Signs of Dysgraphia: What to Look For as Your Child Grows

By Laura Lurns · Reviewed by Philip Weaver · Last reviewed 2026-10-02

How to use this page

You may be asking a simple question. My child is this old and does these things. What does that mean? Here are three answers before the lists start.

No sign here has an age. The sources we hold list signs of dysgraphia without ages. They come from definitions, clinical guides and studies of groups of children. We hold no study of how often parents see these signs.

One sign is not a finding about your child. In our view, note what goes wrong, and whether it keeps happening. To us, a pattern over time tells you more than one sign.

The grades below belong to the studies. Some studies followed children through school. The grades named are each study's own groups. They are not a schedule your child is measured against.

Signs you may see at home

Here are signs the sources we hold connect with trouble in writing. A child can have trouble in more than one place. Each item is one sign, not an answer on its own.

The letters themselves.

• Handwriting that is very hard to read.
• Letters formed in different ways, or in unusual ways.
• Writing much slower than classmates.
• A tight grip, pressing hard, or a hand that tires. Note it if you see it. One review calls the research on grip inconclusive (Schneider and colleagues, 2023).

To us, messy and slow are two signs, not one. Handwriting improves most consistently with handwriting practice; motor work alone has not been shown to improve it.

The page.

• Spacing, staying on the line, and keeping letters one size.
• Laying out the writing on the page.

As we read it, of the four places on this page, the research is thinnest on spacing and layout.

Spelling while writing.

• The same word spelled different ways in one piece.
• Simple words spelled wrong.
• Spelling that sounds right but is wrong.

The sources name only how accurate the spelling is. These three examples are our screener's wording, not the sources'.

Getting ideas down.

• Trouble getting thoughts onto paper.
• Trouble organizing ideas, or getting started.
• Punctuation and grammar.

Try this at home. Ask your child to tell you what they were going to write. Write it down as they talk. Then compare it with what they wrote on their own.

If your child also has trouble with spoken language, that is a reason to ask about language too.

Letters written backward

We hold one reversal study (Brooks, Berninger and Abbott, 2011). We could read only its summary, so we use no figure from it. No source we hold fixes an age at which reversals stop being ordinary. None makes them a young-child thing either.

Reversals on their own are not a finding. Note them, and watch the handwriting and the spelling too.

What studies of children in school saw

A few studies looked at writing across the school years. Here is what they saw. Every child in them was in school.

Grades 1 to 9. 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. In our view, act on a sign when you see it.

Four years in one Dutch study. One study rated 173 Dutch children's handwriting after each of four years of lessons (Duiser and colleagues, 2020). All were taught throughout, with no untaught group, and most rated weak after year one were rated fine later. 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.

Grades 2 and 3 in another Dutch study. 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.

Grades 1 to 4 in a US study. One study followed US schoolchildren from grade 1 to grade 4 (Costa, Edwards and Hooper, 2016). All of them were in school. There was no untaught group to compare with. Its writing test covered more than handwriting. Each year, about the same share of the children in the study met its bar for writing trouble. They were not always the same children. Some moved out of the group, and others moved in. 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.

A diagnosis describes where your child is today. It does not predict where they will be after a year of the right kind of practice.

Keep teaching the writing while you watch. Handwriting, spelling and getting ideas down each get better when taught. The studies below tested teaching. The school studies above did not.

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

Work on handwriting, spelling and composing side by side.

Older students and teens

The research we hold is thin here. We hold no list of writing signs parents see in teenagers. The sources we hold on older students are not sign lists. No study we hold follows children with dysgraphia into adult life.

One small study worked with students in grades 4 to 9 whose dysgraphia had lasted (Beers, Berninger, Mickail and Abbott, 2018). They had 18 lessons. Afterward, they typed about as well as a typical group on every keyboard task. They differed from that group on two pen measures. There was no untaught group with dysgraphia. So we cannot credit the lessons with how they did. We could read only its summary.

One Portuguese study compared students in grades 4 to 6 with students in grades 7 to 9 (Limpo and Alves, 2013). Different children were in each group. In the younger group, handwriting and spelling were tied directly to how good the writing was. In the older group, the tie ran through planning and confidence. The authors write that it "continued" after grades 4 to 6, "but indirectly". Handwriting practice makes handwriting better, but its effect on composing is not settled.

UK guidance on one handwriting-speed test, the DASH-2, says it was normed on people aged 8 to 25 (SASC, 2024). The guidance says the test is "Not designed to diagnose dysgraphia".

In our view, act on a sign when you see it.

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.

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.