dexterity and two-point discrimination of the hand in school-aged children with dysgraphia

background: dysgraphia as a problem with handwriting, affects student's performance in school activities and participation. the purpose of the study was to compare dexterity and two-point discrimination of the hand between learning disabled students with dysgraphia and healthy students.   methods: forty-three students with developmental dysgraphia and 55 normal students in grade two to four from special and regular schools participated in this study. hand dexterity and static/dynamic discriminative touch were assessed via purdue pegboard and two-point discriminator respectively.   results: significant differences were found in purdue pegboard scores between two groups except in doing the test with the left hand (p< 0.05). purdue pegboard scores were significantly lower in left-handed children with dysgraphia compared to healthy children (p< 0.05). there was no significant difference in dynamic two point discrimination between two groups of children (p>0.05).  static two-point discrimination of the thumb finger was significantly higher in children with dysgraphia (p< 0.05).   conclusion: hand dexterity affects handwriting performance in children with dysgraphia. there were no correlations between two-point discrimination and purdue pegboard scores of children with dysgraphia. intervention should focus on other aspects of dexterity rather than sensory components. hand dominancy also may be a factor influencing hand performance in dysgraphia.