dysgraphia - usman rasheed's ma elt thesis

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IDENTIFICATION OF THE PROBLEMS FACED BY DYSLEXIC

STUDENTS IN ORTHOGRAPHICAL EXPRESSION

(DYSGRAPHIA) AT PRIMARY LEVEL

ByUSMAN RASHEED

(12133)

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGES, LITERATURE & APPLIED LINGUISTICS

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF MODERN LANGUAGES, LAHORE CAMPUS

2011-2013

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IDENTIFICATION OF THE PROBLEMS FACED BY DYSLEXIC

STUDENTS IN ORTHOGRAPHICAL EXPRESSION

(DYSGRAPHIA) AT PRIMARY LEVEL

INTERNAL SUPERVISOR:ZAHEER HUSSAIN

BY:USMAN RASHEED

A Thesis presented to theFaculty of English Language, Literature &

Applied LinguisticsNATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF MODERN

LANGUAGESISLAMBAD, PAKIATAN

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree ofMASTER OF ARTS

INENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE

JANUARY, 2013

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CANDIDATE DECLARATION FORM

I, USMAN RASHEED

Son of ABDUL RASHEEDCandidate of Mater in English Language Teaching at the National University of Modern Languages do hereby declare that the dissertation identification of the problems faced by dyslexic students in orthographical expression (dysgraphia) at primary levels. Submitted by me in partial fulfillment of Master Degree, is my original work, and has not been submitted or published earlier. I also solemnly declare that it shall not, in future, be submitted by me for obtaining any other degree from this or any other university or institution.

……/..…. /2013Signature of Candidate

Usman Rasheed Name of Candidate

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am very much thankful to almighty Allah, without whose help this task

would never have been completed. This research is an original effort of

mine, but at the same time, it would not have been possible without the

expert supervision and guidance of Sir Zaheer Hussain, my supervisor.

I would also like to pay my respects to all of my teachers for their valuable

guidance; and special thanks to my all classmates for their warm

friendship and assistance during my years of study at NUML Lahore.

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Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to find out the problems that are

being faced dyslexic students in writing, called dysgraphia. And

researcher has achieved this goal by involving parents of such students

and also their instructors. The judgments of field experts have also been

taken.

With regards to methodology and approach, the researcher considered it

best to collect data from parents and instructors with a close ended

questionnaire and this approach remained successful. Data was collected

from two special education institutions based in Lahore, namely, Amin

Maktab, Gulberg and Rising sun, Defense, Lahore.

The researcher has added up semi-structure interviews of field experts, for

better understanding within the Pakistani context. During the course of

investigation, the researcher found that experts mostly confirmed agreed

with the highlighted issues. All the collected data was analyzed and

presented in description and statistically analyzed and presented using

charts. The findings are clearly mentioned using percentages.

Some recommendations were also given by researcher and conclusion is

given below.

The core part of thesis is based on literature review and all data is

rephrased in the own words of the researcher.

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It is strongly felt that this research is helpful for spreading awareness in

community with regards of dyslexia and dysgraphia; both of which are

curable and these students can also lead healthy, happy and normal lives.

Last but not least I would like to say that different institutes and schools

are well equipped to help children who are either dysgraphic or dyslexic.

It is hoped that this study will further facilitate and help them in better

understanding and handling of such issues.

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION.................................................................. 1-3Background in Pakistan............................................................ 4-5

Statement of Problem.................................................................... 6

Research Questions...................................................................... 6

Hypothesis.......................................................................................7

Delimitation of Study......................................................................7

Research Methodology...................................................................8

Objectives of Present Study............................................................9

Significance of the study.................................................................10

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LITERATURE REVIEW.......................................................11Introduction..................................................................................11

Literature Review.........................................................................12

Developmental Dyslexia..............................................................13

Brief History................................................................................13

Dyslexia: A Disability or Difficulty?...........................................14

Diverse Theories..........................................................................15-16

The Phonological Shortfall Theory..............................................16-17

Temporal Processing Theory.......................................................17

The Magnocellular Theory..........................................................18

The Double Shortfall Hypothesis.................................................19

Dysgraphia...................................................................................20

Experts’ Opinions........................................................................21-23

Dysgraphia vs. Dyslexia........................................................... 23-26

What Causes Dysgraphia?...........................................................27-28

Types of Dysgraphia.....................................................................29

Dyslexic Dysgraphia....................................................................29

Motor Dysgraphia........................................................................30

Spatial Dysgraphia.......................................................................30

Phonological Dysgraphia..............................................................31

Lexical Dysgraphia......................................................................31

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Stress and Dysgraphia..................................................................31

Characteristics & Indications of Dyslexia......................................32

Deep Dyslexia..............................................................................33

Pre-school......................................................................................33

Kindergarten through Third Grade.................................................34

Fourth Grade through High School..............................................34

Dyslexia and Related Disorders...................................................35

Characteristics & Indications of Dysgraphia 36-37

Third Methodology ...............................................................38

Introduction...................................................................................38

Brief overview of research objectives 39-40

Research design..............................................................................41

Population.......................................................................................42

Instruments......................................................................................42

Unit of data analysis........................................................................43

Four Data Analysis............................................44Research Tools................................................................................44

Questionnaire.................................................................................45

Interview........................................................................................45

“Questionnaire for parents..........................................................46-52

Parents’ responses......................................................................53

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Data Interpretation.......................................................................53-56

Questionnaire for instructors........................................................57-67

Instructors’ responses....................................................................67

Instructors’ Data Interpretation..................................................68-71

First interview..................................................................72-74

Second interview..........................................................................75-77

Third interview.............................................................................79-80

Fourth interview.........................................................................81-83

Interpretations of interviews........................................................84-86

Five Findings and Recommendations......................87-88 Findings of the study...................................................................89-90Conclusion......................................................................................91Recommendations....................................................................92-96

Work cited...................................................................................97-104

APPENDIX ‘A’ (Questionnaire for Parents) .......................105-107

APPENDIX ‘B’ (Questionnaire for Instructors) ...................108-111

APPENDIX ‘C’ (Semi-Structured Interviews)......................112-114

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CHAPTER NO: 1

INTRODUCTION

Language is a unique human tool and problems regarding language skills

are also unique. Language learning is consists of four basic-skills and they

are all equally important for grasping the language to its culmination

point. During teaching we encounter different situations which are

sometimes quite remote from our own experiences. Language learners are

always important for us and if we understand them, we can teach them in a

better way. It’s obvious that all the language-learners differ from one

another regarding capabilities but sometimes we come across exceptions

in our learners that may be in different language areas. Therefore

researcher conducted survey, interviews and collected data to identify the

nature of problems faced by dyslexic students in written (“Dysgraphia”) in

Pakistan.

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In the beginning dyslexia was a general term that was used for disabilities

but later on it was divided into many entities. Now every dimension that is

related with dyslexia has its own identification and many researchers have

conducted their researches on these dimensions .More or less there are

thirteen terms that are derived from dyslexia. Commonly found

“Dysgraphia”, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, dysphasia, aphasia etc.

Dyslexia has been found quite a broad term which defines a learning

disability that affects people’s fluency and understanding with accuracy in

being able to read and which can manifest itself as a difficulty with

phonological awareness, phonological decoding, processing speed,

orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, language skills/verbal

comprehension, and or rapid naming.

A dyslexic child finds it complicated to obtain the normal literacy skills

and therefore can have a traumatic experience within the educational

environment. What can further make the experience more traumatic, if the

peers in the immediate environment abuse him or make fun of him.

Therefore it is vital that appropriate steps should take to ensure comfort

for such children.

The main purpose of this research is to explore the disabilities regarding

orthographical expressions. It’s a comprehensive subject and made own

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place and identification among other language disabilities. Dysgraphic

students are unable to organize the structures of long pieces of texts. They

face problems regarding expression, grammar, sentence structure, spelling,

punctuation, and sequence. In addition, their short-term working memory

shortfalls and makes slow information processing speeds and it increases

the complexity of dealing with words. Their verbal abilities do not match

with their writing abilities in class work.

When tackling with written assignments, one of the most difficult things

for a dysgraphic student is to get his initial thoughts down on paper. While

he has all the ideas in his mind and knows exactly what he wants to say,

the struggles he has with expressing his ideas can be seen in assignments.

Background of dyslexia problem in Pakistan

Along with the rest of the world, Pakistan also faces the problem of

learning disability in children. Generally due to insufficient awareness of

the issue, people do not pay much attention to this problem. Recently,

however, there have been efforts made both publicly and privately to

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create awareness amongst people. Government’s help, although not

sufficient to combat this on a country wide scale, however plays a vital

role. Zar Nageen reported on 6 July 2007 at Karachi that the number of

dyslexic children in the city has increased by 25% over the past decade. It

should be kept in mind that “Dysgraphia” may be by birth disorder, which

can be due to abnormal pattern of brain tissues. It is required that children

with this disorder should be enrolled in special schools. In different areas

of world, dyslexic children are sent to normal schools after attending

special schools for specific time. Such institutions are few in number in

Pakistan, dyslexic children are being ignored on large scale. Several

competent dyslexic children are, as a result overlooked, and do not get any

attention for their talent.

It was reported By Asad farooq on Sunday, February 19, 2012 at Karachi

that REA Dyslexics is an institute that deals with dyslexia affected

students. The institute is a first one of its kind in Pakistan that helps

children to cope up with learning and comprehension difficulty known as

dyslexia.

