Promoting handwriting fluency in fifth graders with slow handwriting: a single-subject design study

This study used a multiple-probe design across three participants to test the effectiveness of a handwriting intervention for fifth graders (age 10–11) displaying less handwriting fluency than their peers, but without spelling disorders. The 5-h handwriting intervention provided students with explicit instruction and intensive practice in writing cursive letters, words, and sentences, through fast-paced alphabet and copying activities. Intervention effects were examined on handwriting fluency, written composition (i.e., text length, clause extension, and story elements), and self-efficacy beliefs. Results showed that the handwriting intervention was highly effective in increasing students’ handwriting fluency. There were also improvements in written composition in terms of clause extension and number of story elements. After the intervention, students also reported strengthened self-efficacy beliefs for grammar and usage skills. Overall, this study showed that handwriting interventions can effectively help students with limited handwriting skills to become fluent handwriters. Critically, findings are in line with the proposition that achieving handwriting fluency is important to support the development of writing.     

Effects of different types of learning on handwriting movements in young children

This experiment aimed at studying the benefits of different types of training (visual, motor, or visual-motor), in comparison to a control group, on 5-year-olds' performance in a task of writing cursive letters. The visual-motor training was shown to be the most effective training. The efficacy of visual training was clear at the letter quality level, and the impact of the motor training was shown at the movement fluency level. We assume that the visual training better contributes to learning the shape of the letter trajectory, while the motor training better contributes to improve handwriting movement execution.     

Perception of the cursive handwriting movement in writers and pre-writers

The objective of this study was to confirm the existence of knowledge relating to the cursive writing movement for French pupils in 3rd year of kindergarten, 2nd grade and 5th grade of elementary school. 141 pupils were asked to watch a visual presentation of cursive handwriting to determine whether they were able to detect violations of two rules of handwriting: continuity and sequentiality of the cursive handwriting movement. Our results showed progressive development of the understanding of characteristics of the cursive handwriting movement, with different developmental trajectories of knowledge for the different rules. The ability to detect continuity of the cursive writing movement developed earlier than the ability to detect sequentiality. Correct decisions were not always accompanied by correct justifications, which developed more slowly than detection of rule violations.     

Visual–motor symbol production facilitates letter recognition in young children

Previous research has suggested that handwriting letters may be an important exerciser to facilitate early letter understanding. Experimental studies to date, however, have not investigated whether this effect is general to any visual–motor experience or specific to handwriting letters. In the present work, we addressed this issue by testing letter knowledge using three measures in preschool children before and after a school-based intervention. Participants were divided into four training groups (letter-writing, digit-writing, letter-viewing, digit-viewing) that either wrote letters or digits or viewed letters or digits, twice a week for 6 weeks. We hypothesized that the visual–motor experience of handwriting letters or digits would improve letter knowledge more than viewing experience and that this effect would not be specific to training with letters. Our results demonstrated that the writing groups improved in letter recognition—one component of letter knowledge—significantly more than the viewing groups. The letter-writing group did not improve significantly more than the digit-writing group. These results suggest that visual–motor practice with any symbol could lead to increases in letter recognition. We interpret this novel finding as suggesting that any handwriting will increase letter recognition in part because it facilitates gains in visual–motor coordination.     

Interaction between orthographic and graphomotor constraints in learning to write

We investigated the combined effects of orthographic and graphomotor constraints as a function of handwriting proficiency in children. Twenty-four first graders, 20 third graders, and 21 fifth graders wrote single five-letter words in cursive writing on a sheet of paper affixed to a digitizing tablet. The words were chosen according to two orthographic constraints, namely their lexical frequency and the graphemic complexity of the last three letters, and one graphomotor constraint resulting from the motor difficulty of tracing the first letter. In addition to massive improvements of handwriting with grade, the results revealed, in the youngest group only, an interaction between first-letter difficulty and lexical frequency. This finding suggests that, before handwriting movement becomes automated, the cognitive resources needed for retrieving word spelling interferes with motor processing while writing a difficult letter. When students start learning to write, they are particularly sensitive to the combination of orthographic and graphomotor constraints.     

