When a child has visuo-spatial dyspraxia, they struggle to coordinate hand and eye. This learning disorder makes certain schoolwork tasks particularly difficult. Fortunately, some tricks can help them overcome their difficulties, such as Gurvan paper, which offers coloured ruling so they can find their bearings on the page. Overview.

The writing difficulties of children with dyspraxia

Affecting at least 1 pupil per class, dyspraxia affects the execution of certain voluntary movements and activities. Among the most common forms of this learning disorder, visuo-spatial dyspraxia (VSD) is characterised by difficulty planning and carrying out movements that require both visual and spatial coordination.

By combining difficulties with motor planning, eye movement and spatial organisation, VSD affects the child’s handwriting: skipping a line or word when copying, slowness in movements, confusion between similar-looking letters, or handwriting that doesn’t follow the line.

The story of Gurvan paper, created by Anne-Gaël Tissot

Originally, Gurvan was the name of a boy who came to see handwriting specialist Anne-Gaël Tissot to work on his writing. Suffering from VSD, he struggled to see the lines on standard French-ruled paper: too close together, not contrasted or marked enough, they required a great deal of effort, preventing him from focusing on the content itself.

Faced with this identified difficulty, Anne-Gaël Tissot designed a custom ruling that she named after her young patient: it is based on standard French ruling, but with intensified contrasts to help Gurvan better grasp the space on the page. Note that this tool can also be used by children with dysgraphia or ADHD.

The benefits of Gurvan paper for children with VSD

Anne-Gaël Tissot keeps the usual markers and colours of standard large-squared French ruling – namely, the red margin on the left, marking the area where you shouldn’t write, the purplish-blue baseline and the light blue interlines.

But the handwriting specialist adds fundamental markers for children with visuo-spatial dyspraxia:

  • A clearly more pronounced purple writing line, on which the letters sit;
  • Graduated blue interlines for letters with ascenders or descenders (letters with an ascender, like “h”, or letters with a descender, like “p”). With these visual cues, the child quickly understands that you never write in the fully white zone;
  • A dotted right-hand margin, to show the child where to go back to a new line;
  • Extra interlines to space out the lines and prevent ascenders and descenders from overlapping.

A ruling improved by teachers

Since the paper designed for Gurvan, Anne-Gaël Tissot’s ruling has been greatly improved thanks to feedback from teachers. Today, it comes in several formats depending on the age of the child with VSD and the maturity of their motor skills.

For example, the 64-page Gurvan notebook, with 2mm interlines and a 19 x 26 cm format, was specifically designed for children with dyspraxia from CE1 upwards. A model large enough to hold more lines, while still being suited to the child’s size, with enough pages to be used as a daily workbook.

 

Don’t hesitate to ask our handwriting therapists on the Ora-Visio platform about this tool – they’ll be able to advise you on the model best suited to your dyspraxic child’s needs!