Worried about your child’s handwriting? A short guide to what to do next
If your child’s handwriting is slow, effortful or difficult to read, it can be hard to know where to start.
The important question is not simply, “Is their handwriting neat?” It is: what is making writing difficult for this child?
Broadly, there are two areas to think about.
For some children, handwriting difficulties sit within a wider pattern involving reading, spelling, written work, memory or processing. In these cases, a diagnostic dyslexia assessment can be a useful starting point.
For others, the main difficulty is more physical or motor-based, perhaps alongside wider difficulties with coordination. In the UK, motor-based handwriting difficulties are usually considered within the broader framework of Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), sometimes referred to as dyspraxia. DCD can affect fine motor skills such as writing, drawing and using scissors, as well as wider coordination and everyday tasks.
And sometimes these two areas overlap. A child may begin with a dyslexia assessment because there are broader learning concerns, and the findings may then suggest that motor coordination should also be explored further.
That is why looking beyond the handwriting itself is so important.
what about dysgraphia?
You may have come across the word dysgraphia, particularly on American websites.
In the UK, it is not generally used as a straightforward standalone diagnostic label in the same way. Where handwriting difficulties are primarily related to motor coordination, they would usually be explored within the wider DCD pathway.
However, handwriting difficulties are not always motor-based.
Sometimes writing is difficult because of the amount the brain is having to manage at once: remembering ideas, organising sentences, spelling words, holding information in mind and physically forming the letters.
Writing is one of the most complex things children are asked to do at school, which is why it is often more helpful to understand the different skills contributing to the difficulty than to focus on a single label.
How I assess handwriting in detail
When handwriting is a concern, I look at it in detail as part of the child’s wider learning profile.
I use the DASH-2 — the Detailed Assessment of Speed of Handwriting. This is a standardised assessment designed specifically to explore handwriting performance.
Rather than simply looking at whether handwriting appears neat or untidy, the DASH-2 looks at handwriting across a number of different tasks. These include:
copying in best handwriting
copying at speed
writing the alphabet
free writing
a measure of graphic speed
This is useful because handwriting difficulties do not always appear in the same way.
A child may, for example, be able to produce neat handwriting when asked to write carefully but become very slow when trying to maintain that quality.
Another child may manage copying reasonably well but find free writing much harder because they are having to think about ideas, spelling and sentence construction at the same time.
Alongside the standardised scores, I also consider the quality and legibility of the handwriting, how the child approaches each task and how much effort writing appears to require.
Crucially, I then look at how the handwriting findings fit with the rest of the assessment.
This may include areas such as reading, spelling, phonological processing, working memory, processing speed and retrieval speed.
That wider picture can help us understand why writing is difficult, rather than simply establishing that it is.
When might a dyslexia assessment be the right starting point?
If handwriting difficulties sit alongside concerns about reading, spelling, written work, memory or processing, then a diagnostic dyslexia assessment can be a very useful first step.
It allows handwriting to be considered alongside the wider pattern of strengths and difficulties involved in learning.
Importantly, the assessment can still be helpful even if dyslexia is not ultimately identified. It may reveal other factors that are contributing to the writing difficulty.
It may also suggest that motor coordination could be playing a part. If that is the case, I may recommend that parents explore this further through the DCD route.
When might the DCD route be more appropriate?
If the main concern is the physical or motor aspect of handwriting, particularly where there are wider difficulties with coordination or everyday motor tasks, then it may be more appropriate to explore DCD.
Parents might notice difficulties not only with handwriting but also with things such as using scissors, doing up buttons, tying shoelaces, using cutlery, catching a ball or learning other coordinated movements. These are all areas that can be affected in DCD.
An occupational therapist is often involved in assessing a child’s functional and fine motor abilities, although a formal diagnosis of DCD is usually made through a wider clinical assessment, often involving a paediatrician as well as an occupational therapist.
The important point is that the two routes are not mutually exclusive.
A child may begin with a dyslexia assessment because handwriting is one part of a wider learning concern. If the assessment suggests that motor coordination is also contributing, further exploration of DCD can follow. You can read NHS guidance on DCD here.
Understanding the reason matters
Two children can both have slow or difficult handwriting for completely different reasons.
For one child, the difficulty may be mainly motor-based. For another, it may be the result of the demands of spelling, memory, processing and organising written language. For some children, there may be elements of both.
That is why the aim is not simply to put a label on messy or slow handwriting.
It is to understand what is making writing difficult for that particular child, so that the right support — and, where appropriate, the right next assessment — can be put in place.
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