Symposium: the Development of Handwriting Speed: Processes and Problems

Symposium: The development of handwriting speed: processes and problems

Chair: Emma Sumner Department of Psychology Goldsmiths, University of London New Cross London. SE14 6NW, UK.

Ida M. Bosga-Stork, Praktijk Bosga-Stork, De Beaufortweg 18, 3941 PB Doorn, The Netherlands

Mellissa Prunty Occupational Therapy Department, Brunel University Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 3PH, U.K.

Annabel Molyneaux Department of Psychology, Social Work & Public Health Oxford Brookes University Headington Campus, Gipsy Lane Oxford, OX3 0BP, U.K.

Discussant: Anna L. Barnett Department of Psychology, Social Work & Public Health Oxford Brookes University Headington Campus, Gipsy Lane Oxford, OX3 0BP, U.K.

Handwriting is an important component of the writing process, dependent on the interaction of linguistic, perceptual and motor processes. The development of fast, legible handwriting is a crucial skill for children to develop, allowing them to keep up with class work and demonstrate their knowledge in written assessments. The speed of handwriting also reflects the degree to which the skill is automatised, that is, the extent to which it has become so proficient that it involves little conscious control. This is important in order that limited working memory resources are available for higher order aspects of writing, such as text generation and executive functions. If children fail to develop sufficient handwriting automaticity, this affects both the quantity and quality of the text produced and can have a serious negative impact on academic progress. Handwriting skill takes time and practice to develop and some children have particular difficulties in this area.

This symposium explores the processes underlying speed of handwriting in typically developing children and in those with developmental disorders. It brings together research relevant to teachers, psychologists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists, all of whom are involved in the assessment of handwriting skill in children. The three contributors will present a range of research using digitizing tablets to explore the temporal processes of handwriting production. This includes longitudinal work to identify changes with age, a detailed analysis of children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) and the identification of linguistic factors on the speed of handwriting production in English. Taken together, this research helps inform professionals from different disciplines how best to support children to develop handwriting speed.

The importance of performance, kinematic and complexity measures in the assessment of 7-9 year-old children’s’ handwriting

Ida M. Bosga-Stork, Praktijk Bosga-Stork, De Beaufortweg 18, 3941 PB Doorn, The Netherlands

Background. Handwriting is a complex skill whose development not only depends on the changing interactions between linguistic, perceptuomotor and biomechanical processes but also on the intellectual capabilities, schooling conditions and type of assignments applied during the training phase. The first three years of handwriting development are crucial for the development of the skill. During this period it is critical that teachers can identify children with handwriting difficulties to decide whether remedial help is needed. Does a single output of standardized handwriting performance suffice for this purpose or is additional information on spelling, reading and motor skills necessary?

Aim. To increase teachers’ body of knowledge they have to rely on to make decisions regarding remedial handwriting education.

Method. Thirty-two children from two Dutch primary schools were tested each year from grade 1 to grade 3. Handwriting product measurement (BHK: Concise Assessment Scale for Children Handwriting, Hamstra-Bletz) and a spelling- and reading test were combined with handwriting process measurements from a loop-writing task performed on a digitizer tablet. The errors in amplitude and frequency, the standard deviation of the relative phase and the sample entropy measure were extracted. Correlations between the test scores were analyzed by means of linear regression analyses with the children’s individual scores as dependent measures. For all measures, developmental trends reflected in the age-dependent changes in the means of the performance were evaluated by means of separate repeated measure ANOVAs.

Results.The linear regression analyses demonstrate the wide diversity of test scores of the individual children. The scores of two children with a learning disorder are contrasted with the data of the other children. The frequency error and the standard deviation of relative phase reduced over the three years while the entropy increased. Taking into account multiple handwriting-relevant assessment scores that cover linguistic and motoric capacities could best identify the children at risk.

Discussion. The use of group versus individual scores in handwriting assessment contexts is discussed against the background of questions in educational and remedial settings. Characterising the handwriting process in Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder

Mellissa Prunty Occupational Therapy Department, Brunel University Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 3PH, U.K.

