Independent Speech

www.independentspeech.com ~ 1-877-480-7913 ~ 28731 N 25th Glen, Phoenix, AZ

85085

What is Agraphia?
Agraphia is the loss of the ability to write and spell. This is a neurological disorder
that is commonly caused by trauma to various parts of the brain. This trauma may
have come from an external head injury such as being involved in a car accident to an
internal head injury such as a stroke.
Multiple areas of the brain contribue to our ability to write. Thus the type and
severity of Agrpahia depends on where the brain injury occurred and the severity of
the injury. There are five types of agraphia; frontal, pure, alexic, apraxic and spatial.
When a person is experiencing Frontal Lobe Agraphia they may have trouble forming
letters, resulting in their writing appearing sloppy. They will experience trouble
spelling. With Frontal Lobe Agraphia, the person may choose the wrong letter, feel
like they have forgotten how to form the letter, or they may add letters that are not
needed in the word.
Those experiencing Pure Agraphia often misspell words, they may use the wrong
letters or write the letters in the wrong order. They may also experience difficulty
forming letters.
Alexic Agraphia is associated with difficulty encoding and decoding written
language. Thus they have trouble with reading and writing tasks. They may have
trouble recognizing the letter but are able to form them or they are able to form the
letter but are unable to read them.
Apraxic Agraphia is characterized by a an inability to make the complex patterned
movements that are involved in writing. They no longer know how to hold a pen for
writing or how to move their hand to form the letters.
A person experiencing Spatial Agraphia may have difficulty with writing a sentence
in a straight line, their letters may be formed at odd angles or their writing is almost
impossible to read. Some patients may write only on the right half of the paper. They
may add in extra spaces between letters.
This is just a brief overview of the different types of Agraphia one may experience. If
you have concerns about writing please see a speech pathologist or other medical
professional for a consultation and evaluation.