Dysgraphia testing measures a neurological condition that affects writing abilities, making it difficult for individuals to write coherently and legibly. It can involve difficulties with spelling, handwriting, and organizing thoughts on paper. Testing for dysgraphia typically involves a multi-step evaluation process that can be done virtually or in person. Often, a comprehensive dysgraphia test is needed for school, exam, or work accommodations. Our psychological testing report also provides insights and advice to help you form a toolkit for overcoming some of your symptoms and finding alternatives that ensure that you show your full potential.
The Added Importance of Dysgraphia Testing
One important note: While it is true that the effects of dysgraphia have lessened over the years as handwriting has been replaced by keyboard and voice-to-text, this has led to the problem being underdiagnosed. Many students and workers do not know they have it or face challenges to overcome it until they face the class, exam, or work situation where fine motor skills, including writing, are needed. At that point, the sudden impact often becomes a crisis.
This post covers Dysgraphia Testing in detail, but we welcome you to contact us or schedule a consultation if you have specific questions about how these services may benefit you or a loved one.
Why Get Testing for Dysgraphia? 
Dysgraphia can significantly impact an individual’s academic, emotional, and social life, especially if left undiagnosed or unsupported. Here are some reasons you may want to pursue testing for dysgraphia for yourself or a loved one.
1. Dysgraphia Testing to Elucidate Academic Challenges
- Poor Handwriting: People with dysgraphia often struggle with legibility, spacing, and letter formation, making their written work difficult for teachers or others to read.
- Slow Writing Speed: Because of motor coordination and planning difficulties, individuals with dysgraphia may write much slower than their peers. This can affect their ability to complete assignments, exams, or note-taking on time.
- Spelling Errors: This disorder often involves trouble with spelling, leading to frequent mistakes even in familiar words. This can affect grades, especially in writing-intensive subjects.
- Difficulty Organizing Ideas: Dysgraphia affects the physical act of writing and can also impact the ability to express thoughts clearly and coherently due to the interruption of processing caused by mechanical challenges. This can make writing essays, reports, or even simple paragraphs challenging.
- Avoidance of Writing: Over time, individuals may begin avoiding writing altogether, which can lead to gaps in learning or missed opportunities to develop critical thinking and communication skills.
2. Dysgraphia Testing to Understand Emotional Impact
- Frustration and Anxiety: The constant struggle with writing can lead to significant frustration and stress. Children, in particular, may become anxious during writing tasks or feel overwhelmed by written assignments.
- Low Self-Esteem: The inability to write as well or as quickly as peers can result in feelings of inadequacy, especially if their struggles are misunderstood. Constantly receiving poor grades or feedback on writing can negatively affect confidence.
- Embarrassment: Individuals may feel embarrassed about their handwriting or spelling, leading them to avoid sharing their work or participating in activities involving writing. This may result in withdrawal from classroom participation or social interactions.
3. Social Consequences
- Peer Comparisons: Struggling with writing can make individuals feel different or inadequate compared to their peers. This may lead to feelings of isolation, especially in school environments where writing is a key activity.
- Negative Feedback from Teachers/Parents: Without a proper diagnosis, teachers and parents may view the writing difficulties as laziness or lack of effort, leading to misunderstandings and potentially strained relationships.
- Difficulty with Social Communication: Writing is often used in social settings (e.g., social media, texting, group projects). Dysgraphia may make these forms of communication difficult, potentially limiting social interaction.
4. Long-Term Impact
- Educational Setbacks: Without intervention, dysgraphia can lead to academic underachievement. Many people with dysgraphia are highly intelligent but may perform below their potential because of writing difficulties, leading to underperformance in exams and standardized tests.
- Career Limitations: Writing is a critical skill in many professions. Without accommodations, adults with dysgraphia may face challenges in jobs that require extensive note-taking, documentation, or written communication, potentially limiting career options or advancement.
- Impact on Life Skills: Everyday tasks such as writing checks, filling out forms, or keeping a journal may also be more difficult for people with dysgraphia. These challenges can contribute to frustration in personal and professional life.
5. Mental Health Issues
- Depression and Anxiety: Over time, the repeated failure or stress associated with writing tasks can lead to anxiety or depression. Constantly struggling with a task as fundamental as writing can make someone feel like they are perpetually behind or incapable.
- Fear of Judgment: Individuals with dysgraphia may fear being judged for handwriting, spelling, or written communication. This fear can deter them from pursuing opportunities that involve writing.
Dysgraphia Testing Steps
Here are the main steps in testing for Dysgraphia
1. Dysgraphia Testing Preliminary Screening
- Observation: With children, dysgraphia testing often begins with teachers or parents noticing signs of writing difficulties such as messy handwriting, trouble forming letters, inconsistent spacing, or avoiding writing tasks.
