What is dysorthography?
Dysorthographia is a disorder of writing ability that manifests itself in children as a difficulty in transcribing words correctly and following spelling rules. Therefore, they have difficulties both in associating sounds and spellings and in integrating these rules. This disorder usually affects children who also have other oral or written language delays or disorders.
Prognosis of the disease
Dysorthographia develops in childhood and it is necessary to intervene as soon as possible so that its symptoms do not develop during the child’s growth. It is important to contact an expert in this pathology in case any symptoms are suspected in order to help the child with this condition.
Dysorthographia develops in childhood and it is necessary to intervene as soon as possible.
Symptoms of dysorthographia
Depending on the level of affectation, there are some symptoms or others, although the most common are:
- Misspellings
- Confusion in the use and correspondence of articles.
- Omission of accents
- The confusion of letters, writing words together or the error in the relation between the pronounced words and their written transcription.
- Difficulty in spelling
Medical tests for dysorthography
It is essential to differentiate this pathology from common errors that may occur in children of a certain age. In order to make a proper diagnosis it must be taken into account that features such as spelling difficulties, errors such as interchanging letters or separating words and syllables may appear. The tests used to evaluate this pathology are:
- Tests to evaluate the phonetic level.
- Tests to analyze difficulties in writing processes and acquisition of language rules.
What are the causes of dysorthography?
There are a number of aspects that can be identified as possible causes of this pathology, such as: – Intellectual causes: intellectual difficulties may delay the acquisition of the basic orthographic rule.
- Linguistic causes: there may be difficulties in acquiring language and vocabulary knowledge.
- Pedagogical causes: teaching methods may present difficulties depending on the type of cognitive style the patient has.
- Perceptual causes: related to visual and auditory processing.
Can it be prevented?
It is very important the collaboration between parents and teachers for the early detection of this pathology. The role of parents is to provide support at home while teachers have to pay special attention in the classroom.
Treatments for Dysorthographia
For the treatment of this disorder, the cause of dysorthography must be assessed, which is often visual or auditory difficulties, pronunciation problems or even an unfavorable environment for studying. Depending on the cause and the level of affectation, the speech therapist or specialist in child psychology will propose a treatment aimed at redirecting the associated problems and/or the learning and practice of correct writing.
Which specialist treats it?
The specialist who treats this pathology is the speech therapist.