Background. Handwriting difficulties are often included in descriptions of Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), including the formal classification scheme, DSM-5. In a recent study we found that children with DCD paused for a higher percentage of the task during writing compared to typically developing (TD) peers. Although the ‘pausing phenomenon’ has been reported in the literature on DCD, it has never been examined in detail. Therefore the aim of this study was to examine the handwriting process in children with DCD in order to describe and characterise the pauses.

Methods. Twenty-eight 8-14 year-old children who met the formal diagnostic criteria for DCD participated in the study, with 28 TD age and gender matched controls. Reading, spelling and receptive vocabulary were assessed and children with dyslexia were excluded. The children completed the 10-minute ‘free writing’ task from the Detailed Assessment of Speed of Handwriting (DASH) on a digitising writing tablet. Eye and Pen (EP1) software was used to code and examine pauses at the letter level, word level and during longer pauses over 10 seconds (possibly due to planning/rest). In addition, the frequency of pausing was examined in order to ascertain whether the children with DCD paused more often.

Results. The children with DCD did not pause more frequently than their TD peers, nor did they pause for a greater percentage at the letter level. At the word level, the DCD group paused more frequently within words compared to the TD group. The overall percentage of pausing in the DCD group was driven by longer pauses above 10 seconds. It was found that age and manual dexterity significantly predicted the frequency of 10-second pauses in the DCD group.

Conclusion. Temporally, the children with DCD did not appear to have difficulties manipulating the pen at the letter-level, as they did not pause for a greater percentage in this time frame. However, the within words pauses indicated a breakdown in the writing process, possibly due to difficulties managing the writing processes online due to difficulties with transcription. The lack of automaticity in the handwriting of children with DCD emphasises the need for handwriting intervention in this group.

Sub-lexical fragmentation of words during handwriting in English

Annabel Molyneaux Department of Psychology, Social Work & Public Health Oxford Brookes University Headington Campus, Gipsy Lane Oxford, OX3 0BP, U.K. Background. In 1991, Van Galen published the psychomotor model of writing, in which a series of seven modules process units of progressively decreasing size. The handwritten units comprise words, graphemes, allographs and finally strokes. Modules process information in parallel, although excessive cognitive demand at one level may compromise processing in others, the ultimate consequence being temporary reduction in handwriting speed. Kandel and co-workers have hypothesised an additional level of processing between words and graphemes, with handwriting being planned in complete sub-lexical units and inter-letter time intervals between units exceeding those within them (a consequence of temporary additional cognitive load at unit boundaries). Experiments in French, Spanish and Catalan (syllable-timed languages) detected effects at syllable, morpheme, complex grapheme, bigram and letter levels. As age increased, the size of sub-lexical units became larger and increasing numbers of units were planned before the writing of each word commenced.

Aim. This exploratory investigation aimed to identify sub-lexical fragments used in handwriting in English.

Method. Forty children (9-10 years) from four English primary schools copied a series of single words onto paper resting on a digitizing tablet. Item display and temporal analysis was carried out using Ductus software (Guinet & Kandel, 2010). Experiment one investigated the effects of syllable constituents (onset, nucleus and coda). These elements may be important in handwriting because English is a stress-timed language with particularly complex syllables. Experiment two compared the importance of syllable and morpheme boundaries, using bimorphemic and pseudo-suffixed words with shared root letter sequences and contrasting unit boundary positions.

Results. Preliminary results of experiment one suggest that syllable structure has little effect, since there was a progressive decrease in interletter intervals within each word. Initial findings in experiment two indicate a unit boundary between the root word and morpheme, although this effect was also evident in pseudo-suffixed words, indicating that the children did not identify the morphological status of the letter sequences.

Discussion. Findings contrast with those reported by Kandel and co-workers. Implications are discussed both for theory of handwriting and for the teaching of copying, spelling and handwriting.