REA Dyslexics not only facilitates dyslexia students but also organizes

workshops and seminars to spread awareness about dyslexia and education

related issues. On the occasion, four success stories of Zoya Kareem,

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Naseeruddin, Turab and Shuja were presented. All four persons have been

enrolled in Dyslexic Remedial Program of the institute and were enjoying

a satisfied life. They shared their experiences and shed light on the

difficulties faced by dyslexic students speaking at the session.

Karachi has two private educational consultancies – one of them is ‘R.E.A

and CARE’ - which are struggling to attend to children with learning

disabilities, turn out enough teachers to support the learning system and

generate enough funds to expand it further. There is one institution in

Lahore that is ‘Lahore Centre for Children’ that again does not have

enough resources to train staff and manage the influx of struggling

children.

Dyslexia Awareness Week – 6th November 2011 onwards it was again

organized by REA. Dyslexics’ organization in Pakistan, Overcoming the

problem in Pakistan and agenda of the seminar. Parental initiative is

critical in bringing “dyslexia” in the lime light of “learning difficulties”

arena. The role of positive parenting is essential and the process of

teaching children the tactics of overcoming the difficulties linked with

dyslexia can make a massive difference to a dyslexic children or adult.

Statement of Problem

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The research is being conducted for the identification of the problems

faced by dyslexic students in orthographical expression (“Dysgraphia”) at

primary levels.

Research Questions

What are the problems faced by dyslexic students in orthographical

expression (“Dysgraphia”) at primary levels?

Hypothesis

Dyslexic Students are unable to read and write with fluency. After

doing a lot of struggle their reading and writing skills never match

with spoken abilities.

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Dyslexic Students get confused with reverse alphabets

( b,d w,m n,u,p,q ).That slow down their reading and writing

process and take extra time in the recognition of the words

Students are Poor in grammar, sentence structure and in

sequencing of ideas.

Students commit erratic and irregular spelling errors frequently,

Omit or add the consonants and vowels to words. Sometimes spell

out entire word in reverse order.

Students face problem in discrimination of upper case and lower

case alphabets. While writing a word they mix up upper and lower

case letters in a word. Mostly students show failure in the use of

capitalization.

Delimitation in present study

The researcher has focused on dyslexia and “Dysgraphia”, other areas

like dyspraxia; dyscalculia and aphasia are not part of this research.

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Objectives of Present Study

To identify the nature of problems faced by dysgraphic students.

To highlight the language affected areas due to “Dysgraphia”.

To explain how and to what extent “Dysgraphia” hinders in

reading and writing.

To give opportunity to understand this problem and its remedies

through activities.

To find out role of dyslexia in dysgraphic disability.

Significance of the study

We can have complete understanding after reading background of dyslexia

and “Dysgraphia” in Pakistan. This domain remain neglected from the

very first day or little attention has been paid .In these circumstances, this

effort is an extension of study in this field that will be very beneficial in

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Pakistani context for increasing awareness with regard to this disability.

We all agree with these facts that dyslexia is a condition that affects

people throughout their lives and stays with them till their old age.

However, it must be kept in mind that with proper training the condition

can be improved upon greatly. There are several evidences which show

what types of instruction, struggling readers need in order to be successful

(e.g., National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000;

Snow et al., 1998; Torgesen, 2000).

It is obvious that both dyslexic and dysgraphic children have to encounter

far more issues than normal pupils.

Research tells us that positive and encouraging behavior of parents as well

as teachers plays a significant role in solving such children’s problems and

helps both dyslexic and dysgraphic patients to cope with their troubles.

Since such children use more time and effort to fulfill a task as compared

to non-dyslexic children, it has been observed that in fact Dyslexic

individuals require five times more effort as compared to a normal,

healthy individual.

Teachers point out that a dyslexic child is troubled by his writing, solving

mathematical problems, has issues like letter reversal, forgets spellings

learnt recently and has difficulty in copying material from the teacher’s

board.

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This study investigates the problems associated with a dysgraphic child of

primary education level. Effort has been made to spread awareness about

the problems of dyslexic and dysgraphic children.

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CHAPTER NO: 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter aims to provide a synopsis of the existing research related to

Dyslexia and “Dysgraphia”. As compared to Dyslexia, not a great

amount of research has been conducted on the topic of “Dysgraphia”, yet

the subject touches upon many different areas of language, psychology

and neurobiology, and hence is important.

The intention of the researcher is to consolidate and represent research on

the topic. In order to do so, the researcher provides contemporary study

and data by other (contemporary and old) researchers; provided basic (yet

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=902necessary) definitions and then move on towards progressive and

other theories related to Dyslexia and “Dysgraphia”.

The first half of the Literature review (below) discusses Dyslexia, whereas

the second half discussed “Dysgraphia”, separately. The researcher also

quote indications of Dyslexia and “Dysgraphia” from number of different

resources and provide references.

Developmental Dyslexia:

“Developmental Dyslexia” which is generally, known as “Dyslexia” is a

term that has been used primarily for reading disability. It leads to

difficulties in the attainment of reading and spelling Skills.

The researcher has found that the first detailed definition on Dyslexia was

drafted by the World Federation of Neurology in 1968: Dyslexia is a

disorder manifested by a problem in learning to read in spite of

conventional teaching, adequate intellect and socio-cultural opportunity.

With the passage of time, a number of organizations have come up with

different definitions of Dyslexia. For instance, The Dutch Dyslexia

association ‘Stitching Dyslexia Nederland’ came up with the subsequent

normally accepted and used definition: Dyslexia is an impairment

characterized by a steady problem in the acquisition and the accurate

and/or fluent application of reading and/or spelling skills at word level.

The reading level is noticeably below the expectations on the base of age

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and situation. The difficulties are didactically resistant (Stitching Dyslexia

Nederland, 2003).

The above work on Dyslexia began in 1968 and developed in several ways

till 2003.

Two medical categorization systems were used as an initial point in

defining Dyslexia: the International Classification of Impairments,

Disabilities and Handicaps (ICIDH) of the World Health Organization

(WHO, 1980) and the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for reading disorder

(APA, 1994).

Brief History

Vellutino (1979) was the first person who recognized Dyslexia as a

language disorder. He also highlighted that the previous consequences

seen as evidence for a perceptual shortfall in Dyslexia were completely

dependable with the view that dyslexic readers have verbal decoding

disability. This hypothesis was supported by pointing to studies that show

delays in speech and language progress. But, later on this argument was

considered to be very general (Snowling, 2000).

There are more probabilities that children with at least one dyslexic parent

have a significantly higher possibility; they have between 32 and 68%

probability of developing Dyslexia (Elbro et al., 1998; Pennington &

Lefly, 2001; Scarborough, 1990).

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Most studies have been found unfair towards males; as per (Miles et al.,

1998; Rutter & Yule, 1975; Sauver et al., 2001; Flannery et al., 2000;

Shaywitz et al., 1990). Females are affected two times more as compared

to males. Nonetheless, it is still not established whether male children are

biologically responsible for developing Dyslexia (Flannery et al., 2000).

Debates have led to diverse new definitions and theories concerning the

underlying root of Dyslexia. All of these controversies exist because of

heterogeneity in the behavioral outline of Dyslexia: It is also true that

indications of Dyslexia differ with the age (Snowling, 2000), occurrence

of disabilities take to a change and it can be seen in the manifestations

(Snowling, 2000), and the behavioral representations of Dyslexia varies

from situation to situation (Snowling, 2000; Vellutino, 2004).

Dyslexia: A Disability or Difficulty?

The researcher believes that Dyslexia is a lasting disability and the

[IDEA] Persons with Disabilities Education Act in the US, supports this

opinion. The debate on Dyslexia is on global level and a disagreement on

what constitutes Dyslexia, whether it is defined as a learning problem or

learning disability. According to Westwood, the stance about disability

and problem is quite indistinct. This definitional argument falls within a

political field and is influenced by government-based, policy of,

infrastructure that links educational support.

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In the USA Dyslexia comes underneath the area of a “particular learning

disability” and is publicly defined within the Persons with Disabilities

Education Act [IDEA] 1990-1997. In 2004 this act was altered into the

Persons with Disabilities Education Improvement [IDEI]. It recognized

Dyslexia as a specific learning disability”.

In the UK, the term ‘Dyslexia’ is used as a key term and is identified as a

learning disability (Cunningham and Firth, 2005). Nonetheless, Westwood

(2008) claims that in the UK they have “clouded the issue of definition

even more by adopting the terms learning problem and learning disability

to refer to those children who have intellectual disability.

The dispute on Dyslexia as a problem or disability is still not concluded in

the Australia. Confirmation of Dyslexia as a separate learning disability or

learning style, vary according to the different researchers opinion,

although it is not clearly established or identified in educational rule.

According to Australian Commonwealth Disability Discrimination Act,

ACDA 1992 categorize disability as “a disorder or failure that

consequences in the person learning differently from a person without the

disorder or malfunction”, can be problem of community education state or

territory based (Elkins 2000) and Dyslexia as a particular learning

disability is not clearly defined.

