Dysgraphia: causes, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment

Dysgraphia is a specific writing disorder when a child writes words with phonetic errors or errors in recording sounds.

Errors in writing:

• Forms syllables incorrectly, adds extra letters;
• skips the necessary ones, writes several words together;
• a child who has problems with sound pronunciation writes the way he pronounces it. For example, “sapka” (hat);
• When writing, a child confuses letters corresponding to phonetically similar sounds (for example, B-P; V-F; S-SH; Z-ZH; CH-SH; CH-T; R-L, Y-L; O-U, E -Yu, etc.). He writes “tublo” instead of “duplo”, “loves” instead of “loves”. May incorrectly indicate the softness of consonants in writing: “pismo”, “lubit”, “hurt”, etc.;
• the child skips letters and syllables, for example, “kandashi” (pencils), “snk” (sledge);
• rearranges letters and (or) syllables, for example, “dovr” (yard);
• does not complete words, for example, “kuznechi” (grasshoppers);
• inserts extra letters in a word, for example, “Noyabar” (November);
• writes prepositions together, separately - prefixes (“on the table”, “on stepped”), etc.;
• writes ungrammatically, i.e. as if contrary to the rules of grammar (“beautiful bag”, “happy day”).

!!! This type of dysgraphia usually appears from the 3rd grade, when a student who already knows how to write begins to master grammatical rules. And here it suddenly becomes clear that he cannot master the rules of changing words according to cases, numbers, gender;

• does not catch subtle differences between letters, and this leads to difficulties in learning how to write letters and to incorrect representation of them in writing.

What is dyslexia?

Dyslexia is a specific reading disorder, manifested in numerous errors (substitutions, omissions of letters, non-compliance with their sequence) of a persistent nature. Dyslexia occurs 3–4 times more often in boys than in girls. About 5 - 8% of schoolchildren suffer from dyslexia. Reading disabilities often become apparent by the second grade. A child with dyslexia's reading may be described as slow, halting, and incorrect. Sometimes dyslexia is compensated over time, but in some cases it remains at an older age.

Reading errors:

• insertion of additional sounds into words;
• omission of individual letters and syllables;
• replacing one word with another;
• rearrangement of letters, syllables;
• repetition of words;
• adding words;
• skipping words.
• What should I do if my student has dyslexia or dysgraphia?

First of all: don't lose heart. Such children are quite capable of mastering reading and writing if they study persistently. The essence of the lessons is training speech hearing and letter vision.

It is best not only to contact a speech therapist, but also to work with the child yourself.

Speech therapy classes are usually conducted according to a certain system: various speech games, a split or magnetic alphabet for adding words, and highlighting the grammatical elements of words are used. The child must learn how certain sounds are pronounced and which letter this sound corresponds to when writing. Typically, a speech therapist resorts to contrasts, “working out” how hard pronunciation differs from soft, dull from voiced... Training is carried out by repeating words, dictation, selecting words based on given sounds, and analyzing the sound-letter composition of words. It is clear that they use visual material to help remember the shapes of letters: “O” resembles a hoop, “Zh” is a beetle, “S” is a crescent... You should not strive to increase the speed of reading and writing - the child must thoroughly “feel” individual sounds (letters) .

It is also a good idea to contact a psychoneurologist: he can help speech therapy sessions by recommending certain stimulating medications that improve memory and brain metabolism.

The main thing is to remember that dyslexia and dysgraphia are conditions that require close cooperation between a doctor, speech therapist and parents to determine.

It is necessary to carefully and cautiously evaluate the work of such children: with all their desire and effort, speech pathology students are not able to complete tasks, especially written ones, in accordance with the standards accepted at school.

Exercises.

1. Every day, for 5 minutes (no more), the child crosses out the given letters in any text (except newspaper). You need to start with one vowel, then move on to consonants. The options can be very different. For example: cross out the letter A and circle the letter O. You can give paired consonants, as well as those whose pronunciation or distinction the child has problems with. For example: r – l, s – w, etc.

After 2–2.5 months of such exercises (but provided that it is done daily and no more than 5 minutes), the quality of writing improves.

