Tourette Kids go to School, part 3

Writing & Reading Skills

The Strengths and Weaknesses in Writing

Difficulties with writing can include carelessness, frequent erasing, consuming a lot of time and effort in perfectionism, reduced results, slow writing, refusing to write, and difficulty reading. Many students with ST struggle with dysgraphia. Dysgraphia can be described as the inability to transfer thoughts from the brain to paper for a wide variety of reasons.

This is a well-documented symptom for students with TS and ADHD and results in messy, careless, and difficult to read. The child may write too little or refuse to write altogether. The reasons are complex but may include tics on the hands, fingers, wrist, arm, neck, shoulder, head and eye, or hand cramps. Margins and spaces are often uneven. In some cases, it may also be due to a lack of coordination or good motor skills. Sometimes it is an inexplicable lack of connection between ideas and expressing these ideas in writing. Writing can be laborious and, as a result, an area of struggle for the child. Due to obsessively compulsive behaviors, some students get stuck in writing perfectly. It takes them excessive time to accomplish the task, leaving them frustrated, exhausted, and dissatisfied with the results.