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Diverse Theories:

It has been agreed by most that Dyslexia is the main problem in the verbal

sphere (Lyytinen et al., 2004). However, this opinion does not apply to all

dyslexics. There are several different theories on the subject, some of

which are discussed below:

The Phonological Shortfall Theory:

According to researchers and scholars like Gallagher and Velluntino, in

addition to ‘reading’ and ‘writing’, another common difficulty faced by

dyslexics is related to phonological shortfall i.e. dyslexics do not have

normal capacity to display and produce words’ sounds. They attribute this

incapacity to a shortage associated with the brain to codify the

phonological properties appropriately which results in the unclear sound

production. This has been researched and verified by professional

anatomical and functional brain imaging studies; in fact one of the leading

proponents, Ramus (2003) has researched and is of the opinion that the

left ‘perisylvian’ dysfunction of the brain and associated nerves is the

basis for phonological shortfall.

However, this theory is not without its fair share of shortcomings; one of

which is that it does not clarify that what is meant by unclear or vague

sound production. Another criticism is that it is commonly observed that

several dyslexic children do not exhibit speech impairment issues of any

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kind at all. It can be safely concluded that ‘Dyslexia’ can’t be explained by

phonological processing deficit alone since then we would unable to

understand why sensory and motor disorders take place in a prominent

number of dyslexic patients.

Temporal Processing Theory:

Tallaal suggests that phonological deficit is the result of a low-level

auditory perception loss in the processing of concise or rapid sounds.

Different experiments related to the performance of dyslexically impaired

children are what led to this. It was observed in these experiments that

children demonstrated problems in processing concise sounds at a rapid

pace. It has been observed that not all dyslexics have difficulty with

auditory processing,, neither are these limited solely to concise or speedy

stimuli (Snowling 2004).

The Magno-cellular Theory:

As compared to other theories “The magno-cellular” theory gives a

holistic view taking into account all sensory, cognitive, and motor display

of Dyslexia. This theory postulates that tactile, visual, auditory, motor and

phonological deficits in dyslexics are driven due to basic problems arising

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from temporal working, free from acoustic, visual or motor modalities.

Needless to say, these problems are connected to the magno-cellular

structure of human brain and one of the apparent reasons seems to be cell

failure along magno-cellular pathway.

Although there are sufficient proofs to back the magno-cellular theory, yet

it fails to explain why in certain divisions of dyslexics there is complete

absence of these physiological and psychological findings on which the

theory is based. This theory also falls short of establishing and explaining

the deficiency of motor and sensory disorders in other sub-domains of

dyslexics (Olson & Datta, 2002).

Rosen (2003) carried out a study in which he tried to establish which of

these theories was sounder. Adult patients of dyslexia were tried and

tested for phonological, auditory and cerebellar tests. The results were as

follows:

a) Phonological tasks: Everyone experienced deficit but almost 30%

seemed to have a entirely phonological deficit. Others suffered

either from additional auditory, visual, or motor disorders.

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b) Cerebellar tests: 25% of the dyslexics displayed underperformance

on the ‘cerebellar’ tests and 12.5% in the sample seemed to have

visual difficulties of a magno-cellular nature.

c) Auditory trouble: More than half of the sample faced ‘auditory’

trouble, but these could not be described as a swift auditory

processing failure, contrary to predictions of the temporal

processing theory or the magno-cellular theory.

Taking the results of the above reports into account which support the

phonological shortfall theory, Rosen (2003) concluded that phonological

shortfalls can arise independently of any sensory or motor impairment.

The Double Shortfall Hypothesis:

Bowers and Wolf (1993) are responsible for formulating and refining “The

double shortfall hypothesis” of “progressal Dyslexia”. The theory

indicates that phonological skills cannot explain the entire variance within

the span of reading measures (Carlisle 1998). It has been observed that

one’s speed at reading and converting a visual symbol into a verbal tag is

independent of one’s phonological capability and add unique variation to

reading.

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This hypothesis postulates two reasons for Dyslexia, which is:

a) shortfalls in phonology and;

b) Naming speed.

These two reasons or factors can be both independent of each other or can

also occur together in a ‘double’ shortfall.

Dysgraphia:

“Dysgraphia” is a particular impairment that is related to writing i.e. it

manifests itself in the form of spelling and writing difficulties. It is also

known as Agraphia. It is an authentic learning disorder that affects one’s

orthographical abilities in a negative way. This is because writing requires

a multifaceted combination of motor skills.

Experts’ Opinions:

Below are a few definitions from various experts and researchers about

“Dysgraphia”:

It is a learning disability that affects people’s writing abilities. It becomes

apparent in the form of people having difficulties with spelling,

handwriting and expressing thoughts on paper. (National Center for

Learning Disabled, 2009).

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“Dysgraphia” is the delayed progress in, or acquired loss of the skill of

writing which may affect an individual at the age of twenty. “Dysgraphia”

has links with DCD/Dyspraxia but has different roots. DCD/Dyspraxia is

a disorder of motor planning but where the individual have idea what he

wants to write down, has the imagination to formulate the semantics, can

cope orally with the spelling and syntax but they are totally unable to

grasp the actions of the hand necessary to produce this on paper, in a

readable form commensurate with his age. Dysgraphic type difficulties are

usually related to poor chronological in construction processing and poor

motor/kinesthetic skills. This affects speed and quality of handwriting and

also spelling. Dysgraphic behavior is a true disorder and may continue

into adult life. It is common to find evidence of “Dysgraphia” in other

members of the family, especially among males.

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Children with “Dysgraphia” usually can write down on some level and

often be deficient in other fine motor skills judgment activities such as

tying shoelaces difficult. It does not influence all fine motor skills. They

can be lack in basic spelling task (common example having difficulty with

‘b’ and ‘d’, ‘p’ and ‘q’) and often will jot down the wrong word when

attempting to devise feelings (on paper). Children with such disability

might have some other sort of learning disorders but they typically have

no social or other educational difficulties.

“Dysgraphia” is a particular learning disability that affects writing

abilities. It can manifest itself as difficulties with spelling, handwriting and

expressing thoughts on paper (National Center for Learning Disabled,

2009). The International Dyslexia Association (2009) defined

“Dysgraphia” as “a particular learning disability that affects how easily

children acquire written language and how well they use written language

to express their thoughts” (p. 1).

““Dysgraphia” is a word that has been taken from Greek language. The

basic word graph denoted both to the hand’s function in orthographical

and to the letters formed by the hand. The prefix dys is used to show any

sort of impairment at any level. Graph refers to the production of

orthographical expressions by hand. The suffix ia indicate to having a

presence. Thus, “Dysgraphia” is the state of impaired letter writing by

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hand, that is, disabled handwriting, and sometimes spelling” (The

International Dyslexia Association, 2008, p. 1).

The Disability Discrimination Act defined “Dysgraphia” as a medical

disorder applied to those who experience trouble associated with their fine

motor skills and thus manifests in the form of poor handwriting and weak

expression of thoughts in one’s writing.

It has been described as ‘writing skills (that….) are substantially below

those expected given the persons…..age, measured intelligence and age

appropriate education’ (DSMIV, American Psychiatric Association 1994)

Dysgraphia vs Dyslexia:

“Dysgraphia”, as compared to Dyslexia, is a somewhat recent discovery.

Records show that spelling disorders began to be noticed a long while ago,

however, no one was interested in spelling at that time (Grashey, 1885;

Lichtheim, 1885;).

It is common knowledge that people speak much before they learn writing.

In fact even the most versatile and talented writers follow this order. On a

further note, the reading and writing abilities are tightly connected to one’s

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educational background. Not so long ago, advance spelling ability was

achieved by hardly but a few amongst masses. These too, were barely

noticed. Therefore, the discovery that an occasional development or rare

skill could be harmed as a result of brain damage did not garner special

attention. Thus research on “Dysgraphia” did not in fact focus on these

features of the disorder as compared to the matter of the relations between

the disorders of cognitive and linguistic functions with issues related to

spelling.

During the eighties, for the first time, models based solely on the ideals of

construction processing methodology e.g. Morton’s model of 1969 etc.,

began to affect and dictate psycho-linguistic research on linguistics. This

showed that such investigations could provide constructive means for the

improvement, of theories, of standard cognition. Also, this helped better

understand the mind–brain relationship, as well as the finding and cure of

such people.

Primarily, with the help of the new approach, researchers on Dyslexia

profited the most. Afterwards cases of surface dyslexia and phonological

dyslexia were diagnosed and filed accordingly. (e.g., Patterson, Marshall,

& Coltheart, 1985)

Such trends were associated to the selective impairment of mechanisms

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important for reading aloud familiar words and also to the selective

impairment of sub lexical grapheme–phoneme conversion methods that

are necessary to read aloud unfamiliar phrases or sentences.

Throughout the eighties, empirical support for an analogous distinction in

spelling was provided by analyses of “Dysgraphia”. Subjects with

phonological Agraphia i.e. disproportionate problem in spelling new and

unique words as compared to routine everyday words (Baxter &

Warrington, 1986). Also, on the other hand, subjects with surface

“Dysgraphia” i.e. the reverse pattern, consisting of more accurate

performance on novel words than on familiar words (Hatfield & Patterson,

1982) were described. Such trends were associated to an unequal

destruction of sub-lexical procedures and mechanisms.

The independence of such lexical semantic methods from sub lexical

conversion processes, that accumulate orthographic strings by conversion

of a phonological input, also easily accounted for most of the vital features

of errors traditionally found in surface “Dysgraphia”.

