OTS 114: Dysgraphia: How You Can Support Teachers & Students

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Welcome to the show notes for Episode 114 of the OT Schoolhouse Podcast.

Did you know that Einstein and Thomas Edison may have had dysgraphia?

In our chat with Cheri Dotterer today, she discusses the truth about dysgraphia. A lot of us have had specific beliefs about what dysgraphia consists of, but the true definition may surprise you. She also explores the different types of dysgraphia and bilateral integration, which include interlaced, symmetrical, and asymmetrical.

Tune in to learn even more about dysgraphia, and the results of a 6-week handwriting club focused on visual perception, visual motor, and memory with limited pencil use.

Tune in to learn the following objectives:

Learners will identify the different tiers and types of dysgraphia
Learners will identify the different types of bilateral integration
Learners will identify two-minute interventions that address the core components of writing

Guest Bio

Cheri Dotterer, OTR/L

Cheri is an international speaker, author, and consultant who trains adults to shift their mindsets about struggling writers to strengthen the social-emotional well-being of people with dysgraphia so they can fully engage in life activities and unleash their potential to change their future and other generations through the written word. She has been an occupational therapist for 25 years.

Her book, Handwriting Brain-Body DisConnect, has remained in the Top 100 on Amazon since publication in Handwriting Reference and Learning Disabilities. It was also a Top 10 Finalist in the Author Academy Awards in 2019. In addition, she was nominated for the USA 2022 Dysgraphia Expert of the Year by Global Health and Pharma Magazine.

Quotes

“Kids don't understand those symbols. And that's part of what we can do and help, as occupational therapists, is we can help them with understanding the overall concept, and how it applies to life” Cheri Dotterer, MS, OTR/L

“Dysgraphia is a disability or delay in grammar, punctuation, capitalization, sentence structure, paragraph organization and clarity, and spelling” Cheri Dotterer, MS, OTR/L

“Did they effectively get enough background in their education to understand the language…reading is truly a sensory process with a little bit of ocular motor going on”

Cheri Dotterer, MS, OTR/L

“We can help instruct the teacher or the aides on how to provide the student with the just right challenge and let them problem solve during their assignments, as opposed to giving them the answer or writing it down so that they're copying” Jayson Davies, MA, OTR/L

“Visual perception, visual motor, and memory, because those are the big three core components of writing that are the foundation; if we don't have those foundations, language and cognition aren't really going to effectively integrate” Cheri Dotterer, MS, OTR/L

Resources:

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