Dear Publisher,
I am writing you this letter in reference to an article that you had in the November issue of Brooklyn Family, called “The Write Stuff,” by Sue Lebreton, about dysgraphia, a type of learning disability that affects a child’s ability to write legibly or put his ideas on paper.
My son has dysgraphia and has had it his entire life. He is currently 19 years old. While I’m happy that people are finally seeing this as a disorder, I do not think that assistive technology is the answer. My son has said that it is not the answer, and while it may help certain kids, having to type out his homework or having to use a computer in school further made him feel different from classmates. Teachers also did not understand the problem, and told him to just write neater — not realizing his need for assistive technology and computer use.
In a perfect world, I’d say that I was the most understanding mom and understood that he had a disability, but that was not the case. I used to nag him to just write neater as well. I also used to tell him what to write using assistive technology, and he never truly felt that the work was his own.
He had all kinds of therapy and that helped somewhat, but what really helped was time, because eventually he learned how to compensate in his own way. Through time, maturity, and his hand muscles getting stronger, he improved. Also, video games were actually the best therapy he had. While assistive technology might help some, it is definitely not the entire answer to the problem.
Stacey Allam, Brooklyn
