What is DYSORTOGRAPHY: Symptoms, Causes, Treatment and Examples

Dysorthography refers to a set of typing errors that affect spelling, but do not affect the tracing, shape, or direction of written letters and words. Therefore, it must be differentiated from sislexia and dysgraphia. Dysorthography affects the ability to transcribe spoken or written vocabulary with the corresponding graphemes and complying with the spelling rules. To learn more about dysorthography, do not hesitate to continue reading this Psychology-Online article: What is Dysorthography: Symptoms, Causes, Treatment and Examples.

Index

1. Symptoms of disortography
2. Causes of dysorthography
3. Treatment of dysorthography
4. Examples of dysorthography

People who suffer from dysorthography tend to present a series of common characteristics in their errors:

• They substitute phonemes due to their similar articulation mode (for example: f / z, t / d, p / b).
• Omissions: both in symphons (two consonants in the same syllable, for example, write "spleen" instead of "arm"), and in syllabic distension (letters that lose strength in their pronunciation, for example, they write “la” instead of “las”) and also in syllables in their entirety (they write “pron” instead of "early"). There is also the omission of the letter "h", or they may even omit entire words.
• Additions: that is, add both letters (for example, they write "bacalado" instead of "cod"), syllables (for example, they write "potato" instead of "potato") or even words.
• Investments: of graphemes (for example, they write "bulsa" instead of "blouse"), of syllables (for example, they write "telenofo" instead of "telephone") or even of words.
• Another symptom of dysorthography is characterized by substitution of letters that are alike by their position (d / b, b / p), or letters that have similar visual characteristics (m / n, a / e).
• Confuse words that have different meanings according to which phonemes are written (throw and vote).
• People who suffer from dysorthography also confuse words that admit different sounds depending on the vowels, it is say, words that are pronounced in one way or another based on the vowels (cat, guitar, shoe, cherry, vase, to turn).
• Difficulty separating words into syllables.
• Another characteristic of people with dysorthography is the presence of punctuation marks and accents errors.
• They do not use a capital letter after a period or at the beginning of the text.

There are a variety of causes of dysorthography:

• Perception deficit
• Visual memory and auditory memory deficits
• Spatiotemporal deficiency (difficulties to locate oneself in space and time)
• Dysorthography can also be caused by intellectual immaturity
• Phonological problems or difficulties
• Poor vocabulary knowledge and use
• Another cause of dysorthography is low motivation
• Difficulties to attend to the task that writing entails. In this case, it is important detect if there is an attention deficit.
• Problems in the teaching method

First, an evaluation will be carried out to rule out that the patient has other disorders related to writing such as dysgraphia or dyslexia.

Next, in order to properly treat dysortography, it is essential to take into account the factors related to learning spelling. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the cognitive level of the patient, since knowing this level allows us to obtain relevant data about their spelling, such as short-term memory capacity, reasoning ability, verbal comprehension, and speed of speech prosecution. Can be done some intelligence test specific for children to rule out other difficulties. It is also of utmost importance evaluate the patient's spelling, as well as their reading-writing ability in order to observe the difficulties and mistakes made by the patient. This evaluation can be carried out through psychological tests and / or through exercises such as dictations, copying a text or writing freely.

Thus, it is appropriate to work with the patient strategies to improve your spelling, always respecting his learning rhythm, so that little by little he can come to master these strategies and allow himself a learning equal to that of his peers who do not suffer from dysortography.

One of the tasks outside the school, which can be carried out by the family or external professionals, is the review of the exercises done at school, in order to correct your mistakes and try to work to improve them, either explaining its correct form or practicing similar exercises.

In addition, the fact that the school, the family and an external professional can work together to improve the situation of the patient with dysorthography is very enriching, since it allows the sharing of knowledge and resources in order to give greater support to the patient.

With the following examples we can show that there are different situations in which you can detect signs of dysorthography, in this case we exemplify two situations: at school and at home.

Example of the dysorthography detected at the college

On the first day of first grade class, the teacher asks his students to write how the summer has been. When the teacher corrects the essays, he detects that one of his students has a large number of spelling mistakes, especially iReverses syllables, removes letters and confuses letters that are pronounced in the same sound, such as "b" and "v". Then, the teacher decides to talk with her parents to propose a joint work so that her son can improve her writing and thus be able to advance in a more fluid way in his learning. In addition, he proposes that they have the support of the school's psychopedagogue, and for this reason he asks for her authorization.

Example of dysorthography detected at home

During the Christmas holidays, a girl is writing the letter for the wise men. When the girl finishes writing she shows it to her mother to read. Then, the mother detects that there are spelling mistakes in her writing, specifically, she realizes that her daughter change the order of syllables that complete words or add extra syllables. What the mother decides to do is explain well to the girl how those words are written and the mistakes she has made, at the same time that she tells the father of her daughter what has happened. After a long conversation, the parents decide to contact a psychologist so that she can help them.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to What is Dysorthography: Symptoms, Causes, Treatment and Examples, we recommend that you enter our category of Learning disorders.

• Celdrán, I.M., and Zamorano, F. (1998). Difficulties in the acquisition of reading and writing and other learning.
• Cobo, B. (2011). Disorders in learning to read, calculate and writeura. Magna Pedagogy, 11, 56-65.
• Ramírez, M.C. (2010). ¿What is dysorthography? Digital magazine for teaching professionals, 9, 1-10.