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Think back to when you were in elementary school and learning to write the small letter "a" for the first time. Neurologically, your eyes had to focus on the blackboard to see the letter and then transfer that image to the brain's occipital lobe. Your brain's parietal lobe interpreted this visual signal in addition to interpreting and understanding your teacher's verbal instructions. Your temporal lobe interpreted the symbol as the letter "a" and started to memorize the meaning, sound and shape of the letter. All this information was then transferred to your frontal lobe, where your arm, hand and finger movements would be controlled.

In addition to being mentally prepared, you had to master the physical mechanics of writing. You had to hold the pencil correctly between the thumb and forefinger, and use the remainder of your hand to balance the pencil. Your wrist and hand had be loose enough to smoothly move the pencil across the paper, but not so loose that the pencil slipped from your grasp. You also had to hold the pencil at the proper angle in order to form the letters correctly.

At your teacher's command, your mind and body came together and you wrote your first letter. At first, your writing was slow and the letters malformed, but with each practice session, your writing improved and it took less time to master new letters.

Dysgraphia occurs when something in this intricate process goes wrong.

Dysgraphia is a learning disability that's first noticed in children when they begin learning to write. But having bad handwriting in and of itself does not necessarily mean a child has dysgraphia. Some people, noticeably doctors and other health care professionals, simply have bad handwriting. What sets dysgraphia apart from poor handwriting is that no matter how hard a child tries, his or her handwriting does not improve.

Dysgraphia is broken down into three categories: dyslexic dysgraphia, motor dysgraphia and spatial dysgraphia. Each category has unique symptoms medical experts look at to determine if a child suffers from dysgraphia.

A child afflicted with dyslexic dysgraphia will have numerous spelling and punctuation errors, or omit entire syllables. The child may switch letters, such as writing a "b" instead of a "d". Numbering may be out of sequence or distorted. The child may mix cursive letters with printed letters. The child may also substitute words, such as writing boy' for girl', or have difficulty expressing his or her thoughts into words.

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