Dysgraphia is often misunderstood by parents, teachers, and students. While the label is not important, understanding that some students experience problems processing and organizing information in a written format is important. Dr. Levine states, "Clearly it is time for a holistic approach to the understanding of writing. The Writing Dilemma offers an embarrassingly overdue breakthrough, as this most important work acknowledges and describes vividly the multiple possible breakdown points that must be considered in a child who is not developing writing skills." Other sections include components that facilitate automatic writing performances, assessment techniques, and a variety of recommendations for compensations and remediation of writing problems.
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Why place a high premium on the writing abilities of students? After all, there are surprisingly few careers that necessitate exemplary expository or creative writing skills. Nor is success in the adult world predicated upon accurate spelling, an adaptive pencil grasp, or aesthetically impressive legibility. In fact, when you grow up, you are at liberty to write in either cursive or manuscript, rely on a computer or dictating machine, overutilize a spell checker, or conveniently confine your paper trail repertory to filling out forms and writing checks (although credit cards have diminished the need even for the latter graphomotor subskill). Perhaps, therefore, it is time for our children to be granted once and for all the right not to write!
Having assumed the role of devil's advocate and drastically trivialized the act, I will state my case for writing and support the laudable mission of the current unique monograph, The Writing Dilemma. Writing indeed represents the ultimate neurocognitive integrative act. It is the supreme accomplishment of a developing young mind. It is in the act of writing and only in the act of writing that a seemingly diverse collection of germinating neurodevelopmental functions and academic subskills coalesce and collaborate. Writing demands the vigorous participation of attention, multiple forms of memory, language, critical and creative thought, brainstorming, motor output, metacognition, progressive automatization, organization, synchronization and even visualization. In addition, writing represents a formidable challenge to problem solving skill, as exigencies, such as planning, previewing, topic selection, strategy use, self-monitoring, and pacing represent core components of the problem solving act. Writing is as well a social skill, as renditions on paper are cautiously guided by the author's conscious insights into the backgrounds, preferences, and expectations of prospective readers (including the ever-changing parade of requirements and personal tastes found among individual teachers).
Two obvious inferences can be drawn: first of all, writing is a wide-open window on central nervous system development and function. This is especially the case during the middle childhood years, ages 10 to 15, when writing facility or difficulty is a commentary on the ways in which critical neurodevelopmental functions are progressing and becoming tightly interwoven. Second, it should be obvious that in the process of becoming a writer, a student is honing and blending the widest possible range of subskills and underlying brain processes. Thus, writing serves to solidify and integrate the very same functions that are needed to master writing in the first place! Regrettably, some students harbor neurodevelopmental dysfunctions or variations that thwart writing attainment. Some become writing phobic. They write as little and as passively as they can. As a result, these non-writers lose ground with respect to language progression, memory capacity, organizational skill and the other essential abilities that we have mentioned. While most careers do not stress writing, they all call for strengths in writing's neurocognitive underpinnings.
There exist a multitude of possible reasons (and very commonly combinations of reasons) for a student's writing failure or reluctance. Consequently, there are many subtypes of writing disorder. When we come to understand the reasons for a particular child's writing difficulty, we have learned an enormous amount about that individual's intrinsic "wiring." That which we have so discovered and uncovered can have vital implications for understanding the whole child, and for substantially heightening his or her level of academic productivity as well as pride.
Up until now, writing has been a well guarded territory narrowly divided between professional disciplines. When psycholinguists or speech and language pathologists have spoken of writing problems, they have referred to them as disabilities of written language. Motor specialists have assumed that writing problems are the result of neuromuscular coordination deficits. Others have invoked exclusively attention deficits, laziness (and like forms of moral turpitude), performance anxiety, or other simplistic, global, and rather monopolistic attributions for all writing failure.
Clearly, it is time for a holistic approach to the understanding of writing and of problems with writing. The Writing Dilemma offers the education world an embarrassingly overdue breakthrough, as this most important work acknowledges and describes vividly the multiple possible breakdown points that must be considered in a child who is not developing writing skills. Regina Richards lucidly puts forth a range of practical suggestions tailored to individual children with specific dysfunctions that obstruct the transcription of their thoughts on paper. A book on writing probably ought to be well written. This one is. As such, it will be of inestimable value to educators, to clinicians, to parents, and ultimately to the many exasperated students whose disappointing written output has been sadly misinterpreted by themselves and by the adults whose respect they crave. No child needs or deserves to suffer writing humiliation, we assert penitently! -- Dr. Mel Levine Professor of Pediatrics University of North Carolina Medical School Director, The Clinical Center for the Study of Development and Learning Founding President, All Kinds of Minds A Nonprofit Institute for the Understanding of Differences in Learning
About the Author
Regina G. Richards, M.A., began her work in bilingual education, working on curriculum development and test design. She has authored books on language development, reading strategies, and classroom visual development, and throughout her years of working in education, she has presented a wide range of workshops at conferences. Since 1970, she has been an instructor at the University of California Extension Programs at both the Riverside and San Diego campuses. She is director of the Richards Educational Therapy Center and Big Springs School, both of which serve many dyslexic and dysgraphic students. She was president of her local branch of the International Dyslexia Association for seven years and continues to be actively involved.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
More Science, Less Edubabble,
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This review is from: The Writing Dilemma: Understanding Dysgraphia (Mass Market Paperback)
The best part of this book is Dr. Melvin Levine's introduction. I would like to have read more of the doctor's analysis of this condition. The author only had the benefit of a six day class with Dr. Levine. I think a solid two semesters of pediatric neuropsychology would be more appropriate for anyone working in this area or teaching in general!Although the author does a good job of describing the condition and has some excellent examples provided by afflicted children, she largely fails to provide a practical way out. She does little to discuss testing and how parents can deal with teachers and school systems. The bulk of the book is a blizzard of educationese about teaching writing. I am dealing with a 7th grader and her technics seems more appropriate to third graders.Fortunately, it is not an expensive book and I recommend it for that. You may find something useful here but I can't raise your hopes too high.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Useful ideas for my child,
This review is from: The Writing Dilemma: Understanding Dysgraphia (Mass Market Paperback)
I can't tell you how many meetings with teachers I had about my child's illegible handwriting. My student broke and destroyed pencils in frustration from Kindergarten on through middle and high school. It's tempting to think "If they would only try harder - to leave spaces between the words, to hold the pencil correctly, to form the letters the correct way, to write on the line....." This book helped me understand what was going on and to focus on ways to make progress. Regina Richards has many wonderful ideas!
The Writing Dilemma also helped our family to stand back and appreciate our student apart from the handwriting issue. Also, legibility has been achieved and that is a tremendous relief for all of us. I recommend this book!
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