- Questionnaires and Interviews: This part of dysgraphia testing gathers information about the child’s or adult’s academic performance and general motor skills. They might also ask about coordination issues or how the individual feels about writing tasks. For children, these questionnaires go to parents or teachers, where adolescents and adults fill them out themselves.
2. Formal Dysgraphia Testing
- Cognitive Testing: This involves assessing cognitive abilities to rule out other learning disabilities or conditions. Tests like the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) or similar tools may be used.
- Writing Samples: Our client will be asked to produce different types of writing (copying text, freewriting, dictation). We then compare handwriting, spelling, grammar, sentence structure, and organization to the general population.
- Fine Motor Skills Testing: Because this challenge is often related to motor control, dysgraphia tests, which assess fine motor coordination (such as pegboard tests or drawing tasks), may be conducted.
3. Specific Standardized Testing for Dysgraphia
- Handwriting Speed and Accuracy: Measures like the Test of Handwriting Skills-Revised (THS-R) or the Evaluation Tool of Children’s Handwriting (ETCH) can provide testing for dysgraphia by detecting signs of this challenge in handwriting performance.
- Spelling and Written Expression Tests: These parts of a dysgraphia test assess spelling, grammar, and the ability to express ideas in written form. While not directly part of dysgraphia, some who have the challenge develop difficulties in these areas.
4. Diagnosis and Recommendations
After gathering all the data through the dysgraphia testing that resembles the above, we provide a full psychological report that includes the diagnosis, insights into how it affects our client, and specific recommendations. Testing for dysgraphia in children may lead to suggestions for academic accommodations (such as extra time for writing tasks, the use of voice-to-text or a keyboard, or occupational therapy) may be suggested to help with writing challenges. Testing for dysgraphia in adults may lead to workplace accommodations (such as extra time on fine motor tasks, voice-to-text or keyboard use, or changes in specific job tasks).
Dysgraphia Test Battery
Here is how a comprehensive dysgraphia test would likely go. We would score each step using standardized norms and other insights, showing whether you meet the criteria and how your specific symptoms play out.
Dysgraphia Test Tasks
Here are the tasks you might be asked to do during a comprehensive dysgraphia test.
Task 1: Handwriting Sample (Copying Text)
- Objective: Assess the individual’s ability to write legibly and consistently while copying text.
- Instructions: “Copy the following sentence exactly as it appears: ‘The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.’“
- Evaluation Criteria:
- Letter formation (shape, size)
- Spacing between letters and words
- Line alignment
- Handwriting speed and consistency
Task 2: Free Writing (Writing a Short Story or Paragraph)
- Objective: Assess spontaneous writing ability, including content organization and mechanical writing skills.
- Instructions: “Write a short paragraph about your favorite hobby. Try to describe what you do and why you enjoy it.”
- Evaluation Criteria:
- Sentence structure and grammar
- Organization of ideas
- Legibility and flow of writing
- Spelling accuracy
Task 3: Spelling Test
- Objective: Assess the ability to spell words correctly, especially when writing under time pressure.
- Instructions: “I will say a word, and you need to write it down. Spell the following words: cat, pencil, butterfly, technology, schedule.“
- Evaluation Criteria:
- Accuracy of spelling
- Ability to sound out and write unfamiliar words
- Writing speed and ease
Task 4: Fine Motor Skill Test (Drawing and Tracing)
- Objective: Evaluate fine motor control related to writing skills.
- Instructions:
- “Trace over the dotted lines to form the shapes below.” (Various shapes like circles, squares, and triangles will be presented.)
- “Draw a simple figure, like a house, on the blank page.”
- Evaluation Criteria:
- Precision of hand movements
- Control and stability when tracing or drawing
- Consistency of shapes and lines
Task 5: Writing from Dictation
- Objective: Assess ability to convert auditory input into written form.
- Instructions: “I will say a sentence, and you should write it exactly as you hear it: ‘Tomorrow is my birthday, and I am excited to celebrate with my family.’“
- Evaluation Criteria:
- Accuracy in writing what was heard
- Speed and fluency
- Spelling and grammar errors
Task 6: Timed Handwriting
- Objective: Evaluate handwriting speed under timed conditions.
- Instructions: “Write the alphabet as many times as you can in one minute.”
- Evaluation Criteria:
- Number of letters produced
- Consistency and legibility of writing
- Speed and endurance
What the Results of Your Dysgraphia Test May Suggest:
Testing for dysgraphia may lead to a list of specific challenges such as:
- Handwriting Challenges: Difficulty with letter formation, spacing, and alignment may indicate fine motor control issues or difficulty with visual-spatial processing.
