It's not everyday that I meet someone with dysgraphia. But, it's so obvious when I see it. I love a challenge. I'll get to do a little linguistic work. Trouble is that dysgraphia in high schoolers is not something easily fixed. It definitely allows me to see the truth of the Critical Learning Window hypothesis. That hypothesis states that if someone misses a window of learning something during which nearly all people learn that something, then (s)he will not be able to learn it or not learn it fluently.
Expression of thought has such a window. The norm for people to pass through this window is from ages 8-10. If the three year window is missed, the person has a problem that can't really be fixed. The person learns to compensate for it, but (s)he'll never be fluent. Right now, the challenge is with someone who hasn't even learned to compensate even a little.
But, I love the challenge. The first order of business is to work on the easy part of the fix. That would be the representation of the middle syllable of three syllable words. "Beging" for "beginning" and "creted" for "created" are two examples. The larger problem of representing the whole thought in written words rather than missing thoughts represented by no written words will come second. It's hard knowing that the individual never will really be able to express himself proficiently in writing. But, I will offer some compensation skills.
Of course, the beauty of the time in which this young person lives is that writing will have less and less importance over the next ten years. Thus, one of the strategies is to beef up oral presentation skills that merely reference periodic writing or iconic writing.
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