Dysgraphia

You know that feeling when your hand cramps up after writing just a few sentences? Or when your thoughts are crystal clear in your head, but turning them into neat written words feels like trying to translate between two completely different languages?

If that sounds familiar, you might be dealing with dysgraphia.

Dysgraphia affects how your brain and hand work together when it comes to writing. For some people, it’s physically exhausting — your handwriting might be slow, uneven, or just plain messy no matter how hard you try. For others, the physical writing is fine, but getting thoughts organised on paper feels impossible.

Here’s what it might look like:

• Your hand gets tired really quickly when writing
• Your letters are all different sizes, even when you’re being careful
• Copying from the board feels like an endurance sport
• You grip your pen weirdly or press way too hard (or barely at all)
• You have amazing ideas but they somehow disappear when you try to write them down
• People comment on your handwriting being “messy” (thanks, very helpful)

Here’s what you need to know: this isn’t about being careless or not trying hard enough. Your brain is working exactly as hard as everyone else’s — it’s just that the pathway between thinking and writing takes more effort for you.

And honestly? In a world where most of our writing happens on keyboards anyway, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with using whatever tools help you get your thoughts out effectively. Voice-to-text, typing, visual mind maps — whatever works for your brain is the right approach.

Your ideas matter more than your handwriting ever will.