The Progress of Kindergarten Pupils in the Elementary Grades

ABSTRACT

The unit of analysis and the unit of measurement in handwriting research are usually topographically defined. We explored the use of a functional response-class definition for the units of analysis and measurement of cursive handwriting. The sensitivity of this functional definition to differentiate easy-to-read from difficult-to-read cursive handwriting was assessed by calculating a percentage of legible letters. The ranges, means, and individual percentages showed (a) no overlap between the categories of easy-to-read or difficult-to-read handwriting and (b) small sample-to-sample variability with the easy-to-read handwriting and larger sample-to-sample variability with the difficult-to-read handwriting. The data are consistent with social validity rankings of the easy-to-read and the difficult-to-read handwriting.     

Writing quality in Chinese children: speed and fluency matter

There were two goals of the present study. The first was to create a scoring scheme by which 9-year-old Chinese children??s writing compositions could be rated to form a total score for writing quality. The second was to examine cognitive correlates of writing quality at age 9 from measures administered at ages 6?C9. Age 9 writing compositions were scored using a 7-element rubric; following confirmatory factor analyses, 5 of these elements were retained to represent overall writing quality for subsequent analyses. Measures of vocabulary knowledge, Chinese word dictation, phonological awareness, speed of processing, speeded naming, and handwriting fluency at ages 6?C9 were all significantly associated with the obtained overall writing quality measure even when the statistical effect of age was removed. With vocabulary knowledge, dictation skill, age, gender, and phonological awareness included in a regression equation, 35% of the variance in age 9 writing quality was explained. With the variables of speed of processing, speeded naming, and handwriting fluency additionally included as a block, 12% additional variance in the equation was explained. In addition to gender, overall unique correlates of writing quality were dictation, speed of processing, and handwriting fluency, underscoring the importance of both general automaticity and specific writing fluency for writing quality development in children.     

Does Poor Handwriting Conceal Literacy Potential in Primary School Children?

Handwriting is a complex skill that, despite increasing use of computers, still plays a vital role in education. It is assumed that children will master letter formation at a relatively early stage in their school life, with handwriting fluency developing steadily until automaticity is attained. The capacity theory of writing suggests that as automaticity develops, the proportion of working memory dedicated to the mechanics of handwriting is reduced, releasing capacity for the planning, composing and editing of content. This study examined the handwriting ability of 284 mainstream primary school children and explored possible associated factors. Correlations were found between poor handwriting, lower cognitive and literacy scores, and a longer duration for handwriting tasks. Giving children the opportunity to practise their handwriting sufficiently to increase the level of automaticity may release working memory to be applied to the cognitive demands of the task and may potentially raise their level of attainment.     

Special Paper for Beginning Handwriting An Unjustified Practice?

Abstract

A comparison was made of the handwriting of kindergarten children who used four different kinds of paper for handwriting lessons. Results indicated that the width of the writing space lone inch or Vi inch) had no differential effect on the quality of beginning handwriting. Furthermore, paper with writing spaces with closed ends did not improve the placement of letters in the writing space. This study gives no justification for requiring beginners in handwriting to use paper which is different from the kind they will use as adults.     

智慧课堂教学新形态：纸笔数字书写技术教学应用

纸笔数字书写是指对手持工具进行自然书写产生的轨迹或图形等视觉符号进行数字化处理的过程,具有保留传统纸笔书写行为、采集完整书写数据、实现远程共享书写空间等优势。纸笔数字书写技术是对传统纸笔书写的信息技术赋能,它与传统课堂教学的融合能为当前信息化教学“屏幕过度依赖”带来的健康和教学问题提供新的解决方案,因而也可能成为一种新型的智慧课堂教学形态。为了证实纸笔数字书写技术的教学应用潜力,以“腾讯企鹅智笔课堂”为例开展的实证调查表明:学生使用点阵笔的整体满意度较高,女生满意度水平普遍高于男生;技术自我效能感、互动学习活动、技术使用态度和感知有用性是影响学生使用点阵笔满意度的主要因素,其中技术自我效能感和互动学习活动的影响程度最大;技术接受模型中的感知易用性对学生使用点阵笔的满意度影响并不显著,因此还需要在教学实践中不断摸索以纸笔数字书写技术为支持的最佳教学策略。     

Children with dyslexia are slow writers because they pause more often and not because they are slow at handwriting execution

It is commonly assumed that children with dyslexia are slower at handwriting than other children. However, evidence of slow handwriting in children with dyslexia is very mixed. Thirty-one children with dyslexia, aged 9 years, were compared to both age-matched children and younger spelling-ability matched children. Participants completed an alphabet-writing task and a composition task on the surface of a digital writing tablet. Children with dyslexia wrote the same amount of letters per minute in the alphabet task but wrote fewer words per minute when composing their texts than children of the same age. Crucially, no differences were found between children with dyslexia and their same age peers for speed of handwriting execution, measured by the tablet, when writing the alphabet or composing their texts. However, children with dyslexia were found to pause within their compositions as often as the spelling ability matched group. Thus handwriting execution is not impaired in children with dyslexia. The slow writing that is typical of children with dyslexia is due to pausing more often when composing and is related to spelling ability. This may reflect processing problems in response to high cognitive load through having to contend with spelling and composing concurrently.     

