A survey conducted by Opinion Way in 2022 showed that 40% of French parents believe their children are experiencing learning delays because of the covid-19 crisis, whether in socialising, language acquisition, or handwriting. In the latter case, a child may be dealing with dysgraphia, dysorthographia, or simply poor habits affecting their handwriting: whatever the situation, handwriting therapy can help your child overcome some of these difficulties.
When should you consult a handwriting therapist (graphotherapist)?
“While handwriting problems very often appear around Year 1 (age 6), I sometimes see older children, some even in secondary school!” said Claudia Cohen to the website “Parents.fr” in 2021.[1]
Note that dysgraphia is a lasting learning disorder that affects handwriting movements, causing malformed letters and irregular spacing. Dysorthographia, meanwhile, is another lasting writing disorder that affects how spelling rules are learned and applied.
But seeing a handwriting therapist isn’t reserved solely for these diagnoses. Messy, hard-to-read, or simply slow handwriting can be reason enough to book an appointment. In fact, it’s worth knowing that this can affect a child’s self-confidence and push them towards certain behaviours: handwriting reveals a lot about a child’s inner state.
What do handwriting therapy sessions involve?
After carrying out a graphomotor assessment (discussions and tests), the handwriting therapist reviews the results and, where relevant, diagnoses dysgraphia. In every case, they build a personalised rehabilitation plan to help the child overcome their difficulties or, in the case of dysgraphia, to compensate for them.
Usually set over 5 to 10 sessions, it aims to correct the issues identified using tailored methods. For example, this might involve working on fine motor skills for younger children, before revisiting the basics of handwriting.
How do you find a professional to help your child?
Handwriting therapy naturally influences the quality of a child’s handwriting, but also their behaviour. Take Axel, 11 and a half, who struggled with his handwriting for a long time before opening up through his work with Linda Paquantin, a handwriting therapist in Calais.
After just a few sessions, Axel’s parents noticed real changes in their son, both in his schoolbooks and in his attitude overall. Once rather fearful due to a lack of confidence, he is now much more self-assured and surprises them by taking initiative and daring to try new things.
Don’t hesitate to get in touch with the handwriting therapists on the Ora-Visio platform to find out how they can help your child, whether they have temporary writing difficulties or are affected by dysgraphia or dysorthographia.
[1] Source: https://www.tf1info.fr/education/difficultes-d-ecriture-parents-comment-la-graphotherapie-peut-permettre-a-votre-enfant-de-rattraper-son-retard-2259344.html