As the research progressed on “Dysgraphia”, the first obvious question

addressed by modern studies was whether it was possible or not to

substantiate an operational system parallel to that suggested for reading by

36

cognitive analysis of Dyslexia. The answer was “Yes”. Motivated by the

contrasting patterns of performance described in subjects with

“phonological” and “surface”

Dyslexia, the lexical-semantic methods and procedures were both self-

governing and independent.

By the end of the eighties, a holistic framework of the spelling

arrangement had been mostly finalized. To spell a common word, the

subsequent stored structure is recovered in from semantic input.

According to studies of “Dysgraphia”, when a new or a fake word has to

be spelled, a mechanism is activated which is entirely independent and

intakes the phonological input in the form of a string strictly based on

context of constraints and available mapping options.

Once again it should be appreciated that until the late eighties,

investigation on “spellings” concentrated on the ability to display only and

none of the techniques were involved as such in spelling. Later, however,

when confirmation from other sources suggested that lexical semantic and

sub lexical processes are interrelated, the previous views changed. Ever

since then, study in this area has answered progressively more meticulous

questions and continues to do so.

37

What Causes “Dysgraphia”?

Different experts have different opinions about the causes and effects of

““Dysgraphia””. Various researchers who had taken varying approaches

to gain an understanding of ““Dysgraphia”” have offered different

theories on the subject. Some of these have been shared below:

Generally speaking, many researchers assert that ““Dysgraphia”” is a

handwriting trouble which cannot be elucidated by intellectual

deficiencies.

It has been claimed by Ajuriaguerra & Auzias (1975) that tensional or

affective difficulties or ignorance of a language can be provoked by

unlikable circumstances and eventually leads to ““Dysgraphia””.

The opposite of Ajuriaguerra & Auzias is claimed by Maeland (1991).

He claims that “Dysgraphia” reflects a maturational delay of a

neurological or perceptual nature, thus preventing early specialization of

language functioning. As a result this leads to language difficulties with

regards.

38

Sovik, another leading researcher, has said that the primary fundamentals

of a child's writing includes in addition to other abilities, the child's

previously acquired skill set in the linguistic field counts a lot. He claims

“Dysgraphia” to be a psychomotor disorder.

Malloy-Miller (1995), similarly to Sovik, describe “Dysgraphia” as bad

handwriting that is mainly unreadable due to mild motor problems.

Nevertheless, contrary to Sovik, they do not allocate the disorder to

defect/s in cognition.

Students diagnosed with “Dysgraphia” quite often suffer from difficulties

with arrangement, order and logical sequencing. There is also a tendency

to mix letters and numbers in formulas, also writing mix-ups in terms of

spelling, punctuation, etc. What seems to be a surface problem (poor

handwriting, writing words backwards, reversing letters and numbers,

writing letters out of order) actually is related to construction processing.

39

Types of Dysgraphia:

There are three principle types in all and some people may even have a

combination of two or all three:

Dyslexic Dysgraphia:

Dyslexic Dysgraphia is a neurological disorder in which the person suffers

both the symptoms of Dyslexia & Dysgraphia. Due to lack of appropriate

neurological coordination between head, arm, hand and eye movements

etc., people have trouble in both writing and reading.

Children mostly learn to deal with such problems in a number of ways e.g.

by adjusting their position in a chair and aiding the arm to write properly.

Although “Dyslexia” and “Dysgraphia” apparently seem to be unrelated

but are often found to be together. In case of Dyslexic Dysgraphia, the

finger tapping speed, a way of recognizing motor difficulties is normal.

Children’s copied work may appear to be comparatively reasonable but on

the other hand the spellings are bad very often.

Writing may be muddled at times for e.g. in s typical case the same letter

may be written over and over again. Another instance is the addition of

strokes to a letter that aren’t required.

40

Motor Dysgraphia:

This type of “Dysgraphia” is caused by a deficiency in one’s motor skills.

There are many symptoms of Motor dysgraphia including weak muscles,

poor handiness etc. Simple Letter construction requires severe effort and a

lot of time to accomplish such simple tasks. A key indication is that the

finger tapping speed of such individuals is also below normal.

Spatial Dysgraphia:

A general definition of spatial “Dysgraphia” is that it is a deficiency in the

understanding of space. The copied or written work of people who suffer

from spatial “Dysgraphia” is unreadable however not fine motor based.

People suffering from this form of “Dysgraphia” may write down illegibly

because of a abrasion or wound on the right side of the brain. This case is

evident also in the form of abnormal spacing between letters during

cursive hand writing. Also, it has been observed that persons suffering

from this type of dysgraphia may write down words at a slanting angle.

41

Phonological Dysgraphia:

In this type of “Dysgraphia” people are unable to remember phonemes and

mix them appropriately to produce the desired result. Normally this results

in writing and spelling irregularities.

Lexical Dysgraphia:

Lexical “Dysgraphia” is more common in languages such as English and

French. This type of “Dysgraphia” is uncommon in children. The

characteristic of these languages that make them more vulnerable to

Lexical “Dysgraphia” is that they are less phonetic than a language like

Spanish. In this type of “Dysgraphia” a person can spell but for that

purpose relies on standard sound-to-letter patterns.

Stress and Dysgraphia:

Stress is one of the factors that is most common and quite often associated

with “Dysgraphia”. Quite often people diagnosed with “Dysgraphia”

easily become frustrated with their writing. This aggravation can cause

them a lot of stress and can further be the cause of related illnesses.

42

Characteristics & Indications of Dyslexia:

Feeling pain in hands and arms during writing

Unwanted use of erasers

Students frequently mix –up upper case letters with lower case letters

Inconsistency in letters formation or incomplete letters

Serious misusage of margins and lines

incompetent speed of copying material from board

Consistently required oral cues during writing

The more emphasis on visual activities as compared to writing

Orthographical skills may also create problem with spelling while

writing lengthy passages

Having great interpretation difficulty during writing

May often complaint about pain in hands and arms during writing

43

Deep Dyslexia:

Cannot read out fresh vocabulary words with their sounds

May also commit errors due to inactive blindness and misuse the

semantic, revolve becomes revolt

Mostly commit derivational and inflectional mistake lovely might be

lively

Change the function of words example all and also

May also suffer from problems when they have to read words in

isolation

Get confused or failed in the decoding of complex words

Slow and inaccurate in reading

Fear in the learning of new words and spelling

Pre-school

May talk slowly and with shyness

Often suffer from great difficulty when encounter rhymes

These students may have difficulty in the pronunciation of words like

burger and bugler

May also be found slow in the learning of new vocabulary words

Commonly found as unable in the learning of right words.

44

Often face problem in the memorization of digits and names of week

days

May not be able to remember the color, shapes and directions

Kindergarten

Students also suffer from great anguish while learning words with their

corresponding sounds

Students really find it hard to remember the sounds of individual

words in isolation

Face problems in the learning of spelling with sounds

Focus on text for recognizing the words.

High School and fourth grade

These students have records of reading and writing mistakes

Show extreme hesitation in reading loudly

Mostly read slowly and laboriously

Always avoid extensive reading or reading for pleasure

Children have great difficulty in spelling, can’t use easier words

successfully in writing due to spelling difficulty

45

Dyslexia and Related Disorders

Read the content more than once for comprehension and need to read

again and again for complete understanding

Reading speed is abnormal and slow than standard and may also find

difficulty in recalling whatever they have read.

Difficulty in fluent reading, may add or omit words during reading

Can’t focus on one task, often derailed and start again

Difficulty in focusing on the page, required a lot of effort in doing so

and it’s really tiring

Get confused in reading with similar words

Characteristics & Indications of “Dysgraphia”:

Handwriting is sometimes almost impossible to read

Writing something with hand always required a lot of effort

Letter construction is most of the time bizarre

Steadily striving hard to make the pen, do what you want

Abnormal hand and body posture

Unnecessary use of erasers

Severe irregularity in the formation of letters

46

Irregular letter sizes and shapes

Unfinished cursive letters

Misuse of line and margin

Poor organization on the page

Insufficient pace in copying from board

Slow speed of writing

Extremely speedy way of writing

Serious dependence on visualization to observe how the hands move

while writing.

Firm, strange penmanship along with bizarre posture

Unreadable orthographical expression

Show hesitation while writing and drawing

Incomplete words in sentences and paragraphs

Trouble in the organization of ideas while writing

Tight & awkward pencil grip

47

pressing harder to compensate for loss of control

illegible handwriting

Unfinished work

Avoiding writing activities

Saying words too loud while writing

Difficulties with grammar

48

CHAPTER NO: 3

METHODOLOGY

This chapter defines the research method and the procedure of records

gathering, that is required to investigate researcher’s own created

hypothesis and theoretical structure that has been jotted down previously.

This study identifies the nature of problems faced by dyslexic students in

orthographical expression (dysgraphia) at primary level in Pakistani

background. For the confirmation of accurate results, it is really important

49

to select a precise line of action for the research. Next section of study is

offering us gist of the study objectives.

As far as objectives of this study are concern these are very clear in the

researcher’s mind and researcher wants to make them vivid for viewers.