Writing Prompts: The Role of Various Priming Conditions on the Compositional Fluency of Developing Writers

This study addressed two questions related to the writing of second graders (n=195). The first examined the effects of writing prompts on the compositional fluency of second-grade students. The second considered whether these effects are different based on spelling achievement and handwriting fluency. Students wrote six narratives in response to writing prompts presented in different ways (copying, dictation, discussion, discussion-copying, discussion-dictation, and topic). An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) with repeated measures showed that priming condition and writing occasion were significant effects. Interactions were found between priming condition, occasion, and each of the covariates (handwriting fluency and spelling achievement). Analysis of the sample based on the covariates revealed differential effects for the slowest and fastest writers and poorest and best spellers.     

Feedback Analysis of the Movement Mechanisms of Handwriting

To extend the feedback analysis of legibility in handwriting, a coordinate force transducer has been devised that makes possible the separate sensing of the right-left and near-far directions of writing motions and the converting of these movements to their electrical analogs. This method of transducing handwriting motions made possible systematic measurement of the effects of feedback displacement and delay of the visual feedback of writing movements and of analyzing the types of variation in legibility related to variable feedback factors. Results showed that differential directional defects and general disturbances in legibility and timing of writing movements occurred in relation to both visual feedback displacement and delay of writing motions. The findings give added support to the view that writing is not a form of discrete stimulus-response behavior or stimulus tracking, but consists of self-generated forms of response comparable to steering, in which accuracy, legibility, and learning are directly determined by feedback time factors and directional specificity of particular right-left and near-far coordinates of movement that dynamically control and project visual input in the writing act.     

Graphemes as Motor Units in the Acquisition of Writing Skills

This study examined whether the graphemic structure of words modulates the timing of handwriting production during the acquisition of writing skills. This is particularly important during the acquisition period because phonological recoding skills are determinant in the elaboration of orthographic representations. First graders wrote seven-letter bi-syllabic words on a digitiser. We measured movement duration and fluency and evaluated reading performance. In Experiment 1, the words varied in number of graphemes and grapheme structure. In Experiment 2, the words varied in graphemic structure but the number of graphemes was held constant. The results revealed that the children wrote the first syllable of the words grapheme-by-grapheme, irrespective of the number of letters that composed them. They prepared the movement to produce the first grapheme before starting to write. The following graphemes were processed on-line. They then prepared the movement to write the second syllable. The progressive decrease of duration and dysfluency values towards the end of the word indicates that the children prepared the entire syllable in advance. Movement time and dysfluency measures presented very similar patterns in the two experiments. Furthermore, there was a significant correlation between reading performance and handwriting measures. The grapheme and syllable structure of the words therefore modulates the timing of motor production during handwriting acquisition. Once the children have learned the phonological recoding rules, they apply them systematically, irrespectively of the size of the graphemes they have to write.     

What We are Failing to Measure in Education

Abstract

This study compared the effectiveness of computer-based handwriting exercises (Lally &; Macleod, 1982) with traditional instruction in the remediation of handwriting difficulties. Thirty-six students in Grades 4 to 6 with poor handwriting received one of three different instructional methods. In Method 1, students performed computer-based handwriting exercises using the Apple Graphics Tablet, an electronic pen, and the computer monitor to track visible and invisible letters. In Method 2, conventional instruction was provided using pencil, paper, plastic overlays, and felt pens to copy and trace letter forms. In Method 3, conventional instruction using tracing and copying was provided through the computer using the Touch Window and a stylus pen. Several measures were used to assess improvement in performance. The results indicated that the traditional group using pen and paper demonstrated significant improvements from pretest to posttest on five measures, and the computer groups on two measures. The findings suggest that traditional instruction using pen and paper is the more effective treatment method.