In a message dated 2/21/2006 9:27:43 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
cgrimaldi at lagcc.cuny.edu writes:
Hello all,
I'm not sure if my questions  fall under the writing or the visual
problems categories or both, but here it  is:

In my years of teaching to low-level ESOL adults, I have had  many
students who I would call "weak writers" for lack of a better  term,
often, these students have dropped out of school early, like  5th-8th
grades, but these are not non-literate students.  They usually  require
much more time to write and copy from the board, and many students  have
the problem of copying incorrectly.  We don't have any way of  screening
for disabilities right now in our programs.  My assumption was  that 
many students just were "out of practice", having spent many years  out
of school both in their own countries and in the US, and  essentially
their writing muscles are out of shape.  Is this possible or  should I
always suspect LD?
 
Don McCabe's answer:  Your assumption is probably  right.  There always is 
the problem of a slight loss of automaticity  in making the connection between 
the mind and the muscles from lack of  activity.  I know my automatic 
handwriting has suffered a decline because  99% of all my writing is done on the 
computer.

Don McCabe, Research  Director
AVKO Educational Research Foundation
_www.spelling.org_ (http://www.spelling.org)