Handwriting isolated cursive letters in young children: Effect of the visual trace deletion

This study assesses the handwriting of isolated cursive letters in five-year-old children and the effect of a modification in visual feedback. Sixty-four children copied twelve cursive letters with an inking pen and a non-inking pen. Reducing visual feedback decreased the mean number of penlifts, and increased mean velocity and fluency. However, it increased the size of the letters (trajectory length) and reduced their quality. We suggest that processing visual feedback of the emerging visual trace may interrupt the fluency of the movement, while writing without seeing the trace may place greater emphasis on motor control and the use of somatosensory feedback. This study supplies reflection about sensory feedback and the moment when it should be provided in handwriting instruction. Practitioners should be aware that variation in the writing environment (surface, tools …) modifies sensory feedback and affects handwriting learning (gesture and outcome) in different manner.     

艺术家与自然

中国古代书画家在艺术创作过程中，形成了独特的美学观念和美学体系。书法艺术和绘画艺术对大自然的审美观照方法一般有四种；一是对审美客体外观的审美追求；二是超越了审美客体外观的审美追求；三是审美主体对自身的审美追求，四是对审美客体“象“及“象外“审美追求的综合提炼。对于今天的艺术创作，仍具有借鉴意义。     

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。     

Effect of ensemble classifier composition on offline cursive character recognition

In this paper we present novel ensemble classifier architectures and investigate their influence for offline cursive character recognition. Cursive characters are represented by feature sets that portray different aspects of character images for recognition purposes. The recognition accuracy can be improved by training ensemble of classifiers on the feature sets. Given the feature sets and the base classifiers, we have developed multiple ensemble classifier compositions under four architectures. The first three architectures are based on the use of multiple feature sets whereas the fourth architecture is based on the use of a unique feature set. Type-1 architecture is composed of homogeneous base classifiers and Type-2 architecture is constructed using heterogeneous base classifiers. Type-3 architecture is based on hierarchical fusion of decisions. In Type-4 architecture a unique feature set is learned by a set of homogeneous base classifiers with different learning parameters. The experimental results demonstrate that the recognition accuracy achieved using the proposed ensemble classifier (with best composition of base classifiers and feature sets) is better than the existing recognition accuracies for offline cursive character recognition.     

Dot-to-dot practice enhances Children's handwriting: The advantage of a multi-session training protocol

Handwriting instruction commonly involves the practice of non-linguistic writing-like patterns. Here, we compare the transfer to Arabic sentence-writing of different practice scheduling of the Invented Letter Task (ILT), a simple dot-to-dot connecting task, aiming to decide best-practice scheduling. Ninety-seven 7- to 8-year-old public-school Arab Israeli second-graders were assigned randomly, within-class, to five study groups: three single-session practice groups (different amounts, with 60/180/360 repetitions), a 360-repetition multi-session practice group (distributed across four days), and an untrained control group. Handwriting was assessed at pre-training, 24-h, and 4–5 weeks post-training. The findings revealed that by 4–5 weeks post-training all the practice groups wrote more fluently or accurately than the control group. The multi-session practice group's handwriting performance was advantageous to that of the other groups, being more fluent than the other groups and more legible than the control group. The findings suggest that practicing simple grapho-motor tasks may enhance handwriting abilities.     

艺苑奇葩 中华一绝——著名书法家梁宗亨教授反体书法艺术评析

以辩证唯物主义的观点,从书史和美学的角度,对著名书法家梁宗亨教授潜心专攻数年的反体书法艺术作较深入的探讨和评析。他长期的艺术实践,使尘封1400多年的书艺绝品焕发青春,填补了书史中有名无迹的艺术空白,让祖国传统书法艺术发扬光大,给人以美的艺术享受。文章对书史的研究和书法艺术作品的欣赏,有参考、借鉴和启迪意义。     

Teaching handwriting skills to children with intellectual disabilities using an adapted handwriting programme

Children with intellectual disabilities often struggle with handwriting, but there is very little research to inform intervention approaches. In this study, we developed a teaching manual based on Handwriting Without Tears®, a comprehensive handwriting programme designed for typically developing children. Three children with intellectual disabilities participated in the study and received handwriting instruction based on the manual three times a week over a 32‐week period. Our aims were to explore whether Handwriting Without Tears® can be used as a comprehensive handwriting curriculum for children with intellectual disabilities and to evaluate improvement in handwriting skills. We found that the intervention was successfully incorporated into small group teaching sessions within the child's regular classroom, and that all three children made improvements. Our data show promising results and support the need for larger evaluation studies.     

The relationship between linguistic characteristics and reading/writing performances of Norwegian children

The relations between different word categories and children's reading and writing performances were examined in twenty 9-year-old children. Results indicated for Norwegian, which is more regular than English but less regular than Finnish, that the length and the frequency of words and their interactions are factors substantially related both to children's reading, writing time (writing velocity), and spelling performances, whereas the regularity factor affected children's spelling only. Significant intercorrelations among reading and writing (accuracy and spelling) measures were found.     

How do primary grade teachers teach handwriting? A national survey

A random sample of primary grade teachers from across the United States was surveyed about their instructional practices in handwriting. Nine out of every ten teachers indicated that they taught handwriting, averaging 70 minutes of instruction per week. Only 12% of teachers, however, indicated that the education courses taken in college adequately prepared them to teach handwriting. Despite this lack of formal preparation, the majority of teachers used a variety of recommended instructional practices for teaching handwriting. The application of such practices, though, was applied unevenly, raising concerns about the quality of handwriting instruction for all children. Preparation of this paper was supported by the Center to Accelerate Student Learning, funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs Grant H324V980001.