Difficulties in writing. Text written by an individual with dysorthography is full of various mistakes and inaccuracies, which are committed repeatedly and have nothing to do with his or her intellectual abilities.
It is a so-called specific learning disability that manifests in difficulties in writing, especially in grammar. Typical mistakes people with dysorthography make include: leaving out letters in words, forgetting diacritical marks, substituting hard and soft syllables, confusing voiced and unvoiced sounds (e.g. c/s/z, b/p, g/k , m/n, h/ch), swapping the sounds in words, so they are all garbled, incorrect application of grammatical rules. Sometimes the problem is that a person with dysorthography “doesn’t hear” the correct sound or is unaware of what sounds make up a word, they can hear and understand the word as a whole (this is how dysorthography manifests). Other times it is a situation where fast automatic application of grammar rules doesn’t work, which might seem quite as a paradox, because the person in question can explain the rule perfectly when asked, but if they must quickly write a sentence which combines many different grammar rules, they make a mistake in the very same rule they have just perfectly explained.
Just like with dyslexia, it is important to realize what circumstances are the best for the person to write in, so that the number of mistakes in the text is minimized (as is the case with dyslexia and dysgraphia, pupils with dysorthography are entitled to have the conditions for studying adjusted for them in all types of schools). Sometimes it is enough time and peace for work that helps, sometimes it is typing on the computer with the AutoCorrect Options. If the content of the message is very important, it is better when someone else reads the text and corrects the mistakes, because the person in question usually doesn’t “see” them. Another trick that sometimes works is to read the text backwards, so that we read the words as they are written, but from the end of a sentence or paragraph, so we cannot focus on the content of the message, but only on each word separately.
Tip: Always have someone check any important texts you’ve written!
