Handwriting

Difficulty with written expression is a common problem in individuals with poor eye movement skills, poor visualization abilities, and lack of visual dominance. As discussed above, these visual problems can also influence receptive and expressive language. Efficient and successful writing involves using language to describe detailed images. The following illustration shows the relationship between language and visual imagery which is necessary for successful writing.

Visual imagery is first related to language when children begin to convert what they have been told into picture or images in their mind (receptive language). After this, they are able to develop the ability to use spoken language to describe images held in their minds (expressive language). Reading is the ability to create images in your mind from written words, and writing is the ability to produce written words to describe images that you have created in your mind, so these two tasks are very closely related.

Good eye movement skills are necessary for good visualization and visual dominance. Individuals who do not have these abilities but are asked to write often learn to use auditory skills rather than visual skills when writing. This deflection of attention often causes spatially distorted handwriting. The illustration below shows why this deflection occurs.

These children will usually be good at drawing pictures but have poor penmanship. These deflected attention problems are more commonly the cause of handwriting problems than lack of fine-motor coordination. Often phonetic spelling problems and spatially-distorted handwriting occur simultaneously since both are the result of a deflection from performing the task visually to performing the task using auditory skills.