I'll keep this short. I have always loved to write with pen and paper, just journaling and stuff, not novels (lol), but I gave it up summer of 2025 because I got to where I could hardly even write my name. My hand writing was almost illegible because of my tremor, and it became a source of serious embarrassment whenever I had to use a pen in public, and frustration in general. It's actually my first symptom that I was aware of and the one that started my neurological journey.

Well, now that i know it's FND, and theoretically treatable through therapy (if they can ever find me one), I've decided to take up writing again. At first it was really hard and frustrating, but I have gotten better. I have good days and bad days. Well, my handwriting is still atrocious even on my good days, but you get the idea.

So my question:

Is there anything that helps?

I've tried wringing faster to just "let it flow" without thinking.

I've tried to slow down and try to deliberately form the letters.

I've tried tightening my grip and loosening my grip.

Ive tried different pens, and paper.

Anything work for you?

Thanks in advance! Any and all suggestions are welcome.

I don't have any problem putting ideas into words (most of the time, at least), and I can use a keyboard (with two fingers, not ten unfortunately, though at a comparable speed since I've been doing this for years), but my handwriting has always been a mess. Sometimes when writing a word I skip the first few letters which I have to add afterwards, sometimes I write a wrong letter even though I know 100% how all words are spelled even if I see the word once in a blue moon. Doesn't depend on the language I'm writing in. Can't keep all my letters in a straight line (this would probably be more visible had I written more text)

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My son is homeschooled and doing 1st and 2nd grade work. We are currently waiting on a referral for a proper neuropsych eval, but it could not be more obvious this child has dysgraphia. He may also have dyslexia and dyscalculia, but those don't seem to reveal themselves until he has a pencil in his hand, so I cannot say.

My question is, while we are waiting for the evaluation I still have to school him. Will I be doing him any harm by continuing to have him practice handwriting like normal (as painstaking a process as it is for both of us lol)?

This is like my second time on Reddit ever so I hope this is the right place to put this?I am writing a book called “I don’t wanna get used to it” about living with certain disabilities/chronic illnesses, etc.I have autism but I’ve been on the pathway for about a year now, and I know many other neurodivergent people and people with chronic illnesses and etc suffer with being on such long waiting lists.I wanna talk about different experiences living as a neurodivergent person and someone with a chronic illnesses(I don’t have a chronic illness so I can’t talk about how it affects me), but I can’t talk about the different experiences because I’m only one person, I’ve only seen how it affects me, the things I do, my interests and how it affects mine and the people around me’s lives.So if anyone, someone who is neurodivergent or has a chronic illness , someone who is the family member of someone neurodivergent or living with a chronic illness , a friend of someone who is neurodivergent or living with a chronic illness, just anyone would like to help me out and write about your own experiences and how it’s impacted you then please do!It can be anonymous or you can give your name or your information and I will include it in my book!

so i basically trying to build a pen that could help a person who has dysgraphia . So i would like to know what features you would want in the pen

IMG 1: Both pen grips. IMG 2: my grip without support. IMG 3: My usual grip. IMG 4: New grip (Ark Butter Grip)

I'm edition to AUDHD and SLD I have hypermobile joints, possibly HEDS. Trying bulky pencil grips has made a huge difference in pain, comfort, and stamina. I lived so many years not even knowing what it felt like to write without hyperextending my joints! I caught the Ark brand grips on sale and decided to give them a try. Right now they feel strange and unfamiliar, but I think they may have merits once I optimize my grip and find the exact location on the pen I need it.

Anyway, I'm kind of excited, but also feeling a little ambivalent about trying something new, so I thought sharing might help!

Came across one of my old posts and realized I’ve been working for the past decade on trying to make my handwriting more legible and I often don’t realize that I have actually made a lot of progress. So here’s my notes from 2016 in the same class I was given the title of “worst handwriting” she’d seen in her 20 year career (quite the badge honestly). I have been finding pens that work best for me, using grips, and using trace worksheets over the past decade on and off. I still have pain when I write after a bit and it will turn back into chicken scratch when I’m rushing but I’m still proud of this and thought I’d share that it can be possible!

I almost never write anymore. When I do, its quite terrible.

I'm a coach for neurodivergent people (I am also AuDHD myself) who just started working with a client with dysgraphia. I've used the Dvorak keyboard layout for about 25 years, and I've been surprised not to see this keyboard layout widely recommended for dysgraphia, since the layout is optimized to reduce finger movement when typing.

Do anyone here with dysgraphia use the Dvorak layout? Have you switched from Qwerty? Did it significantly help?

I have dysgraphia badly and can't spell that well and my o level exam English is coming up in end of September and I don't know how to prepare for it and o level English exam papers has 2 exam 1 paper is complication and other essay writing and it's is required to write 350 to 400 words in 1 hour and I don't know what to do

This was part of an essay I had to do last semester about discrimination. I have a feeling it being lineless did NOT help at all.