First of all as the main topic has described that researcher’s study

objectives to pinpoint the problems faced by dyslexic students in

orthographical expression (dysgraphia) at primary level. Second important

objective is how language is affected due to dyslexia and dysgraphia and

what are the language areas that are manifesting the problems.

Another objective is to find out how dysgraphia and to what extent it

creates hindrances in the individual’s writing. It explains how reading and

writing are interrelated. One key objective of this study is to make people

aware of such educational problems and motivate them that all such

educational problems can be resolvable and curable .Special students can

recover from such impairment with activities. That will help them in their

educational career. The core intention of this research is to discover, what

are the common features of dyslexia and dysgraphia .We can also say

what comes first and what comes later ,which term reinforce the other.

The methodology of this research is based on two approaches qualitative

and quantitative approach. Through quantitative approach data is collected

from instructors and parents by using a questionnaire. The numbers of

50

participants from instructors are four and same on the other hand,

(parents). All the questions are concise, well defined and related to the

different aspects of the topic. The number of questions varies in each

questionnaire and they have been set according to the objectives of the

study. Both have same answerable options, called lickert scale.

Date has been collected by questionnaires which are quantifiable and

results are mentioned in statistical form. The qualitative approach has been

used in semi structure interviews, which has been conducted with four

field experts out of ten. They have given best of their opinion on the given

questions. The numbers of questions are approximately ten in interviews

and all of them are open ended. . All data, quantitative and qualitative both

has been analyzed separately and results have been) formulated for final

conclusions.

Research design:

The priority of this research design is to give a support in a well organized

way so that the researcher can accomplish the targeted goals with

reliability and accuracy. The type of this study is descriptive that explore

the problems faced by dyslexic students in orthographical expression

(dysgraphia) at primary level in the Pakistani context. This sort of

investigation requires the support in shape of statistical facts in relation to

51

the sample that has been observed. It can explain with " how, where,

when, what and who " of a state of affairs, not what reason is behind it.

Consequently, most of the time descriptive approach of research is applied

when aim is to offer the details of objectives in a well organized way.

Population:

Researcher has targeted population of three groups and each group has ten

members. All of them are equally important in this study and are directly

or indirectly related with this educational problem. First group is related to

field experts of dyslexia and dysgraphia mostly head of special education

department across the city. Data has been collected from them by semi

structured interviews. Almost ten questions in each form and further

probing in questions was need based .Experts cited their opinion in detail

and this data has been later on used for the final results after comparing

with other data .Second group of instructors who teach dyslexic and

dysgraphic students. Questionnaires were used for data collection, more or

less fifteen questions were in that and data is collected through it. All

questions were close ended and with lickert scale options. Last group is

based on parents of dyslexic and dysgraphic students. Parents’

questionnaire is following the same instructors’ pattern.

52

Sample:

As above mentioned that researcher has three targeted groups and more or

less in each group there are ten members. As a sample researcher selected

four people randomly from field experts and same sample size from

instructors group. Last group is related with parents of dyslexic and

dysgraphic students and again only four members were chosen from

parents group.

Instruments:

For this study, researcher has selected two approaches qualitative and

quantitative. Through quantitative approach researcher has selected two

close ended questionnaires in which, there are more or less fifteen

questions in each. First questionnaire is for parents and second one is for

instructors. Data has been collected in statistical forms this was the core

purpose of this instruments. It gives accurate and valid information and on

the other hand it is easy to represent the data via this approach after

analysis.

Second instrument that researcher has chosen is from qualitative approach.

The semi structured interviews have been conducted with field experts of

53

dyslexia and dysgraphia. Ten basic questions were asked and further

probing was done on the base of need. Answers of the questions were

recorded on pages, information given by field experts. All these responses

were in descriptions that are used as a result of the questions and this data

is analyzed.

Unit of data analysis:

Data analysis is important part of any research and should always be

decided in the earlier stages of it. It will make you confident and your

actions prompt. In this research data is collected from three different

groups, analyzed and represented separately. First group is based on field

experts and data is represented in the descriptive form. Ten questions are

presented in this questionnaire. Answers that are in shape of description

are used as results. On the other hand we have four instructors group; data

is collected from them in statistical form because questions are close

ended. Data is analyzed and results are presented with the help of bar

charts. Same process has been adopted in the case of third group. Parents

answered in the same way as instructors did. Data is presented with the

help of bar charts and line charts.

54

CHAPTER NO:4

Data Analysis

After collection of data, the researcher prepared the

statistics for analysis; organized it for maximum

information; and analyzed the data both qualitatively and

quantitatively.

55

Research Tools

Two types of tools for data collection were used to

make the process reliable and accurate, by the

researcher.

QUESTIONNAIRE

Two different sets of questionnaires were

prepared i.e. one for parents and the other for instructors.

The questionnaire designed for both, consisted of close

ended questions.

The questionnaire designed for the instructors

consisted of fourteen questions and also options were

provided in the form of Likert’s scale. The parents’

questionnaire is almost of the same design however, the

number of questions here is twelve questions along with

Likert’s scale option.

1 2 3 4 5

strongly agree agree neutral disagree strongly

disagree

56

Interviews

The interviews were conducted in semi-structured form.

Four field experts were asked to provide their responses

to the researcher’s questions; and the responses were

documented in written form.

Parents’ Questionnaire

strongly

agreeagree neutral disagree

strongly

disagree

Numbers of

Response1 0 1 1 1

Percentage 25% 0% 25% 25% 25%

1. Your child has poor penmanship.

In response 25% strongly agreed, 25% remained neutral, 25% strongly disagreed

and 25% disagreed. This statement shows that poor penmanship varies from

child to child.

2. Your child ever complains that it hurts to write.

57

strongly

agree agree neutraldisagree

strongly

disagree

Numbers of

Response0 4 0 0 0

Percentage 0% 100% 0% 0% 0%

All parents showed 100% consensus that their child complains that it hurts

him while writing so it’s a genuine issue of dysgraphic children.

3. Your child has great difficulty to convey message in writing.

strongly

agree agree neutral disagree

strongly

disagree

Numbers of

Response1 1 1 0 1

Percentage 25% 25% 25% 0% 25%

In response 25% strongly agreed, 25% agreed and 25 % remained neutral

and 25% even disagreed with the statement.

58

4. Your child fails to use capitals and punctuation correctly.

In response of this statement 75% parents agreed while 25% showed

strong agreement.

5. Your child’s anxiety level rises up before writing the assignments.

strongly


strongly

disagree

strongly


strongly

disagree

Numbers of

Response1 3 0 0 0

Percentage 25% 75% 0% 0% 0%

59

Numbers of

Response1 1 0 1 1

Percentage 25% 25% 0% 25% 25%

50% agreed in which 25% responded strongly and 25%only agreed. On

the other hand the situation is entirely opposite i.e. 25% strongly disagreed

whereas the other 25% disagreed. So answers were 50% in yes and 50% in

no.

60

6. Your child feels difficulty to grip the pencil.

strongly


strongly

disagree

Numbers of

Response0 4 0 0 0

Percentage 0% 100% 0% 0% 0%

100% parents agreed that so it is an obvious and known problem.

7. Your child uses the keyboard easily as compared to written work.

strongly


strongly

disagree

Numbers of

Response0 2 2 0 0

Percentage 0% 50% 50% 0% 0%

50% parents agreed and the other 50% gave neutral answer.

8. Your child averts to write the extended things like coloring and artwork

61

strongly


strongly

disagree

Numbers of

Response1 0 1 2 0

Percentage 25% 0% 25% 50% 0%

50% of the parents disagreed, 25% agreed and the last 25% were neutral.

9. Your child feels tired quickly when writing.

strongly

agree Agree NeutralDisagree

strongly

disagree

Numbers of

Response0 2 1 1 0

Percentage 0% 50% 25% 25% 0%

50% of the parents gave their answers in agreement, 25% were

neutral and the remaining 25% disagreed.

10. Your child’s sitting posture is abnormal.

strongly

agree Agree NeutralDisagree

strongly

disagree

Numbers of 0 1 1 2 0

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Response

Percentage 0% 25% 25% 50% 0%

50% parents disagreed, 25% agreed and the remaining 25% were neutral.

11. Your child is unable to use line and margin accurately.

strongly

agree Agree Neutraldisagree

strongly

disagree

Numbers of

Response0 2 0 2 0

Percentage 0% 50% 0% 50% 0%

50% parents agreed with this statement and the other 50% disagreed.

12. Your child’s orthographical expression is illegible.

strongly

agree Agree Neutraldisagree

strongly

disagree

Numbers of

Response0 0 0 3 1

Percentage 0% 0% 0% 75% 25%

63

All 100% respondents disagreed out which 25% strongly disagreed.

Parents Responses

Strongly Agree Agree Netural Disagree Strongly Disagree0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

41.6

166.6

58.3

100

33.3

64

“Data Interpretation”

Parents Questionnaire

The Parents’ questionnaires were analyzed to evaluate and interpret the

parents’ responses. The findings were as follows:

In the answer of first question that child has poor penmanship 25%

strongly agreed on the statement and 25% remained neutral,25% strongly

disagreed with the statement and 25% only disagreed. The results thus

establish that poor penmanship vary from child to child.

On the other hand responding to this statement, all parents showed 100%

consensus that their child complains that it hurts him while writing so it’s

a genuine issue of dysgraphic children.

