Causes and risk factors
The exact cause is not known. This disorder appears individually or along with other learning disabilities such as reading disorder, expressive language disorder, mathematics disorder, or developmental coordination disorder.
Clinical presentation
The child presents with symptoms like poor spelling, errors in grammar and punctuation, poor and illegible handwriting, and lacking paragraph organization. There are grammatical or punctuation errors within sentences. Child shows reluctance or refusal to complete writing tasks. Accompanied symptoms include anxiety or frustration [breaking pencils, tearing up homework assignments, torn pages, or missing notebooks].
Investigation
Medical history by the patient and psychological evaluation by the psychiatrist or psychotherapist helps in diagnosis. The diagnosis is based on the result of task given to the child where he is told to copy, write to dictation, and write spontaneously. Other causes of learning disabilities must be ruled out.
Treatment
Main treatment consists of psychotherapy and counseling which involves cognitive behavioral therapy that teaches different techniques to combat the problem. Treatment to improve specific skills, treating concurrent health issues, and providing special academic services in learning environment help in managing such disorders. Individual and family therapy, parent child interaction techniques, parent training, social involvement, and spending quality time with your children. There are support groups for families that help reduce their isolation and frustration. Private tuition is necessary and proves very useful. Special learning assistance must be offered to the child. Constant positive reinforcement helps to improve the patient’s self-esteem. Boosting and encouraging the child to develop his skills in which he is efficient will also help in managing the disorder.
Other Modes of treatment
The other modes of treatment can also be effective in treating disorder of written expression. Homoeopathy is a science which deals with individualization and considers a person in a holistic way. This science can be helpful in combating the symptoms. Similarly, the ayurvedic system of medicine which uses herbal medicines and synthetic derivates is also found to be effective in treating disorder of written expression.
