Autism and Handwriting Difficulty

By Laura Lurns · Reviewed by Philip Weaver · Last reviewed 2026-10-19

What studies comparing groups found

One review pooled 13 studies (Finnegan and Accardo, 2018). Each compared autistic people with people developing typically. The autistic groups differed on how much was written. They differed on how easy it was to read. They also differed on letter size, speed, spelling and overall structure. We could read only its summary.

The authors name a question for future research. They call for research on whether this writing is "similar to other struggling writers".

That is a difference between groups. It does not say how many autistic children find writing hard. It does not describe your child.

One study set autistic children beside a matched group (Fuentes, Mostofsky and Bastian, 2009). The autistic children had more trouble forming letters. They did not differ in sizing, lining up or spacing letters.

In the autistic group, motor skills predicted the children's handwriting scores. Other things the study checked, such as IQ, did not. That is a link, not a test of teaching. We could read only its summary. It does not say how many children took part.

Handwriting improves most consistently with handwriting practice; motor work alone has not been shown to improve it. Keep any hand or finger exercise alongside handwriting practice, not in place of it.

How often? What we hold, and what we do not

We hold no count of how often autistic children in general find handwriting hard.

One study looked at children sent to a clinic (Mayes and colleagues, 2019). Each had ADHD or autism. It judged writing trouble from a copying test and other test scores. It did not use a handwriting test. Children sent to a clinic are not all children. So we give no rate from it.

What helps handwriting

The studies in this section did not pick autistic children.

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.

In our view, show where a letter starts, which way it goes and the order of its strokes. Then your child writes it.

Work on handwriting, spelling and composing side by side.

Our page on handwriting activities has practice ideas for home.

A keyboard?

One small study looked at 22 autistic students (Ashburner, Ziviani and Pennington, 2012). The students had used word processors for six months or more. There was no comparison group.

The students' typed writing scored higher than their handwritten writing. But the authors say the gap "did not reach statistical significance". Motivation was rated higher with the keyboard. In this study, typed work was easier to read. We could read only its summary.

A keyboard takes away forming the letters. It does not take away spelling, composing or holding the sentence in mind. Typing has to be taught, like handwriting.

No study we hold tests whether a keyboard cuts into handwriting practice or handwriting growth.

Our position is this. Ask whether a support builds the skill, or replaces the expectation that it gets built. For a keyboard, the answer depends on the task. In a science test, typing lets the science show. In a handwriting lesson, it replaces the practice. We would keep building handwriting through the elementary years. Type where the point is the content.

Our page on typing has more.

What we hold no study of

We hold no study that tests a way of teaching handwriting or writing made for autistic children. That is a gap in what we hold, not a finding either way.

We hold no sensory-integration review that measured handwriting. Handwriting improves most consistently with handwriting practice; motor work alone has not been shown to improve it.

We could read only the summary of the letter-forming study. Its summary reports no comparison with children who have coordination trouble or dyslexia.

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

Questions for your child's team

These questions are ours, not a study's. In our view, they help a team look at the writing itself.

• Which part of writing is hard right now? Is it forming letters, spelling, or getting ideas down?
• How is handwriting taught, and how often does my child practice?
• Where could typing carry the content? Who is teaching the keyboard?
• Have hearing and vision been checked?

When to ask for help

Each of these is a reason to ask for help on its own.

• Little change, even with steady practice and good teaching.
• Writing well below your child's other schoolwork.
• A teacher who raises a concern about writing.
• Extreme upset about writing.
• Complete avoidance of writing.
• Hopelessness about learning.
• Sadness or worry that lasts.
• Significant delays in speech, language or motor development.
• A skill that was there and has gone. Our position is that a lost skill goes to a doctor first, not a tutor.

If no skill has gone, start with the teacher. Say what you are seeing at home, and what you have tried. Beyond the teacher, the right person depends on what it turns out to be about. If the work is too hard, someone who works on that school skill. If worry or mood is the thing, someone who works with children's mental health. In our view, delays in speech, language or movement are worth raising with your child's doctor. In our view, if you are worried enough to ask, a professional evaluation is worth asking about.

Any talk of hurting themselves is a same-day call to your doctor or a crisis line.