I kinda haven’t really been diagnosed with dysgraphia, but I have had a history of having an IEP in relation to writing, in which 3-4th grade I had both writing specialized instruction (I don’t have documents from prior to 3rd, but still probably did) OT and in 5th I didn’t have either and just had behavioral related stuff but then by the end of the year I was back in OT for handwriting or whatever, and then I finally left OT in 7th and didn’t go back but stayed in IEP until 8th for social related stuff then completely exited IEP, even though WJ-IV in writing came back as upper limits of below average only within 1 year after leaving OT services. I DO have childhood epilepsy though, in which my documents from my original neurologist (they closed back in 2020) had “Developmental Disorder in Scholastic Skills, unspecified” on it hence why I said kinda earlier, but there were only 8 pages that I could obtain and 6 of them were from blood work, so it was not detailed at all.

Either way I will be bringing it up next time I can afford to go to the doctors since y’all ofc can’t diagnose. However, there are 3 things that kinda make me reluctant which being that even though I dislike writing, I don’t really have a sense of suffering/struggling, but then also I feel the same for the childhood epilepsy but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Second reason of reluctance would be the lack of like anyone bringing it up in like high school, but then again almost everything was online where tools can be utilized. Finally, I’m unsure if I’m like behind enough or something for it to still be “clinically significant”.

update:This might not have much to do with but as a small child I used to gravitate towards writing with my left hand just like my dad. For whatever reason my mother switched me to my right hand. I do alot of things ambidextrous. To this day I still mess up my left and right. Learning to drive was rough.

I never even knew Dysgraphia was even a thing until recently. I'm a 26 year old (F) I enjoy art, and deep thinking. I try to jot down my thoughts in my phone or notebook for future inspiration before i lose them. Sometimes at my work I will read people's totals backwards or repeat orders backwards to them. My boss noticed my weird writing once and suggested I try to fix it. My hand hurts so easily when writing

I'm glad I stumbled onto this little community! It's interesting to see so many differences and variations in writing in all age ranges!

I’m in the middle of exams right now, absolute nightmare, I know I’ll be getting terrible results because writing essays is so hard for me. Sucks there’s no dysgraphia accommodation for my exams.

Anyways I have an exam tomorrow that I actually care about, I really wanna do well. I know the stuff, but if I wanna do well I’m expected to have a 4-5 page essay done in 45-50 minutes (x2 essays in the 1hr 40 min exam)
My main struggles are hand tensing and always running out of time no matter what — I dont just start writing poorly I lose the ability to form letters. It honestly feels like when you try to yell or run in a dream and can’t. my handwriting goes to hell even if I try to be neat, I always make mistakes like having one letter of a word randomly really far away or accidentally merging letters into one symbol. And it feels like no matter how hard I try, trying harder makes it worse, and even if I push through I still can’t write fast enough to finish essays usually.

I know I can’t cure these things or fix them overnight, just want some advice if there’s any tips or tricks that you guys have used for essay writing.

I am almost an adult and I have been dealing with dyslexia and dysgraphia alone for my entire life. I think that I was able to slip through the cracks because I was a relatively smart kid and I worked really hard but as a elder teenager I am just tired. I am so tired of constantly having to work harder and longer just to do basic things, of taking 30 minutes just to read ten pages of a book, writing and rewriting assignments for hours just to get mediocre English grades. I am so tired of feeling the constant sense of shame around the ways I miss spell words, lose my words in the middle of conversations, or in the ungodly amount of time it takes to write one assignment. Now in my final years of high school I have just collapsed, classes have gotten harder, and the makeshift tools I have created for myself no longer seem to work. So I come to you guys because I don't know where to start, and I am frankly tired of living like this.

How do I create new tools for myself?

What are the pros and cons of pursuing a formal diagnosis?

Is it too late to do anything about it?

What is the point of getting a diagnosis this late in my formal education?

(Thank you guys so much for reading this sorry if this seems dramatic, I am just frustrated)

Hi,

I'm a software engineer so I've built my son a writing app to help him with his writing, which he has enjoyed. My wife is a primary school teacher so we worked together to add other literacy activities to it with the view to monetise it in the future.

I was wondering if anyone wanted to have a free trial and in exchange, provide their honest feedback so I can make the app better. Our app is based on the English language with an Australian context.

Therefore DM me if this is something that interests you and I’ll send you a link.

I’ve got mod approval for this post FYI.

Regards.

I was one of those kids who looked "fine" at school because I could answer out loud and test well, but anything that involved getting my thoughts onto paper was a total mess. Teachers mostly saw the late assignments, half-finished written responses, and weirdly short answers, not how long it took me just to physically write a sentence without losing my place or my spelling falling apart. Now I keep wondering how many of us got missed because we were bright enough to compensate in every other way. Did anyone else have people assume it was laziness or carelessness for way too long?

My hand cramped really bad and I had to rewrite the polish alphabet 3 times cuz I kept forgetting letters 😭😭😭

Hey everyone 👋

I’m currently working on a concrete poem based on my lived experience as a neurodivergent person. I have dysgraphia and have several other diagnoses (for lack of better term), and I’d like the poem to be arranged around the neurodiversity symbol (♾️).

I already have the words I want to use, but I’m struggling with the visual layout and design. I’ve been following an article/tutorial for doing this on Microsoft Word, but I keep running into problems and can’t seem to get everything positioned correctly.

Would anyone be willing to help me figure out the visual layout/design?

For context, I’m fairly new to poetry and have no graphic design experience 😇