1. Write short dictations in pencil every day. A small text will not tire the child, and he will make fewer mistakes (which is very encouraging...) Write texts of 150 - 200 words, with checking. Do not correct errors in the text. Just mark in the margins with a green, black or purple pen (never red!). Then give the notebook to the child for correction. The child has the opportunity not to cross out, but to erase his mistakes and write correctly. The goal was achieved: the errors were found by the child himself, corrected, and the notebook is in excellent condition.
2. Give your child exercises for reading slowly with pronounced articulation and copying text.

What it is

Dysgraphia is a violation of written speech skills when partial difficulties arise in mastering writing. Characteristic signs are persistent, repeated errors in writing that are not related to the acquisition of spelling norms.

Dyslexia is a disorder in the development of reading skills. It is associated with difficulties in the formation of speech components and improper operation of analyzer systems.

Some experts believe that these disorders are not just pathologies, but a gift that you need to know how to use. They are not an indicator of low intelligence - these difficulties can occur in children with normal mental development. During diagnosis, it is important to determine whether it is dysgraphia and dyslexia, or physiological errors that are the norm when learning written language.

Literature

1. Korneev A.A., Akhutina T.V., Matveeva E.Yu. Peculiarities of reading of third-graders with different levels of skill development: analysis of eye movements // Bulletin of Moscow University. Episode 14: Psychology. 2019. No. 2. pp. 64–87
2. Rybchinskaya E.V., Korneev A.A., Akhutina T.V. Reading regular and irregular words in primary schoolchildren // Eighth International Conference on Cognitive Science, October 18–21, 2021, Svetlogorsk, Russia. Abstracts of reports. 2021, pp. 1246–1248.
3. Dorofeeva S.V., Laurinavichyute A., Reshetnikova V., Akhutina TV, Tops W., Dragoy O. Complex phonological tasks predict reading in 7 to 11 years of age typically developing Russian children // Journal of Research in Reading. 2021. Vol. 43, Issue 4. Pp. 516–535
4. Kuperman V., Van Dyke JA Effects of individual differences in verbal skills on eye-movement patterns during sentence reading // Journal of memory and language. 2011. Vol. 65(1). pp. 42–73. doi:10.1016/j.jml.2011.03.002
5. Moll K. et al. Cognitive mechanisms underlying reading and spelling development in five European orthographies // Learning and Instruction/ 2014. Vol. 2 (9). pp. 65–77.doi:10.1016/j.learninstruc.2013.09.003

Etiology of defects

Difficulties in mastering reading and writing skills are due to a number of organic or social reasons:

• Organic damage and underdevelopment of the cortical areas of the brain involved in the process of reading and writing.
• Immaturity of the cortical areas involved in the formation of written speech.
• Somatic weakness of the child.
• Incorrect speech environment in which the child grows up.
• Speech disorders.
• Bilingualism.
• Unfavorable social situation in the family.

Depending on the etiology of the violation, a corrective work plan is drawn up. By eliminating the cause of the reading and writing disorder, you can correct the defect itself. Each form of these violations has its own specific causes, on the basis of which correctional work is based.

About the nature of disorders

The causes leading to dyslexia and dysgraphia have not yet been fully identified. But most researchers name the special structure of the brain and genetics among the two main ones.

“Learning disorders can be associated with the circumstances of a child’s birth, genetic factors, as well as environmental characteristics,” explains psychologist Inna Pasechnik.

The hypothesis about the hereditary nature of such phenomena is confirmed by a number of facts: brothers and sisters in the same family often experience the same problems with oral and written speech; about half of the parents of dyslexics themselves have similar disorders; specific genes have been found in such people; differences were found in the structure and activity of the brain in the areas responsible for correlating sounds with letters, as well as recognizing written words.

Dysgraphia has been less studied, but genetic factors are also considered here. This disorder is often associated with problems in working memory.