The third statement had diverse responses. 25% of the parents agreed

strongly and another 25% agreed that their child has great difficulty to

convey message in writing. However 25 % were neutral and another 25%

even disagreed with the statement.

65

In response of this statement that “your child fails to use capitals and

punctuation correctly” 75% parents agreed and other than that another

25% said they strongly agreed. This shows that this particular problem is

100% reported by parents.

In the analysis of the next question, the researcher found great variation. In

response to the statement that “child’s anxiety level rises up before writing

the assignments” 25% responded by strongly agreeing and another 25%

agreed only. One the other hand situation is entirely opposite since 25%

strongly disagreed and the last 25% disagreed. So the responses were 50%

in ‘yes’ and 50% in ‘no’.

The statement whether the child feels difficulty in gripping the pencil was

responded by parents in an over whelming 100%agreement. Therefore it is

an obvious and known problem by parents.

In response to the next statement “Your child uses the keyboard easily as

compared to written work” 50% parents agreed and the same amount i.e.

50% gave neutral answer.

In another statement i.e. Your child averts to writes the extended things

66

like coloring and artwork, 50% of the parents disagreed, 25% agreed and

the remaining 25% were neutral.

In response to the statement “Your child tired quickly when writing”, 50%

of the parents gave their answers in agreement, 25% remained neutral and

the remaining 25% disagreed.

In response to the statement question “Your child’s sitting posture is

abnormal” 50% parents disagreed, 25% agreed and 25% chose neutral .So

parents did not agree with this statement-question.

50% of the parents agreed with the statement “Your child is unable to use

line and margin accurately” and the other 50% were disagreed.

Last but not the least 75% of the parents disagreed and another 25%

strongly disagreed with this statement” Your child’s orthographical

expression is illegible.” Hence the parents formed a consensus and

unanimously denied this statement.

67

Instructors’ Questionnaire

1. These students are not poor speller:

strongly


strongly

disagree

Numbers of

Response0 1 1 2 0

Percentage 0% 25% 25% 50% 0%

50% disagreed, 25% remained neutral and the last 25% showed agreement

hence it was concluded that these students are poor spellers.

68

2. These students write slowly and laboriously:

strongly

agree agree neutral Disagree

strongly

disagree

Numbers of

Response0 4 0 0 0

Percentage 0% 100% 0% 0% 0%

Instructors showed 100% consensus with this statement and the statistics

show that this is a serious issue of dysgraphic students.

3. These students do not mix up letter’s order in writing:

strongly


strongly

disagree

Numbers of

Response0 1 0 3 0

Percentage 0% 25 0% 75% 0%

Almost 75% respondents disagreed with this statement and only 25%

agreed. Therefore it was concluded that these students mix up letters.

69

4. These students get confused with reverses letters "b" for "d" or "p" for "q",

even whole words:

strongly


strongly

disagree

Numbers of

Response0 2 0 0 2

Percentage 0% 50% 0% 0% 50%

50% instructors agreed where as the remaining 50% disagreed strongly.

5. These students do not exchange the last letter of a word with the first letter:

strongly


strongly

disagree

70

Numbers of

Response0 0 2 1 1

Percentage 0% 0% 50% 25% 25%

The answer of this statement is divided into three parts: 50% were neutral,

25% strongly disagreed and 25% disagreed in response

6. Students do not spell a word in several different ways.

strongly


strongly

disagree

Numbers of

Response0 2 1 1 0

Percentage 0% 50% 25% 25% 0%

50 % strongly agreed, 25% were neutral and 25% were in disagreement.

7. Students can copy notes from the board accurately:

strongly


strongly

disagree

71

Numbers of

Response0 0 0 4 0

Percentage 0% 0% 0% 100% 0%

All respondents i.e. 100% disagreed with this statement.

8. These Students do not mix up similar words like p, b, d, q, m, n,w :

Strongly


strongly

disagree

Numbers of

Response0% 1 0 2 1

Percentage 0% 25% 0% 50% 25%

50% showed disagreement, 25% strongly disagreed and only 25% agreed.

Hence the result is clear that 75% disagreed while only 25% agreed with

this statement.

9. Students do not feel difficulty with punctuation in writing:

Strongly agree neutral Disagree strongly

72

agree disagree

Numbers of

Response2 0 0 1 1

Percentage 50% 0% 0% 25% 25%

50% disagreed, 25% strongly disagreed and the remaining 25% disagreed.

Therefore, the answer of this statement is still undecided.

10. Students have lack of coherence in contents during writing:

strongly


strongly

disagree

Numbers of

Response0 4 0 0 0

Percentage 0% 100% 0% 0% 0%

73

Researchers found another statement where all instructors unanimously.

One can understanding easily, these students have serious writing

problems.

11. Students often mix up capitals with lower case letters:

strongly


strongly

disagree

Numbers of

Response0 4 0 0 0

Percentage 0% 100% 0% 0% 0%

Once again 100% respondents were in complete agreement.

12. These students have Irregular letter sizes and shapes, unfinished letters in

orthographical expression:

74

strongly


strongly

disagree

Numbers of

Response2 2 0 0 0

Percentage 50% 50% 0% 0% 0%

In response to this query, 50% of the instructors strongly agreed where as

the remaining 50% strongly disagreed.

13. These students answer the questions poorly in writing:

strongly


strongly

disagree

Numbers of

Response2 2 0 0 0

Percentage 50% 50% 0% 0% 0%

All of the instructors agreed out of which 50% displayed strong

agreement.

75

14. Students have difficulty with pencil grip:

strongly


strongly

disagree

Numbers of

Response0% 0 2 2 0

Percentage 0% 0% 50% 50% 0%

50% of the instructors remained neutral where as the remaining 50%

disagreed with this statement.

76

Instructors’ responses

Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

Strongly agree; 35.7

Agree; 171.4

Neutral; 42.8

Disagree; 114.2

Strongly disagree;

42.8

77

“Data Interpretation”

Instructors’ Questionnaire

The data from the instructors’ questionnaire was statistically analyzed and

interpreted with the help of the various copies of the questionnaire. The

first statement that was answered by the instructors was whether these

students are poor spellers. 50% of the instructors replied in disagreement,

25% responses were neutral and the remaining 25% showed agreement.

Therefore it was concluded that these students are in fact poor spellers.

78

Similarly in response to the second query, instructors showed 100%

consensus with this statement that these students write slowly and

laboriously and thus it is considered to be a serious issue among

dysgraphic students.

Almost 75% respondents disagreed with the statement “these students do

not mix up the order of letters in writing” and only 25% agreed. Hence the

majority reported that these students do in fact mix up letters.

The next statement is quite interesting i.e. students get confused with

reverse letters e.g. "b" for "d" or "p" for "q", even whole words.” 50%

instructors agreed with this statement whereas the other 50% strongly

disagreed.

“Students do not exchange the last letter of a word with the first letter”

was the next statement-question. The answer of this statement is divided

into three parts since 50% responses were neutral, 25% strongly disagreed

and 25% disagreed in the response to this statement.

In response to the next statement “Students do not spell a word in several

different ways”, 50% agreed, 25% were neutral, 25% were in

disagreement. Therefore the result can be simply concluded that these

students spell the word in different ways.

79

All of the respondents i.e. 100% disagreed with the statement that

“students can copy notes from the board accurately”. Therefore it means

that students can’t copy properly from board.

The next statement question was “these students do not mix up similar

words like “p, b, d, q, m, n, w”. Instructors responded to this query with

50% strong disagreement, 25% disagreed and only 25% agreed. Therefore

it was inferred by the researcher that such students do have a tendency to

mix up letters a lot.

The next statement-question was “students do not feel difficulty with

punctuation in writing”. In response 50% agreed, 25% strongly disagreed

and 25% were agreed. So the answer of this statement is undecided.

The above was followed up with a question whether these students have

lack of coherence in contents during writing. All responses were 100% in

affirmation. One can therefore understand easily that these students have

serious writing problems.

Similar to the above all instructors were also found in agreement that

Students often mix up capitals with lower case letters – another unanimous

verdict.

Dysgraphic students have many orthographical issues; one of them is that

these students have irregular letter sizes and shapes and unfinished letters

80

in their orthographical expression. Upon asking this question the

instructors showed 100% agreement, 50% of which in fact strongly

agreed.

To sum it all up, it was found that more than one statement generated

unanimous and 100% agreement by the instructors. Another one of these

observations was when enquired whether students answer the questions

poorly in writing. All instructors confirmed this out of which 50% strongly

agreed.

Last but not least in this statement we have mixed up responses like 50%

were neutral and 50% disagreed with the statement that students have

difficulty with pencil grip. Obviously, such responses can change due to

number of factors.

81

Analysis of Interviews

First interview:

Researcher conducted an interview, with the field expert of dyslexia/

dysgraphia at AMIN MAKTAB Gulberg, Lahore.

Duration: 15 minutes

1. What is dyslexia?

Ans: Dyslexia is a hereditary problem that hinders in the reading

skills.

2. What is dysgraphia?

Ans: Dysgraphia is a sub-branch of dyslexia but it is particular with

orthographical expression.

3. Are these both terms interrelated?

Ans: Yes both are inter-related and it was considered as a chicken egg

question in the beginning.

82

4. Which area of language is being affected by dysgraphia?

Ans: Dysgraphia mostly affects writing related area and we can locate

them in language example punctuation, cohesion and coherence.

