Have you ever looked at your child’s handwriting and thought, “wow, what a mess.” It literally looks like 20 different people have each drawn a letter and someone else has connected it together. The shape, size, and slant are different from one letter to the next. Not only that, your child may start out writing, and then all of a sudden break down into printing. Some of the letters may look incomplete, and the words may have trouble staying on the line. I remember our son regularly complaining about how tired his hand was. I would wave it off as an excuse to get out of doing his homework, but I was wrong about that too. These are all indicators of dysgraphia.
As children get older their messy handwriting persists, along with poor spelling, and bad grammar. They have difficulty organizing their thoughts and putting what they want to say on paper.