Understanding Dyslographia (Chinese Dysgraphia) and What is Known About the Disorder

Dysgraphia is a disorder in written expression that can be categorized into either developmental dysgraphia or acquired dysgraphia. There are three subtypes of developmental dysgraphia: dyslexic dysgraphia that bears similarities to dyslexia; dysgraphia due to motor clumsiness; and dysgraphia due to defect in understanding of space. The characteristics exhibited by these subtypes may apply to language systems that are alphabetical or phoneme-based in nature. For languages that are logographically based such as Chinese or Japanese, dysgraphia exists in another subtype known as dyslogographia. Though literature on dysgraphia is very limited as compared to studies done on dyslexia, literature on dyslogographia is even more limited. This paper will attempt to discuss about dyslogographia while drawing parallels if possible to the more known subtypes of dysgraphia and to some extent, also dyslexia.