Clinical symptoms

The manifestations of dysgraphia and dyslexia are varied, so it is very important to distinguish these disorders from physiological errors in the acquisition of written language. These disorders may be part of more complex neuropsychiatric diseases: mental retardation, mental retardation, etc. The clinical picture is represented by neurological and speech symptoms:

• Impaired coordination of movements.
• Difficulties in remembering rules and rhymes, read words.
• Lack of understanding of what is read and written. In this case, intelligence can be preserved.
• Problems with concentration and distribution of attention, switching it.
• The child confuses the sides.
• While reading and writing, discomfort occurs in the eyes (they may water, there may be pain; the child may bring the book too close or lean too low towards the notebook).
• In the process of reading and writing, the student quickly gets tired and may get a headache.
• The student tries to read and write less; refusals can manifest themselves in the form of negative reactions: aggression, crying.
• The child confuses similar elements.
• Incorrect pronunciation and violation of sound-letter analysis.

The main signs are errors in reading and writing, which differ in specificity. If a child has physiological errors that appear when mastering literacy, then when memorizing the rules, they go away. And with dysgraphia and dyslexia, they are persistent and recurring.

Handwriting correction.

The fact is that for a child with dysgraphia, handwriting causes a certain difficulty. Typically, such children write either very small or extremely large. Sloppy handwriting is not a negative thing, and you shouldn’t scold a child for it.

It will take about three weeks to teach a student to write correctly. First, you need to purchase a squared notebook and ask to reproduce the text on paper. The letter should not go beyond the cell - the main rule. You need to monitor this and support the child in every possible way.

You cannot overload children; a few correctly written lines a day are an excellent result. Even if parents are tired of working with their child, it is strictly forbidden to show it, much less raise their tone. It is recommended to use pens with a ribbed surface as writing instruments, as well as pencils in the shape of a triangle.

At home, you can play with your child by giving him a pen and ink. Then he will try to write correctly so as not to spoil the game.

Classification of dysgraphia

There are many classifications of writing disorders. One of the most common, which is based on psychophysiological patterns in the formation of writing skills:

• If the child’s speech-auditory analyzer system is disrupted, this is an acoustic form. The reason for its appearance is the insufficient formation of phonemic processes. Acoustic dysgraphia manifests itself in the form of replacement and confusion of letters in writing. A student confuses letters whose phonemes have similar acoustic characteristics.
• If the functioning of the speech motor unit is disrupted, then an articulatory-acoustic form of dysgraphia may occur. A student confuses letters in writing whose phonemes have similar articulatory characteristics. If a child has incorrect sound pronunciation, then in elementary school most students pronounce the letters silently, which can lead to this form of dysgraphia.
• When the functioning of the visual, spatial and kinesthetic analyzers is disrupted, an optical-spatial form appears. The student has difficulty distinguishing sounds by ear, and the spatial orientation of the letter or its elements is disturbed. The child has difficulty determining the boundaries of sentences and text, seeing lines, etc.

Any of these forms can arise as a consequence of a speech disorder. Therefore, when constructing correction work, it is important to select exercises to correct the defect.

Kinds

Taking into account the nature of the disorders, the following types of dysgraphia are distinguished in children and primary schoolchildren:

• agrammatic, caused by an underdeveloped lexico-grammatical level, when the child confuses cases, suffixes, genders, and incorrectly uses endings and declensions;
• articulatory-acoustic, associated with disorders of articulation, sound reproduction and auditory perception;
• acoustic, caused by incorrect recognition of phonemes by ear, when the baby confuses paired sounds and changes, for example, “Z” to “S”, “D” to “T”;
• optical, the cause of which is underdeveloped visual-spatial perception, and then the child loses part of the letter (for example, instead of “SH” he writes “I”) or adds non-existent elements to the symbols;
• dysgraphia, caused by imperfect analysis and synthesis, when children swap the endings and beginnings of words, confuse syllables, rearrange or omit letters.

In isolated form, each type of disorder is extremely rare; in most cases, schoolchildren have a mixed type of pathology, and the causes can be both organic and socio-psychological at the same time.

What are the mistakes when the writing process is disrupted?

Dysgraphic errors are caused not only by the underdevelopment of analytical systems, but also by problems associated with the structural features of the speech defect.

• Mixing letters based on similar characteristics.
• Skipping a letter because the student “forgot” how to write it.
• "Mirror" writing of a letter.
• Skipping letter elements.
• Kinetic errors.