- Spelling Errors: Frequent spelling errors, even in simple words, could point to problems with phonological processing, memory, or language skills related to dysgraphia.
- Slow Writing Speed: Writing significantly slower than expected for age can indicate motor difficulties or writing fatigue.
- Inconsistent Writing: If handwriting varies significantly from task to task, it may indicate a problem with sustaining motor control or attention over time.
Testing for Dysgraphia Example
This is the case of a fictitious 8-year-old boy named Alex, who was brought to us by his parents because of ongoing difficulties with writing. His teacher has noticed that while Alex excels in verbal expression, his handwriting is nearly illegible, and he struggles with spelling, spacing, and word alignment. He is a bright child and performs well in oral tests but consistently underperforms in written exams. His parents are concerned about his frustration with writing tasks and want testing for dysgraphia.
Initial Dysgrpahia Testing Observations:
- Handwriting: Alex’s handwriting is inconsistent. Letters are poorly formed, varying in size, and sometimes not appropriately aligned. His writing is slow and laborious, and there are frequent erasures.
- Spelling: He struggles with spelling even common words, particularly when writing sentences, despite being able to spell them correctly aloud.
- Motor skills: Alex does not appear to have any significant fine motor skill issues when engaging in other tasks, like drawing or manipulating small objects.
Dysgraphia Test Battery:
- Writing Samples:
- When Alex is asked to copy sentences from a textbook, we note that he exhibits letter reversals and inconsistent spacing between words. His handwriting is slow, and the final product is difficult to read.
- He is also asked to compose an original paragraph. His ideas are strong in this task, but his written output is riddled with spelling mistakes, poor spacing, and uneven line usage.
- Visual-Motor Integration:
- Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (VMI): This test assesses the ability to copy geometric shapes. Alex’s performance is within the normal range, suggesting that his difficulties with handwriting are not primarily related to visual-motor coordination deficits.
- Fine Motor Skills:
- Purdue Pegboard Test: Alex performs well placing small pegs into holes, indicating his fine motor dexterity is intact. This further supports the hypothesis that his difficulties lie more in writing mechanics rather than general fine motor issues.
- Cognitive Assessments:
- Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-V): Alex scores high in verbal comprehension and shows strong problem-solving skills in oral assessments, suggesting his cognitive abilities are intact and above average.
- His working memory and processing speed are slightly below average, which might contribute to the slow pace of his writing tasks.
- Spelling and Language Assessments:
- Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT): Alex’s spelling scores on his academic achievement testing are well below what would be expected given his oral language abilities. He often omits letters or substitutes incorrect letters when writing, even when he can spell the word correctly aloud.
- Test of Written Language (TOWL): His written narrative, while rich in content, is marred by frequent spelling and grammatical errors, along with inconsistent letter formation.
Diagnosis and Recommendations:
Based on our comprehensive dysgraphia testing, Alex is diagnosed with this learning difference. His difficulties with handwriting, poor spelling in written work, and slow writing speed align with common symptoms of dysgraphia. Here are the recommendations we include:
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- Educational Accommodations:
- Use of a computer or tablet for written assignments to bypass handwriting difficulties.
- Extra time on written exams to account for slower writing speed.
- Access to spell-check technology for written work to assist with spelling errors.
- Writing Interventions:
- Occupational therapy focusing on improving handwriting techniques, including proper letter formation and spacing.
- Multi-sensory spelling instruction to reinforce correct spelling through various modes (e.g., visual, auditory, tactile).
- Assistive Technology:
- Use of speech-to-text software for composing longer written tasks, allowing Alex to use his strong verbal skills.
- Classroom Support:
- Teachers should offer oral exams when appropriate or allow Alex to demonstrate his knowledge in non-written forms.
- Incorporate graphic organizers to help him structure written work before beginning to write.
- Educational Accommodations:
This example highlights the importance of a comprehensive assessment to differentiate dysgraphia from other learning challenges, such as dyslexia or fine motor issues, and to tailor interventions that address specific difficulties in written expression.
Summary and Our Work
We provide testing for dysgraphia in children, adolescents, and adults. Most commonly, people come in for a dysgraphia test because they feel they need accommodations in school, for exams, or at work. Other times, people just look for new insights and suggestions about their challenges to help them overcome them. We also provide more general specific learning disorder assessments and sensory processing disorder assessments, and pre-employment screenings to maximize the fit between a job and a person’s skills.
We would be happy to discuss how dysgraphia testing might benefit you or a loved one. Please contact us or schedule a consultation anytime.
