Slow Writing: Where the Time Can Go

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

Where the time goes

Writing much slower than classmates is one sign the sources we hold name. One sign alone tells you little. In our view, a pattern that lasts tells you more.

To us, the time can go in two places. One is forming the letters. The other is stopping to recall how a word is spelled.

To us, messy and slow are two signs, not one.

What two studies found about pauses

One study timed children with dyslexia as they wrote their own text (Sumner, Connelly and Barnett, 2013). They wrote fewer words a minute. The authors say this was "due to pausing more often". Their pens moved as fast as those of children their age. The study was of children with dyslexia, not dysgraphia. We could read only its summary.

A second study had children copy sentences on a tablet (Sumner, Connelly and Barnett, 2014). The children with dyslexia moved the pen as fast as children their age. They wrote less and paused more, often inside words. The authors link that to spelling that is not yet automatic. It studied 31 children with dyslexia. We could read only its summary.

To us, those pauses may point at recalling spellings, not at forming letters.

When forming the letters is slow

Some children build letters in an unusual order, such as from the bottom up. To us, that can make writing slow even when it looks fine.

Some children start neat, and the writing falls apart after a few lines. To us, that can mean a tired hand, or writing not yet automatic.

Does your child's hand often hurt when writing? In our view, tell the teacher, and your child's doctor if it keeps up.

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

Is there a speed that counts as too slow?

We hold no checked writing speed for each grade.

One paper suggested handwriting levels below which writing might suffer. Its authors called those levels "tentative" (Medwell and Wray, 2014). We could read only its summary.

UK guidance on one handwriting-speed test, the DASH-2, says the test is "Not designed to diagnose dysgraphia" (SASC, 2024).

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

What teaching can do

Handwriting, spelling and getting ideas down each get better when taught.

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 handwriting lessons taught in class to young children (Engel and colleagues, 2018). It called the evidence on speed "mixed". We could read only its summary.

Work on handwriting, spelling and composing side by side. Handwriting improves most consistently with handwriting practice; motor work alone has not been shown to improve it.

Our page on writing difficulties has more.

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.