Depending on the type of errors, exercises are selected to correct writing disorders.

Consequences in the absence of correction

Ignoring problems with dysgraphia can cause serious problems, such as:

• inability to fully master the school curriculum, especially the subjects “Russian language” and “literature”;
• difficulties with written surveys;
• intellectual retardation due to failure to master school knowledge;
• anxiety;
• suspiciousness;
• communication problems with peers and classmates;
• low self-esteem;
• deviance of behavior.

The need to write something will cause discomfort and fear in the child. There may be problems with mathematical terms and others.

Classification of dyslexia

In modern speech therapy there are a large number of classifications of reading disorders. One of the most frequently used is the one proposed by R.I. Lalaeva. She created it taking into account reading disorders:

• With insufficient development of phonemic and phonetic-phonemic processes, a phonemic form of dyslexia appears. The student does not have a clear sound image of the letter. This manifests itself in the replacement and mixing of letters during reading. There may also be a violation of the syllabic structure of the word.
• Optical dyslexia is caused by insufficient development of the visual analytical system and optical-spatial representations. While reading, the student makes mistakes in letters that have similar optical characteristics. He has difficulty mastering the visual image of a letter and the arrangement of elements.
• The mnestic form is associated with the complexities of speech memory processes, manifested in the correlation of phoneme and letter images. A child cannot remember a letter and its components for a long time.
• When a child reads but does not understand the meaning of what he read, this is a manifestation of semantic dyslexia, also known as rote reading. A student may have an ideal reading technique, but he cannot establish semantic connections between words. Or if he reads syllable by syllable, he cannot understand what word he is talking about and cannot correlate it with a suitable picture.
• When the grammatical structure of speech, morphological and syntactic categories is insufficiently formed, an agrammatic form appears. Its characteristic features are incorrect endings, violation of word agreement norms, difficulties in word formation; incorrect accent placement.
• The tactile form is caused by a malfunction of the spatial analyzing system. This dyslexia can only occur in blind children who use Braille.

The described forms are rarely found in their pure form. Usually it is a combination of several types. And you need to select exercises to eliminate all errors that arise during reading.

Diagnostic features

The school speech therapist conducts diagnostics at the beginning of the school year and at the end. But a specialist diagnoses dyslexia or dysgraphia only in the second grade. Because in the first year of schooling, children may have physiological errors, and the goal of speech therapy assistance in the first grade is maximum correction of the sound-pronunciation side of speech.

To check the development of written speech, the speech therapist uses the regular and split alphabet. It tests the student’s recognition of the visual image of a letter and the ability to divide it into elements. The speech therapist evaluates the work of phonetic-phonemic processes - this is the discrimination of phonemes by ear, proficiency in sound-letter analysis.

A specialist must check the sound pronunciation aspect of speech and syllable structure. The speech therapist pays attention to the state of the motor sphere, especially spatial orientation and coordination of movements; whether the child has developed fine differentiated finger movements. Checks how the student navigates on a sheet of paper, whether he distinguishes similar shapes and elements of letters.

The speech therapist asks the child to read printed and capital letters. Gives dictation by ear, copying. It also looks at the student's reading comprehension. In addition, diagnostics of the formation of higher mental functions is carried out. Based on the diagnostic results, a corrective work plan is drawn up.

Prevention

The development of written and speech disorders can be prevented long before the start of the school program. To do this, parents need:

• be attentive to your health during the planning stages of your future child;
• eliminate bad habits of the mother during pregnancy, prevent infectious diseases;
• do not overload preschoolers with developmental activities, clubs, and additional classes;
• pay enough attention to home learning the basics of the Russian language, show the child the letters, teach them to pronounce words correctly;
• monitor the baby’s oral speech, correcting speech errors in a timely manner;
• avoid a lack of communication: read to the baby, tell stories, stimulate his speaking skills;
• do not distort words when communicating with a small child, abusing baby talk.

Parents also need to bring their baby for medical examinations in a timely manner, not ignore measures to prevent dangerous infectious diseases, and pay enough attention to general physical development and improving fine motor skills.