5. Are these students poor speller? Why or why not?

Ans: No doubt these students are poor spellers and to my knowledge

they have serious problems like memory short fall.

6. Do these students mix up capitals with lower case letters? Why

or why not?

Ans: Majority of dyslexic and dysgraphic students mix-up lower and

upper case and I can quantify them up to 70% but reason behind

this is still unknown to me.

7. Do these children have uneven letter construction, incomplete

words, during writing, why or why not?

Ans: I am refuting with the statement that has been given in question

because I have never encountered with a dysgraphic student who

has above mentioned disabilities.

8. Do these students have very abnormal pen grip, how do you

look this issue?

83

Ans: It is well known symptom of dysgraphia in which brain does not

convey complete message to hands in shape of signals.

9. Do these Students complain that it really hurt when they try to

write something in length?

Ans: Such reports are often reported by students and their parents and

especially when students try to write other than their usual routine.

10. Any other language and behavior related phenomena that you

consider to be highlighted in such students?

Ans: These students frequently require encouragement and lack of

practice makes them unconfident.

Second interview

Researcher conducted an interview, with the field expert of dyslexia/

84

dysgraphia at AMIN MAKTAB Gulberg, Lahore.


Ans: Dyslexia is a learning disorder that is totally misunderstood, it’s not

permanent.


Ans: Dysgraphia is same as dyslexia but it is solely related with writing.


Ans: Yes, both are interrelated but these can be separated on many levels.


Ans: All activities that are related to writing are affected like drawing and

painting.


Ans: Yes, most students of dysgraphia are poor speller and reason is

simply their disorder.

85

6. Do these students mix up capitals with lower case letters? Why or

why not?

Ans: Frequently they mix up lower case and upper case letters due to

defect and irregular working of motor cortex.

7. Do these students have Irregular letter sizes and shapes,

unfinished letters, in writing, why or why not?

Ans: Yes students reflect such behavior and commit many mistakes and

they are common as well.

8. Do these students have very abnormal pen grip, how do you look

this issue?

Ans: They grasp the pen tightly and without doing this, they are not

capable of writing and it is curable.



Ans: This may happen in particular context or situation but I have never

experienced anything that has been mentioned above.

86



Ans: These students should be taught in special school at least for

considerable time. They should be given training how to respond.

87

Third interview

Researcher conducted an interview, with the field expert of

dyslexia/dysgraphia at RISING SUN, Defense, Lahore.


Ans: Literal definition of dyslexia is simple “dys” means not or

difficulty,“lex” refers to lexical and the suffix “ia” denotes to

something is present. So we can say dyslexia is a learning disorder

that creates problem while learning of words.

2.______________________________________________________________________What is dysgraphia?

Ans: Dysgraphia is also self explanatory word as dyslexia but this

disability is all about writing.


Ans: In fact both are interrelated but dyslexia was considered to be mother

of all disorder in the beginning.

88


Ans: Writing activities.

5. Are these students poor spellers? Why or why not?

Ans: I agree they are poor spellers but we have not reached to any

conclusion what are the reasons behind it.


why not?

Ans: According to my experiences they mix up because they also have

serious problem “ADHD”.

7. Do these students have inconsistency in letters formation,

incomplete words, in orthographical expression, why or why not?

Ans: Yes this problem exists and it is due to immature growth of brain.


this issue?

Ans: Nobody will deny from this fact that these students have abnormal

pen grip but it get improve with time.

89



Ans: It can be due to lack of practice. I have no record or evidence for this

sort of problem.



Ans: These students perform well in verbal communication but poorly in

creative writing, so attention should be paid to both skills.

90

Fourth interview

Researcher conducted an interview, with the field expert of

dyslexia/dysgraphia at RISING SUN Defense, Lahore.


Ans: Dyslexia is a word, which is used to define learning disorder and that

affects the comprehension, general understanding along with

accuracy in reading.


Ans: It’s a cognitive disorder that reflects the lack of capabilities in

writing.


Ans: Dyslexia is broader term and dysgraphia comes under this but now

dysgraphia itself is a comprehensible subject.


91

Ans: Dysgraphia is all about writing disabilities so writing skills can most

probably be affected.


Ans: Of course these students are poor spellers because of neurobiological

disorder.


why not?

Ans: Due to poor perception students got confused and mix up upper case

letters with lower case while writing.

7. Do these students have inconsistent letter formatting, incomplete

alphabets, in writing, why or why not?

Ans: Yes, these students have irregular size of letters mostly because of

defect in motor cortex.


this issue?

Ans: Large number of students have abnormal pen grip and this is a great

problem in writing.



92

Ans: Some children get hurt because they grip the pen firmly, so they get

tired quickly as well.



Ans: No.

93

Interpretation of interviews

Four field experts were interviewed and a gist of all four interviews is

being provided by the researcher in shape of description.

All experts defined the term “dyslexia” in their own words but the

common word was disability and disorder. All experts were agreed that

dyslexia is a disorder and disability that causes learning hindrances. While

responding to dysgraphia experts’ opinion is almost same that it’s a sub-

branch of dyslexia and it is a particular disorder of orthographical

expression.

When the researcher tried to find the inter-relation of both terms

“dyslexia” and “dysgraphia”, experts responded by stating that they both

are interrelated but in the beginning dyslexia was on front foot and

considered to be a mother of all disorders. Now situation has changed and

dysgraphia itself has become a complete subject.

When enquired that which area is mostly affected by dysgraphia, experts

gave unanimous decision that writing was the related area. Two experts

mentioned some language area like cohesion and coherence along with

punctuation.

94

The researcher analyzed the questions that were related to dysgraphic

symptoms and one of them was this, are these students’ poor speller and

response was 100% yes and experts cited different reasons like memory

shortfall, neurobiological disorder.

Same as above, in another question, experts responded that mostly

dysgraphic student’ mix-up lowers case and upper case letters. No

concrete reason is given by experts but one claim that it is due to ADHD.

We have quite mix response about this statement that “students have

irregular letter size shapes and unfinished letters in writing. So two experts

favored the statement and two experts refuted. So we can understand that

above phenomena changed with situation and context.

All experts agreed with the statement that these students have a very

abnormal pen grip and they grasp the pen tightly and it makes them tired

and writing is challenging and troublesome for them. The reason is also

given by experts that brain don’t give proper signals to hands, that why

students can’t judge how much forcefully they need to grip the pen.

While answering the query regarding students complain that it hurts them

95

when they try to write something lengthy, experts have great

disagreement. Experts answered that it can be due to lack of practice or

any other factor. Two experts recognized it as a problem of dysgraphic

students.

When the researcher asked the field experts about their opinion in the

matter of dysgraphic students’ behavior or any other phenomena that

needs to be highlighted, expert gave a very insightful feedback like these

students often need encouragement and regular practice is necessary for

them as lack of practice makes them confused.

Another researcher highlighted the issue that these students should be

taught in special school for at least three months and these schools make

them learn how to respond towards new thing.

Last but not least another expert shed light on the behavior of these

students that they can perform well in verbal communication but are quite

poor in creative writing, hence equal attention should be paid to both

skills.

96

CHAPTER NO:5

CONCLUSION

This research is set out to investigate what are the problems faced by

dyslexic students in orthographical expression (dysgraphia) at primary

level. The topic of this present study is: the identification of the problems

faced by dyslexic students in orthographical expression (dysgraphia) at

primary levels.

97

Findings

1. Parents showed 100% consensus that their children complain that

it hurts them while writing, so it’s a genuine issue of dysgraphic

children. To some extent instructors and field experts have the

same opinion that writing is a difficult task for dysgraphic children

and researcher found it curable in the opinion of experts.

2. Students fail to use punctuation correctly and 75% of parents

agreed with it where as only 25% strongly agreed with this fact and

instructors and field experts supported the parents’ opinion and

declared it as a genuine problem of dysgraphic students.

3. One finding is that such children feel great difficulty in gripping a

pencil and they can’t perform well with it; on the other hand they

can work well with the help of keyboard. Parents have supported

this finding.

4. Not all of the findings are 100% accurate. During the course of

research it was found that the responses were divided e.g. in case

of whether children avert to write, drawing and painting. 50%

98

disagreed, 25% remained neutral and 25% agreed, so researcher

couldn’t build ultimate conclusion based on such findings.

5. Students write slowly and laboriously and instructors completely

agreed with this and researcher also found it, that dysgraphic

students have serious writing disorders.

6. Dysgraphic students can’t copy accurately from board and

instructors totally agreed with this statement. Words seem to

jumble up to these students and that why they can’t copy material

from board.

7. Dyslexia and dysgraphia both are disorder and dyslexia affect

reading and dysgraphia affect writing but both are curable

according to our respondent field experts.

8. Both are interrelated and dyslexia was considered as a mother of

all disorders but later on segregation was done on many bases and

now dyslexia and dysgraphia are treated separately.

99

9. In the response of dysgraphia characteristic, more or less field

experts have same opinion, they consider them poor speller and

often mix up lower and upper case letters.

10. Some children complain that it hurts them when they try to write

something length here some experts refute and consider it as a

coincidence.

11. All experts agreed with this statement “dysgraphic students have a

very abnormal pen grip. Experts express different reasons e.g. one

considers it as a neurobiological disorder and rest of the experts

call it a defect of motor cortex.

