So much is riding on writing. Not only must school-age writers transcribe their thoughts neatly, but they must also respond productively to the call for excellent language skill, rich idea development, and the arrangement of ideas and facts in a logical order. In some cases that call goes unanswered.

Large numbers of students falter and fail when it comes to writing. Their writing may be barely legible, the content overly simplistic, or they may simply write too little. Their written language may seem like the verbal expression of a much younger student. Sometimes there is a wide gap between the sophistication of a student's spoken language and the language he transmits on paper. Some kids simply resist writing activities altogether.

A range of possible neurodevelopmental dysfunctions can impede the acquisition of writing skills. Six forms of dysfunction are especially common in students with deficient writing: 1) graphomotor; 2) memory; 3) language, 4) attention; 5) organization; 6) ideation. A discussion of these potential breakdown points follows.

Graphomotor Challenges
Students with graphomotor problems may simply find that their fingers cannot keep pace with the flow of ideas and language coming from their minds. Letter formation may be a slow and laborious process; they may write symbols that are difficult to decipher or inconsistently legible.

Some students may have problems coordinating their finger muscles so that they operate in the correct sequences to form letters, or may have trouble determining which task each muscle must do when writing. Others may find it hard to track the position of their fingers as they write; they get lost in the middle of letters. Often kids with graphomotor problems grip their pencils awkwardly, which may make letter formation even harder for them.

Memory Challenges
Memory problems are often an unrecognized cause of writing difficulty. In fact, writing requires more memory than just about anything else a student is asked to do in school. Writers need to simultaneously retrieve spelling, punctuation, capitalization and letter formation rules, vocabulary and content information, transitions and connections, and all the other ingredients of written output.

Some students have serious problems with this simultaneous draw on memory, and as a result, make many mistakes when writing. All too often, they come to believe that writing just isn't worth the effort.

Other kids have writing difficulty that stems from weaknesses related to active working memory, the part of memory that allows them to keep track of immediately relevant information while doing a task. These students tend to forget aspects of the writing tasks while they are writing. For example, while trying to decide where to put a comma, such a student may lose track of her ideas for the next sentence.

Language Challenges
Clearly, writing is one of the most stringent tests of language ability. Students who have trouble expressing themselves orally are apt to have even greater difficulty when they try to use language on paper. Their writing may seem ungrammatical or too elementary. Sometimes these frustrated young writers react to their language limitations by reducing, i.e., "dumbing down" the quality of their ideas so they can express them more easily. These students' writing products are rarely representative of their true knowledge and thinking skills.

Attention Challenges
Good attention control is crucial for writing. Getting thoughts on paper requires sustained concentration, strong planning, and careful self-monitoring. These are demands that exceed the capacities of students with attention deficits. It is not surprising therefore that a high percentage of these students seem to reject writing. They are apt to produce written output that is highly inconsistent in both quality and volume. They may make frequent, careless mistakes and have particular problems with the mechanical details of writing such as punctuation, grammar and spelling.

Ideation Challenges
The ability to generate good ideas represents yet another writing necessity. Sadly, some kids have trouble brainstorming or thinking creatively or critically. They may find it hard to generate writing topics. They may lack the ability or the training to develop ideas and elaborate on their thinking. Consequently, their writing may be highly naïve and uninteresting.

Organization Challenges
Writing is fundamentally an organizational task. Before the actual writing process begins, a student first needs to get organized to complete the assignment by breaking the task down into steps, managing time, and pulling together all needed materials, writing implements, paper, reference books, etc. Then, while writing, the student needs to organize his ideas in the best possible order to create a coherent story or report. Students who have trouble organizing materials, time, and their thought processes are likely to create stream of consciousness writing, stating ideas in the order they come to mind. They may also procrastinate and miss deadlines, or do work at the very last minute. Additionally, such students can be overwhelmed by the need to keep track of the various writing tools and materials.

Be Specific
Helping a student overcome a writing problem or improve a particular writing skill requires an understanding of his specific breakdown. Take the case of a student whose written work is limited or primitive, for example. Without knowing whether the problem is due to a poor pen or pencil grip or letter formation difficulties, an inability to remember facts, a breakdown in organizational ability, or issues involving one or more of the other neurodevelopmental ingredients of writing, it's impossible to determine the appropriate course of action.

Careful assessment is essential. Only then can one devise a treatment plan that effectively encourages a student to persist, and helps him to work around and/or strengthen a particular area of weakness. Specific insight into the nature of a writing problem coupled with specific kinds of help also increases the likelihood of a student's improvement. For these students, life on paper can get better.