If your child has obvious problems with written language, and they do not improve as skills are honed, do not delay in contacting a specialist. Speech therapists and doctors at the SM-Doctor clinic examine the little patient and prescribe special classes to correct the problem.

Speech therapy help for dysgraphia

The child must form a word from letters

Exercises to correct writing disorders should be selected depending on the form of the defect. If there is a speech disorder (dysarthria, alalia, etc.), it is necessary to correct it. Sometimes a complex intervention with the participation of a neurologist and neuropsychologist is needed.

• If this is an acoustic form, during lessons the child is offered tasks for correcting phonemic hearing (distinguishing sounds in the speech stream, analyzing the acoustic characteristics of phonemes - similarities and differences, working with paronymous words). They offer tasks to determine the number of sounds in a word and their place.
• If it is articulatory-acoustic dysgraphia, articulation exercises are included in the classes. A more detailed analysis of articulation is carried out with the child. If there are violations of sound pronunciation, mandatory correction is required.
• To correct optical-spatial dysgraphia, they are taught to distinguish between right and left, up and down. They are given tasks to place letters or shapes on sheets of different formats according to verbal instructions. A detailed analysis of the letter: what elements it consists of, in what order to write them. Work is also underway to correct phonetic-phonemic processes.

Also, for any form of writing disorder, in classes the child is asked to lay out letters from scrap materials, sculpt them from plasticine or salt dough. They use the technique of “air writing”: they write letters in the air with their hands; at the initial stages, you can pronounce the writing of the elements. Exercises to improve coordination of movements and develop finger motor skills are required.

Speech therapy help for dyslexia

Tasks are selected in accordance with the form of reading impairment. Correction is carried out in the following areas:

• correction of sound pronunciation;
• working with the syllabic structure of a word;
• work on the development of phonetic-phonemic processes;
• overcoming agrammatisms.

They offer tasks for recognizing the image of a letter in “noisy” images. The speech therapist together with the child draws up sentence diagrams. Asks to identify the sound in a word while showing an image. Then he pronounces the sounds with a pause and asks to name the spoken word.

In addition, they offer to add the missing syllable or letter. Or perform the action you read and point to the appropriate picture. During lessons, students are asked to work with various fonts to form a visual image of a letter.

In modern speech therapy, dysgraphia and dyslexia continue to be studied and effective ways to correct them are selected. Some experts believe that this is a gift, people just need to learn how to use it. But this does not mean that there is no need to correct writing disorders. If the correction was started on time, the parents and the child follow all the recommendations of specialists, the student will be able to master writing and reading without much difficulty.

Inshakova O.B.

Brief summary. One of the key problems in the development of a child’s language skills is dysgraphia, the prevalence of which is increasing. Increasing research interest in this problem is associated not only with the rapid progression of this disorder, but also with the need to clarify its etiology and pathogenesis.

Key words: writing, dysgraphia, etiology of dysgraphia.

PRESENT DAY VIEWS ON THE ETIOLOGICAL MECHANISMS OF DYSGRAPHIA

Inshakova OB

Abstract. Children's dysgraphia and its extent make one of language development key problems. The growth of interest to the present problem is connected not merely with fast advance of this malfunction but also with a need to specify its etiology and pathogenesis.

Key words: writing, dysgraphia, etiology of dysgraphia.

Dysgraphia, as a persistent inability to master writing, is still the object of attention of many researchers. Despite the existing achievements in the field of studying this pathology, the least studied problem, which is outside the field of view of most scientists working in the field of correctional and developmental education, remains the etiology of this disorder, the nature of which is ambiguously understood by various specialists. Issues of etiology are constantly included in the range of topics discussed, but special research in this direction, as a rule, is not carried out.

In scientific publications, the causes leading to dysgraphia, equated in the West to a spelling disorder, are often considered within the framework of one problem called dyslexia, i.e., in combination with reading disorders, which emphasizes the authors’ ideas about the unity of written and oral language disorders as a whole [ 4,26,28]. However, the tradition of separately studying the two forms of pathology has been successfully implemented by domestic and some foreign scientists for several decades. As a result, the world scientific community is well aware of the works that describe dysgraphia as an isolated disorder [5,14,23].

