannot be credited to age or to teaching. That change is about groups of children, not a promise about yours. It is not a reason to wait and see. No study we have tests wait-and-see as a plan for a learning difficulty. So we would not tell you to wait.

Writing and feelings

This part covers studies of feelings and learning difficulties, writing included.

The studies we hold link learning difficulties with frustration, lower self-esteem and higher anxiety. That is an association, not a cause. Some studies point to support from parents and teachers as something that may help protect against these risks.

These are findings about groups of children. They are not a checklist for one child.

What the writing research we hold does not show

This part covers the limits of the studies on this page.

No study of any Learning Success program exists.

The research we hold has no validated way to sort one child into a type of dysgraphia. No study we hold repeats a split of dysgraphia into types in a new group of children.

Handwriting practice makes handwriting better, but its effect on composing is not settled.

The research we hold has no brain-structure evidence about handwriting.

No study we hold follows the same children's handwriting from childhood into adult life.

Few of the studies of writing help we hold picked children diagnosed with dysgraphia.

We hold no checked writing speed for each grade.

Our rule is that no page says how your child will change by a given week or month.

Does Learning Success build on this?

Partly. We use one point from this page. Handwriting improves most consistently with handwriting practice; motor work alone has not been shown to improve it. Three of our programs work on skills that sit alongside handwriting teaching. None of them teaches handwriting.

In no case do we claim a study's result for our program.

No study of any Learning Success program exists.

Questions we plan to answer on later pages

Later pages in this area are planned. None of them is written yet.

The studies

“

Pick one claim you have heard about fixing handwriting. Ask what was measured. Was it the handwriting itself, or something else, like hand strength? Keep that answer in mind when you choose what to practice.

”What to do tonight

Common questions from parents

Were the children in these studies diagnosed with dysgraphia?

Few of the studies of writing help we hold picked children diagnosed with dysgraphia. One German study picked its dysgraphia group with a spelling test (Döhla, Willmes and Heim, 2018). It had no handwriting measure. People use the word for different things.

Does better handwriting lead to better stories?

Handwriting practice makes handwriting better, but its effect on composing is not settled. Santangelo and Graham (2016) found gains in composing. A US federal panel, the What Works Clearinghouse, found few studies that measured writing quality. Those few found no evidence of a gain from handwriting and spelling practice. The panel still thinks it helps. So teach composing as well.

Do hand exercises help handwriting?

One review looked at help for school-age children with handwriting trouble (Hoy and colleagues, 2011). Help that left out handwriting practice did not work. Neither did help with too few practice sessions. Handwriting improves most consistently with handwriting practice; motor work alone has not been shown to improve it.

More in Research by area