The "Types of Dysgraphia" You'll Read About — and Why Experts Disagree

By Laura Lurns · Reviewed by Philip Weaver · Last reviewed 2026-09-30

What are the types of dysgraphia?

Researchers have proposed several. The names you will see most are dyslexic, spatial and motor. One study sorted children by their test results (Döhla, Willmes and Heim, 2018). It found two groups of its own.

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

Here is what each one says, and what it rests on.

The three names you will see most

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 review reports all three names from Deuel (McBride and Cheah, 2021). In its account, the scheme drew on four tasks. They were spelling out loud, copying, drawing and how fast a finger taps.

Another review credits Deuel with the spatial type only (Chung, Patel and Nizami, 2020). It cites other writers for the motor type. It gives dyslexic dysgraphia and linguistic dysgraphia as names for one type.

So even this list is reported in different ways. We do not know if Deuel studied children or made an argument.

As we read the names, motor points at the hand. Spatial points at spacing and layout on the page. Dyslexic points at spelling.

To us, a motor name can make hand exercises sound like the fix. Handwriting improves most consistently with handwriting practice; motor work alone has not been shown to improve it.

Why do experts disagree?

Part of the answer is that the word means different things in different places.

• 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.
• The World Health Organization's list, ICD-11, names spelling, grammar and organizing ideas. It names no handwriting skill.
• Some experts define dysgraphia by handwriting (Berninger and O'Malley May, 2011; the International Dyslexia Association, 2020). The IDA places the trouble in handwriting "and sometimes spelling".
• A review for children's doctors uses the word for any trouble with writing (Chung, Patel and Nizami, 2020).
• One German study picked its dysgraphia group with a spelling test (Döhla, Willmes and Heim, 2018). It had no handwriting measure.
• UK and Australian health pages list writing among the signs of DCD (NHS, 2023; healthdirect, 2025). The NHS calls DCD a condition affecting physical coordination.

To us, two people using the word may be talking about different children.

Chung, Patel and Nizami (2020) write that "there is no professional consensus on specific diagnostic criteria". McBride and Cheah (2021) call ideas about dysgraphia "perhaps even more confusing and variable" than ideas about dyslexia.

The rest of the answer is in what studies found when they looked for types.

What happened when studies looked for types?

One German study looked at 45 children in grades 3 and 4 (Döhla, Willmes and Heim, 2018). They were picked with a spelling test. The study compared them with 53 children without spelling trouble. It then sorted the 45 by their test results, to see what groups showed up. It found two groups, not three.

In that study, one group had trouble on some seeing tasks. It also had trouble holding speech sounds in mind. The other group had trouble telling sounds apart and working with sounds.

The study had no handwriting measure. The children picked for spelling also scored lower than the 53 on a reasoning test with no words. So their differences from the other children may not be about spelling alone. Its groups may not fit children whose trouble is handwriting. The authors ran the sorting again on 27 of the same children. That was part of the same sample, not a new study.

A French study compared four groups of children (Jolly, Jover and Danna, 2024). Three groups had a reading disorder, DCD or both. The fourth group was typical. The children in the first three came with their diagnosis already made. So the groups were set up in advance, not found. Each of the first three had only 7 to 11 children who met the study's bar for dysgraphia.

In that study, DCD mainly affected the quality of the handwriting. The reading disorder mainly affected speed, and quality to a lesser extent. The authors write that they "identified subtypes of dysgraphia". Groups this small cannot confirm a list of types. We could read only the study's summary.

Another study grouped 27 children with handwriting trouble by how severe it was (Lopez and Vaivre-Douret, 2023). Its groups were mild, moderate and dysgraphia. That is a split by severity, not by kind.

Where the line is drawn changes who counts. One study looked at a group of children with DCD (Lopez, Hemimou and Vaivre-Douret, 2017). Most of those children had handwriting trouble. Far fewer met the study's bar for dysgraphia. The study drew that line with a standard handwriting test and a clinician's checks. It was a DCD sample, not a count of all children. It is a short conference report.

One overview concludes that children's writing problems "are diverse in their manifestations and causes" (McCloskey and Rapp, 2017). That means they show up in many ways, for many reasons. We could read only its summary.

A 2025 review of computer tools makes a related point (Fallah, ZandiyeVakili and Sajedi, 2025). Its authors write that a universally standard medical test for dysgraphia does not exist yet.

Can anyone tell you which type your child has?

The research we hold has no validated way to sort one child into a type of dysgraphia.

To us, a type name is worth having only if it changes what somebody does. If a report or a tutor used one, ask two questions. What did you see that made you use it? And what would you change because of it?

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

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.

What to look at instead

In our view, the useful question is where the writing gets stuck.

Try this. 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.

Here are places writing can get stuck. A child can have trouble in more than one.

• The letters themselves. Handwriting that is very hard to read. Letters formed in different ways. Writing much slower than classmates.
• The page. Spacing, staying on the line, and keeping letters one size.
• Spelling while writing. The same word spelled different ways in one piece.
• Getting ideas down. Very short written work. Trouble organizing ideas, or getting started. Punctuation and grammar.

To us, messy and slow are two signs, not one. As we read it, of these four places, the research is thinnest on spacing and layout. Each item is one sign, not an answer on its own.

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

• 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. Keep teaching the writing while you work out where it gets stuck. We would not wait for a type before helping.

In our view, the first step is usually to work out what is hard.

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.