Student Populations

Dysgraphia is a specific learning disability that affects writing skills. It is characterized by difficulties in expressing thoughts on paper, leading to poor handwriting, spelling, and overall written expression. Individuals with dysgraphia often face challenges in educational settings, where writing is a crucial mode of communication and assessment. In this article, we will delve into what dysgraphia is, its symptoms and explore effective remediation and treatment strategies.

What is Dysgraphia?
Dysgraphia is a neurological-based learning disability that affects the motor and cognitive processes involved in writing. It is not related to intelligence or lack of effort; rather, it stems from differences in brain function that impact fine motor skills, spatial reasoning, and language processing. Dysgraphia can manifest in both children and adults, leading to frustration, low self-esteem, and academic struggles if left unidentified and unaddressed.

Symptoms of Dysgraphia

Illegible Handwriting: Individuals with dysgraphia often have messy and illegible handwriting, making it difficult for others to read their work.

Poor Spelling and Grammar: Dysgraphia can lead to frequent spelling errors and challenges with grammar and punctuation.

Inconsistent Letter Formation: People with dysgraphia may struggle to form letters consistently and mix uppercase and lowercase letters.

Slow Writing Speed: Writing can be time-consuming for individuals with dysgraphia due to motor coordination difficulties.

Trouble Organizing Thoughts: Dysgraphia can make it challenging to organize thoughts and ideas into coherent written sentences or paragraphs.

Avoidance of Writing Tasks: Those with dysgraphia may try to avoid writing tasks or experience anxiety when faced with writing assignments.

"Coming together is a beginning.
Keeping together is progress.
Working together is success."

• Henry Ford

What is your vision for the school year? Is academic achievement at the top of the list, or will this be the year your child breaks out of his social shell? Will your family grow closer or more distant as they face the challenges of another school year? Who will guide your child’s development?

A vision defines a direction towards a goal. Realizing a vision requires support from a motivated group of individuals; a team of people who band together through adversity, acknowledge achievements, and inspire motivation.

For families preparing for the year ahead, Public School Review’s Ultimate Back-to-School Checklist for Public Schools offers a helpful 2026 overview of supplies, routines, health requirements, and digital readiness.

Who’s on your team?

According to the United States Census Bureau, today’s generation of school-age children spends the majority of their waking hours in the care of someone other than their parents. Given the influence that teachers, coaches, mentors, and extended family members have on a child’s development, the necessity for building a relationship with this group of people has never been greater. Creating a team of focused and motivated individuals who will continually support the ongoing growth of your child requires a new set of parenting skills.

Parents who want to strengthen school communication may also find Public School Review’s article on 10 Ways To Build A Positive Parent-Teacher Relationship useful

While many parents may believe that Dyslexia relates to an individual’s struggle with reading, the issue of Dyslexia can impact a child’s full development. Dyslexia symptoms include confusion with letters, numbers, reading, math, writing, and other difficulties – all of which can hinder a child’s academic progress.

Children coping with Dyslexia can face an array of adversities if their struggles are ignored. As studies demonstrate, students with Dyslexia who do not receive proper support may experience a decrease in self-esteem and a decline in positive behavior.

Thankfully, educators are finding new and innovative ways to help Dyslexic students learn at an optimal pace and level, and a rising number of schools are implementing targeted programs for support.

Dyslexia: The Signs and Struggles

Children coping with Dyslexia may reveal a wide variety of symptoms. For example, as Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal explains, children who struggle with Dyslexia often fail to fully comprehend both written material and numbers – leading to difficulties with other assignments. When these children struggle with academic tasks, they may begin to demonstrate signs of frustration, anger, or even depression.

According to the Mayo Clinic, other symptoms of Dyslexia may include the following:

• Your child may start speaking later than other kids his age.
• Your child adds new words very slowly to her vocabulary.
• Rhyming may be difficult for your child.
• Your child may have an inability to identify and recognize printed letters and words.
• Your child’s reading ability is below the standard level expected for

According to research and studies from the Centers for Disease Control, an average of 1 in 150 births results in a child who is diagnosed with autism. With this statistic, it is predicted that over 1.5 million Americans alone are potentially dealing with some form of disorder on the autism spectrum. While the cause is still unknown, autism is growing at a rate of an estimated 10-17 percent each year, as this disorder is now more prevalent and common than diabetes, pediatric cancer, and AIDS combined.

As Autism Spectrum Therapies explains, “Autism is a complex developmental disability […] (and) is considered a neurological disorder, though the specific cause is not known.” Today, medical experts and researchers can typically diagnose autism by a child’s second birthday; however, new breakthroughs are providing signs of autism in infants as early as just six months of age. As these medical breakthroughs continually advance, schools, parents, and the medical community are discovering new avenues for providing autistic children with full and inclusive support.

Public Schools and Encouraging Social Behavior

Since autism spectrum disorder is a neurological issue, each individual coping with autism expresses unique and different symptoms and indications. This condition is referred to as a “spectrum” because the degree and severity of each individual is subjectively specific. Most commonly, however, individuals suffering from autism spectrum disorder struggle with social and communicative skills, which are often most obviously realized once a child is exposed to social opportunities at school.

As Autism Spectrum

Gay Friendly Public Schools: Will New Program Ideas Decrease Violence and Tension?

According to National Public Radio’s (NPR) review of the new public school initiative to create gay-friendly public schools, the city of Chicago is instilling plans for “a new school where gay students and others wouldn't face the bullying and harassment they endure in other schools.”

As Chicago has surfaced as the focal point of this controversy, acting as one of the first cities in the country to widely support this public program shift, school and community leaders are caught in the middle of a national and heated debate.

The Background: Why Create Gay-Friendly Schools?

While Chicago is currently earning the most attention for its plan to create a gay-friendly school, cities across the country have implemented these programs in the past. Specifically, New York made the gay-friendly Harvey Milk School, while Milwaukee created the Alliance High School; both of these programs have been reported as inspirations for the up-and-coming Chicago school, which is intended to open in 2010.

As the CNN report, “Chicago May Get Gay-Friendly High School,” reveals, school and community officials in Chicago created the proposal for a gay-friendly high school so that students of all sexual preferences and identities could attend school without feeling harassed or in danger. William Greaves, Chicago’s liaison to the gay and lesbian community, is one of the advocates for the new school and is also a contributor to the school’s proposed design. According to