Based on the research of R. A. Tkachev (1933), S. S. Mnukhin (1933), S. S. Lyapidevsky (1953) and others, it can be stated that the study of the etiology of writing and reading disorders in our country has followed the same path, as is the general doctrine about the causes of painful conditions, due to which dysgraphia is usually classified as a pathological condition [6,7,13].

The initial research position at present is to understand the dependence of the disrupted process of mastering the skill of writing on the integrity and maturity of the central nervous system, which is most vulnerable to the influence of various harmful factors in the early periods of development [Gromova O.E. The importance of etiological factors in deviant speech development // Logopedia. Publishing House Education, -2010, -No. 2(28) -P. 42-44].

Although etiology and pathogenesis form an almost indivisible unity, it is believed that consideration of etiology separately from pathogenesis is acceptable when carrying out scientific analysis.

Knowledge of the etiology of the disorder is extremely necessary for a specialist in the field of speech therapy, since, on the one hand, it allows one to understand the cause-and-effect relationships of its occurrence, and on the other hand, it makes it possible to more fully understand the essence of the disorder itself, i.e., the patterns underlying its basis. At the same time, this knowledge is a means of rational prevention.

A detailed study of etiological factors, according to I. V. Ravich-Shcherbo, T. M. Maryutina, E. L. Grigorenko, certainly leads us to three research paradigms within the framework of which the analysis is carried out: “biological - social”, “congenital - acquired” ", "hereditary - environmental" [11].

The problem of the relationship between the biological and the social gained enormous popularity at the end of the 20th century. Research by leading philosophers, psychologists, physicians, and teachers, including P.K. Anokhin, L.O. Badalyan, A.V. Brushlinsky, L.S. Vygotsky, A.R. Luria and many other famous scientists of that time, was devoted to it. time.

Today, this tradition, accepted and strengthened in Russian psychology, is being revised. The authors of many studies in the field of psychogenetics question the very correctness of posing the question “biological and social in man” [11,12].

It is recognized that the very concept of “biological” turned out to be too broad. It includes a whole set of characteristics related to different systems of the body, different levels of its organization, health status, constitutional characteristics, characteristics of brain structures and much more. The concept “social,” on the contrary, seems to be unduly narrowed and contains only a part of possible non-biological influences. For example, the socio-psychological factors influencing the development of a child do not include the so-called physical characteristics of the environment: the landscape that surrounds him, urban architecture, the interiors of the premises where he studies and lives, personal home space, which are far from secondary for a developing child. psyche.

The second paradigm, “congenital – acquired,” researchers believe, is only more accurate at first glance. Its negative aspects are that, firstly, “innate” and “acquired” are not independent concepts. “Congenital” can be acquired in the prenatal period. If we are not talking about a visible (damaging, leading to pathology) effect, then it is almost impossible to isolate it, despite the significance of many physiological and psychological factors for the course of pregnancy, fetal development, etc.

Secondly, the same authors argue, if “congenital” is understood as “present at birth,” then it is clear that in the neonatal period many psychological functions are still absent or have an immature form, and therefore the information obtained can only relate to a very short period of postnatal development. As a result, this formula does not allow us to resolve the issue of the factors that form the individual variability of the psychological and psychophysiological traits of a healthy person.

Only the third formula “heredity - environment” covers independent concepts that have very specific content and research methods. The concept of “environment” includes all types of external, non-genetic influences, including the embryonic environment. Therefore, this paradigm, in our opinion, turns out to be the most correct for considering issues of the etiology of disorders. But it, like the previous two, is untenable in the absence of taking into account the active behavior of the child in an environment where hereditary inclinations have the opportunity to develop.

Dysgraphia is diagnosed at 6–8 years of age, at a time when a child develops persistent learning difficulties. This may be why risk factors contributing to their occurrence are rarely discussed in the literature. The minimal amount of research into the etiology of these disorders is also associated with the difficulty of obtaining objective data. Many mothers, six to eight years after the birth of a child, are often unable to provide the accurate and detailed information about the course of pregnancy and childbirth and the early period of the child's life that scientists need.