100

Recommendations

1. An important factor that creates problems for writer beginners is

pencil grip. New writers should be encouraged and taught to use a

regular and proficient pencil grip. The space between the finger

and the pencil tip should be at least 3/4 - 1 inch. Force on the

pencil needs to be moderate, neither too light nor too heavy. The

direction of the pencil should be about 45%. The page should be

slanted towards the writing arm. For adults with long-standing

poor pencil grip, instructors need to decide whether the effort to

change their habit is valuable or not.

2. A word bank of key words or ideas created before writing is

extremely valuable as a beginning pont for struggling writers. This

list of spellings allows them to write with greater fluency. They

will not get stuck on the spellings of words used frequently in their

writing assignment.

3. Sequencing problems related to dysgraphia can cause spelling

difficulties. As mentioned earlier, some learners may also have

dyslexia, which can interfere with language processing and

acquisition of the sound/symbol system. Adults with dyslexia or

dysgraphia need direct, systematic and multi-sensory instruction in

101

the code of English for both reading and spelling. If they can at

least spell phonetically, they can use a spellchecker that recognizes

phonetic approximations and provides suggestions of correct

spellings.

4. After making a detailed study to identify the salient and common

problems faced by dysgraphic students, it is suggested by the

researcher that since some of these problems are due to disorder

and others are related to behavior, such children should be dealt

with care and patience and it should be kept in mind that this

disorder is curable (to some extent).

5. Since parents, instructors and field experts, all confirmed and

identified the language areas that are affected with dysgraphia, it is

suggested that children diagnosed with dysgraphia should be

helped in these areas.

6. Students face a range of problems that hinder their learning.

Teachers should bear in mind that students are unable to grip the

pen properly; they cannot copy accurately from the board and even

get confused with similar shapes and words. Therefore all factors

102

contribute to their difficulty and require compassion and help from

teachers and parents.

7. One key objective of this study was to make people aware with

such impairments that are related with education and above all to

convey this message that these disabilities are curable. You can

teach affected children with activities.

103

There are many remedies for helping the student of dyslexia and

dysgraphia. Below is a list of accommodations, modifications, and

techniques to assist the students.

1. Be tolerant and optimistic when your students are practicing

handwriting.

2. Motivate them for proper grip, position, and paper positioning.

3. Allow the use of a word processor.

4. Use oral exams and allow students to dictate assignments to a

score.

5. Avoid criticisms for sloppiness or illegibility.

6. Give extra time for writing tasks.

7. Use writing paper with raised lines.

8. Let students to use a line width that is most relaxed for them.

104

9. Decrease the quantity of copying, desirable to complete an

assignment.

10. Give confidence to them for using visual organizers to assist in

outlining and brainstorming for complete writing assignments.

11. Encourage the student to use orthographical exercises when he/she

becomes exhausted.

12. Have students complete writing activities in even small steps.

13. Do not mark poor spelling on first drafts, in-class assignments, or

on tests. However, depending on age, student may be held

responsible for spelling in final drafts completed at home.

14. Remove ‘Neatness’ as grading criteria, except on computer-

generated papers.

105

References

1. "Hudson, R.F., High, L. Al Otaiba, S. Dyslexia and the brain:

What does current research tellus? The Reading Teacher, 60(6),

506-515.." n.d.: n. pag. Print. 23 January 2013.

2. Spies, K. "Dysgraphia Effects One's Hand Writing the Way

Dyslexia Effects Reading." n.p., (Sep 19, 2007). Web. 11

December 2012.

3. M, Chivers. ""Definition of Dysgraphia (Handwriting Difficulty)."

Dyslexia A2Z. Retrieved , (1991. Web. 11 December 2012.

.

4. , D.V.M, Bishop, and M.J., Snowing. "Developmental dyslexia and

specific language impairment: same or different? Psychotically

bulletin 130:6, 858-886.." n.p., (2004). Web. 23 January 2013

5. Di Betta, Anna Maria, and Romani, Cristina. "Lexical learning and

dysgraphia in a group of adults with developmental dyslexia."

Aston University, 2000. Web. 23 January 2013.

106

6. Mortley, Dr Jane, and Enderby, Professor Pam. "Using a computer

to improve functional writing in a patient with severe dysgraphia."

n.p., n.d. Web. 23 January 2013.

7. BINTIYAHYA, NURHIDAYAH. "Web Based Expert System to

Diagnose Dysgraphia Symptoms among ChUdren Using Fuzzy

Logic Algorithm." Universiti Teknologi MARA, 30 May 2007.

Web. 23 January 2013.

8. Borjes, Jewell, Burns, Kayla, Grona, Dana, Hale, Robin, Keller,

Lisa, and Smith, Nancy. "dysgraphia handbook for kerrville I.S.D

2010." n.p., 2010. Web. 23 January 2013

9. Capasso, Rita. "Spelling and dysgraphia." Gabriele Miceli

Universita` Cattolica and Fondazione Santa Lucia IRCCS, Rome,

Italy, and Harvard University, Cambridge, USA Rita Capasso

Universita` Cattolica and Fondazione Santa Lucia IRCCS, Rome,

Italy , 2006. Web. 23 January 2013.

107

10. Naureen, Shazia, Sultana, Nosheen, and Drees Awan, Abou Bakar

I. "A Case Study of Dyslexia Child at the Primary Education Level

in Pakistan." n.p., 8 August 2011. Web. 23 January 2013.

11. R. Eiàlitz, MicheIle. "The nature of dysgraphic Handwriting in

Grade 1 children." Faculty of Graduate S tudies The University of

Western Ontario London, Ontario, 23 April 1999. Web. 23 January

2013

12. Hammond, Jill, Hercules, Fabian. "Understanding Dyslexia An

Introduction for Dyslexic Students in Higher Education." Scottish

Higher Education Funding Council, n.d.: n. pag. Print. 23 January

2013.

13. Deelstra, Helma. "Early Language and Motor Development of

Dyslexic Children." Utrecht University, (2006): n. pag. Print. 23

January 2013.

14. Tanner, Kathleen. "The lived experience of adults with dyslexia:

An exploration of the perceptions of their educational

experiences." Murdoch University, 1 February 2010. Web. 23

January 2013

108

15. "THE DYSLEXIA HANDBOOK REVISED 2007, UPDATED

2010." TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY • AUSTIN, TEXAS

FEBRUARY 2007, UPDATED SEPTEMBER 2010, n.d.: n. pag.

Print. 23 January 2013.

16. Wyn Jones, Manon. "Investigating which processes influence

reading fluency in dyslexic and non-dyslexic groups." The

University of Edinburgh 2008, (2007): n. pag. Print. 23 January

2013.

17. D. Davis, Ronald with, M. Braun, Eldon. "THE GIFT OF

DYSLEXIA." n.d.: n. pag. Print. 23 January 2013.

18. "Special Font For Dyslexia?." December 2010, University of

Twente, (2010): n. pag. Print. 23 January 2013.

19. MICHAIL, KONSTANTINA. "DYSLEXIA: THE

EXPERIENCES OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS WITH

DYSLEXIA." School of Education The University of Birmingham

Edgbaston Birmingham B15 2TT UK, (2010): n. pag. Print. 23

January 2013.

109

APPENDIX ‘A’

Questionnaire for parents

1. Your child has poor penmanship.

Strongly agree Agree Neutral strongly disagree Disagree

2. Your child ever complains that it hurts to write.


3. Your child has great difficulty to convey message in writing.


4. Your child fails to use capitals and punctuation correctly.

110


5. Your child’s anxiety level rises up before writing the

assignments.


6. Your child feels difficulty to grip the pencil.


7. Your child uses the keyboard easily as compare to written

work.


8. Your child averts to writes the extended things like coloring

and artwork


9. Your child tired quickly when writing.

111


10. Your child’s sitting posture is abnormal.


11. Your child is unable to use line and margin accurately.


12. Your child’s orthographical expression is illegible.


112

APPENDIX ‘B’

Questionnaire for instructor

1. These students are not poor speller:


2. These students write slowly and laboriously:


3. These students do not mix up letter’s order in writing:


4. These students get confused with reverses letters "b" for "d" or

"p" for"q", even whole words:


113

5. These students do not exchange the last letter of a word with

the first letter:


6. Students do not spell a word in several different ways.


7. Students can copy notes from the board accurately:


8. These Students do not mix up similar words like p,b,d,q,m,n,w

Strongly agree strongly disagree Disagree Agree Neutral

114

9. Students do not feel difficulty with punctuation in writing:


10. Students have lack of coherence in contents during writing:


11. Students often mix up capitals with lower case letters:


12. These students have Irregular letter sizes and shapes,

unfinished letters in orthographical expression:


13. These students answer the questions poorly in writing:

115


14. Students have difficulty with pencil grip:


116

APPENDIX ‘C’

Question for field experts


___________________________________________________________________


___________________________________________________________________


___________________________________________________________________


___________________________________________________________________


___________________________________________________________________

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why not?

___________________________________________________________________

7. Do these students have Irregular letter sizes and shapes, unfinished

letters, in writing, why or why not?

___________________________________________________________________


this issue?

___________________________________________________________________



___________________________________________________________________

10. Any other language and behavior related phenomena that you consider

to be highlighted in such students?

dysgraphia - usman rasheed's ma elt thesis

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