Dyslexia and Dysgraphia are two disorders caused by the damage to the higher centers of the cerebral cortex. However, the key difference between dyslexia and dysgraphia is that dyslexia is a reading disorder whereas is dysgraphia is a writing disability. Dyslexia is a learning disability characterized by difficulty in reading despite normal intelligence. Dysgraphia is characterized by impaired handwriting with a lack of coherence. Both conditions can occur together.
What is Dyslexia?
Dyslexia is a learning disability characterized by difficulty in reading despite normal intelligence. In early childhood, symptoms which correlate with the diagnosis of dyslexia include delayed onset of speech, right-left disorientation, etc. Dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are known to be commonly associated with each other. School-age dyslexic children may show signs of difficulty in identifying or generating rhyming words, or counting the number of syllables in words. Difficulties with naming objects are also seen with dyslexia. If the problem persists into adulthood, it may accompany difficulties with summarizing, memorization, reading, or learning foreign languages. Adult dyslexics tend to read more slowly than non-dyslexics people and perform worse in spelling tests. This disorder can have a significant negative impact on the educational performances. Sudden onset dyslexia can occur with acute cerebral cortical damage such as in strokes.
What is Dysgraphia?
Dysgraphia is characterized by impaired handwriting with a lack of coherence. The symptoms of dysgraphia are often misdiagnosed by attributing it to the student’s lack of motivation. In order to diagnose dysgraphia, a person must have few of below symptoms.
- Cramping of fingers while writing short entries
- Odd letters
- Use of excessive erasures
- Mixing of upper case and lower case letters
- Inconsistent form and size of letters, or unfinished letters
- Misuse of lines and margins on the paper
- Inefficient speed of copying
- Inattentiveness over details when writing
- Frequent need of verbal cues
- Referring heavily on vision to write
- Poor legibility in writing
- Having a hard time translating ideas to writing, sometimes using the wrong words altogether
Diagnosis of this disorder needs careful assessment and, this should be differentiated from other conditions such as cerebral structural pathologies. Dysgraphia may cause a lot of emotional traumas and may result in impaired self-esteem, lowered self-efficacy, anxiety, and depression. Early diagnosis and careful attention by a pediatric neurologist can minimize some of the issues.
What is the difference between Dyslexia and Dysgraphia?
Definition of Dyslexia and Dysgraphia
Dyslexia: Dyslexia is a reading disorder despite normal intelligence.
Dysgraphia: Dysgraphia is a writing disorder due to lack of coherence.
Characteristics of Dyslexia and Dysgraphia
Cause:
Dyslexia: Dyslexia is caused by a problem in the interconnecting area of the cerebral cortex needed for reading. (Coordination of the vision, vocal cords, existing memory.)
Dysgraphia: Dysgraphia is caused by a problem in the interconnecting area of the cerebral cortex needed for writing. (Coordination of the vision, existing memory, hand muscles)
Associated Problems:
Dyslexia: Dyslexic children are less disturbed and can manage with day to day functioning.
Dysgraphia: Dysgraphic children are disturbed due to the defect and can end up with anxiety and depression. Therefore, the attention of a child psychiatrist may be needed.
Treatment:
Dyslexia: The use of dyslexia intervention with alphabet-writing systems with the aim of increasing child’s awareness of correspondences between letters and sounds and to relate them to reading may be effective.
Dysgraphia: Treatment for motor disorders to help control in writing movements and the use of educational therapy can be effective.
Image Courtesy:
“Visual-dyslexia”. (CC BY 2.5) via Wikipedia
“Dysgraphia” by Asturnut (talk) -own work. (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Wikipedia