Research [3,10] shows that over the past 100 years, the developmental pathology of children has increased sharply. This increase is now often attributed to the significant increase in the number of carriers of pathological characteristics due to advances in the field of medical rehabilitation. Among the causes reliably known to medicine are many physical and chemical agents.

An increasing number of experts express the opinion that the factor leading to such a complex disorder as dysgraphia is by no means the only one. For a disorder to occur, at a minimum, it is necessary not only to have a hereditary predisposition, but also to have many other harmful factors affecting the child [1,11].

In light of the rejection of the theory of a single etiological factor, Z. Trzhesoglava (1986) writes, “that, even if the history can identify one most likely cause of disorders, one should always keep in mind the possibility of the influence of several factors influencing each other. Damage usually occurs in the central nervous system at different stages of development under the influence of a group of factors. As a result, a very diverse picture of pathological manifestations is formed, reflecting the abnormal development of mental functions” [15]. Most often, the discussion specifies the multifactorial nature of the etiology of the disorder, combining endogenous and exogenous influences. Multifactorial etiology is a diverse set of influencing factors, among which environmental factors are necessarily present.

At the same time, among the main reasons that disrupt the formation of specific writing mechanisms, genetic / cerebral-organic ones have recently been considered more often than others. According to some scientists, it is genetic causes that underlie the most severe forms of disorders [18].

In neurology and genetics, which relatively recently began to study dyslexia and dysgraphia, convincing results have been obtained indicating structural and functional differences in the brain of individuals with these disorders due to the hereditary transmission of this specific disorder [25].

At the beginning of the 20th century, scientific discussions began about the hereditary transmission of reading and writing disorders. Their result was the well-known descriptions of families with children suffering from dyslexia, in which relatives with dyslexia were quite often found [20]. Over the next many years, the symptoms and etiology of dyslexia and dysgraphia fell into the spectrum of psychogenetic research, which was started by F. Galton (1969, 1975), who determined the emergence of two psychogenetic research methods - genealogical and twin.

Since empirical studies conducted in various countries at the beginning and middle of the last century, data on hereditary (family) predisposition to dyslexia and dysgraphia have been constantly confirmed [17].

B. Hallgren (1976), using the genealogical method, carried out the largest studies in families with a high prevalence of dyslexia. Among those selected for the experiment there were 116 probands (persons believed to have a hereditary disease) and 319 of their relatives. As a result of studies, dyslexia was identified in 47% of fathers and brothers of probands and only in 38% of mothers and sisters, on the basis of which it was assumed that the disorder has an autosomal dominant type of inheritance with its sexual modification of severity. In this case, the type of inheritance turns out to be not sex-linked, and in order for the child to exhibit phenotypic signs of a specific disorder, it is enough to receive the corresponding abnormal gene from one of the parents [according to 4].

The beginning of molecular studies of hereditary predisposition to writing and reading disorders was laid by the American S. Smith in 1983. Experiments carried out by the Colorado Institute of Genetics in families with a high concentration of disorders focused on searching for the dyslexia gene in the human genome, as a result of which a special region (gene) was discovered on the 15th chromosome, which, according to experts, may be a marker of dyslexia. Somewhat later, in 1996, at Yale University, E. Grigorenko and her colleagues obtained information about the existence of similar markers on chromosome 6 [19].

Further experiments in this direction revealed the presence of disorders of not one, but several genes in people with dyslexia and dysgraphia. Other genes have been found whose modification presumably leads to dysgraphia and dyslexia. The latest in this area [24], although not yet sufficiently convincing data, indicate their presence on the 13th and 14th chromosomes.

Thanks to the discoveries made, scientists began to speak out for polygenic inheritance of disorders with a threshold effect, when a whole combination of genes in interaction with many environmental factors is responsible for the occurrence of a trait. It is for this reason that dysgraphia and dyslexia are considered multifactorial disorders.

Pathology of writing and reading, as is known, has varying degrees of severity, which reflects certain levels of accumulation of predisposition factors and their combination with environmental factors of varying degrees and directions of influence. The totality of genetic and environmental factors determines for each individual one or another probability of the occurrence of pathology. It can begin to develop at set propensity values ​​called “susceptibility thresholds.” Threshold is a certain value of the continuum of increasing susceptibility, exceeding which when exposed to environmental factors leads to the occurrence of a violation.

This allows some researchers to make the assumption that inheritance through many genes [27] increases susceptibility to this pathology and in 2/3 of cases the disorder is of genetic origin and only in 1/3 of cases occurs as a result of prenatal and birth trauma.

The position of F. Bloom, A. Leiserson, L. Hovfstadter (1988) comes down to the understanding that in this way it is not dysgraphia or dyslexia itself that is inherited, but the qualitative immaturity of various brain structures, and most often those associated with the acquisition of speech functions [2] .

The genetic route of transmission of the disorder is supported by convincing results from twin studies. In one of them [16], 228 pairs of same-sex twins were examined, among which 97 people had dyslexia. It turned out that in the 31st pair of monozygotic twins, where at least one twin had dyslexia, 26 co-twins also had this pathology. In dizygotic twins, only 9 out of 31 pairs were concordant for dyslexia. The concordance rates for monozygotic and dizygotic twins were 84 and 29%, respectively. However, while confirming the role of genetic factors in the occurrence of dysgraphia and dyslexia, these studies did not clarify the picture of the type of inheritance.

The hypothesis of genetic transmission of this trait was confirmed by later studies of twins [22]. It was interesting that the highest heritability rates (more than 70%) were obtained for writing disorders and phonemic awareness deficits. In addition, it turned out that disorders of phonemic awareness are the most genetically independent component of dyslexia from intelligence [11]. In addition, it was found that specific reading disorders are significantly more common among twins than among singletons.

The conducted studies made it possible to formulate a theory of polymorphism of dysgraphia and dyslexia, which serves as an explanation of the multifactorial etiology and polygenetic heritability of disorders.

The search for a specific gene that causes specific disorders of writing and reading, within the framework of the traditional approach, has not only not been successful, but is practically rejected, and the results of existing studies are still called into question.

As noted by FX Castellanos (1998) and A. Thapar (1998), there are few studies conducted methodologically absolutely correctly, the sample size of the subjects is still insufficient, and the research results themselves sometimes turn out to be contradictory. Therefore, we can conclude that absolutely clear experimental evidence explaining the hereditary theory of dysgraphia and dyslexia from the standpoint of molecular genetics has not yet been found.

W. A. ​​Weinberg, R. A. Brumbark (1990); RA Barkley (1997) argue that the very idea of ​​finding a single gene or groups of genes underlying certain disorders is not entirely correct. Human activity is too multifaceted and individual, and also largely dependent on the social influences of the environment and the characteristics of upbringing, so that everything can be explained solely by the “breakdown” of genetic structures [according to 8].

In accordance with the theory of convergence put forward by V. Stern, along with hereditary causes in the implementation of the studied pathological conditions, one cannot deny the participation of exogenous factors, the impact of which does not cause sharp damaging effects, but significantly modifies the implementation of genetic development programs, affecting the formation of the fetus, the consequences of which are manifested after the birth of a child in the form of various somatic and neuropsychic disorders.

A significant part of domestic and foreign researchers covering the problem of etiology consider external factors influencing the developing brain in the ante-, peri- and postnatal periods of development to be the most common cause of dyslexia and dysgraphia, describing mechanisms of influence of different nature: toxic, infectious, hypoxic , mechanical.

Exogenous factors, as established by the research of V. A. Otellin (2007), during certain periods of embryogenesis can cause similar disturbances in morphogenetic processes leading to the formation of abnormal brain structures [11]. Under their influence, cell proliferation, migration and differentiation change. For example, the resulting hypoxia can lead to apoptosis of individual cells or disruption of the formation of glia, which is a kind of framework that holds the layers of the brain and is responsible for the migration of cells between these layers in the developing brain. As a consequence, structural changes in the brain appear, affecting its structure, the nature and depth of which depend on the phase of development, as evidenced by the discovery of cells unusual for these layers when studying the layers of the brain in individuals who had impairments in mastering writing and reading during their lifetime [2].

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