Handwriting Today Number 17 Autumn 2018 Contents . Editorial 4 Research Articles 6 Robot Guided ‘Pen Skill’ Training in Children with Motor Difficulties. 7 The Potential of the Pen for Learning. 14 Research Digest 18 The importance of handwriting on the development of the literate brain. 19 The roles of handwriting and keyboarding in writing: a meta-analytic review. 19 Exploring the relationship between letter recognitions and handwriting 20 in early literacy development. Children’s first handwriting productions show a rhythmic structure. 21 Examining the transcription-writing link: effects of handwriting fluency and 22 spelling accuracy on writing performance via planning and translating in middle grades. Writing an independently composed sentence by Spanish-speaking children 23 with and without poor transcription skills: a writing-level match design. Understanding handwriting difficulties: A comparison of children with and 24 without motor impairment. Do children with ASD have difficulty handwriting under time pressure? 24 Comprehension of handwriting development: Pen-grip kinetics in handwriting 25 tasks and its relation to fine motor skills among school-age children. Current Issues 28 Tips for Teaching 34 Handwriting in the Media 40 Review of Resources 46 Conference Reviews 52 Handwriting Today NHA News 58 Journal of the National Handwriting Association Registered Charity No. 1051157 Website: www.nha-handwriting.org.uk Chair: Mellissa Prunty Vice chairs Wendy Cumines, Emma Sumner Handwriting Today 3 Editorial With the help of my very skilful sub-editors I am pleased to present the Tribute to Outgoing Chair – Dr Angela Webb 2018 annual journal of the National Handwriting Association. It begins By Catherine Elsey with a tribute to our outgoing Chairman Dr Angela Webb (who we will Many of you will know that Dr Angela Webb is reputation and our members are invited to relevant miss dearly!) and a short overview of what’s next for the NHA where we stepping down as Chair after 12 years serving on the events both in the UK and abroad. hope to continue the fantastic work that Angela has started. NHA Committee. For me, Angela has been pivotal in the purpose of the NHA promoting the importance Closer to home, Angela has served the Committee of the development of good handwriting skills. admirably, leading with a sense of humour that was The Research section, edited by Dr Emma The Review of Resources section is compiled by used to good effect in keeping everyone focussed Sumner presents two research articles that share Laraine Erlanderr-Lawrence with contributions When I joined the committee I was impressed by on the matters in hand. We have all benefited from insights into new technological developments from school teachers. The section presents some how Angela was able to link together academic her knowledge and experience. in the field of handwriting. Now that we are well very nicely presented reviews of products which research, education and therapeutic strategies to Our new Chair is Dr Mellissa Prunty who will and truly in the ‘digital age’ the two articles speak were trialled by teachers and their students. encourage good handwriting skills for everyone. continue to promote the NHA and carry on the to the importance of learning to write by hand She has worked tirelessly and enthusiastically to excellent work that Angela has started. and raise thoughtful considerations for practice. Cathy Parvin has summarised some of the main take every opportunity to get the NHA message conferences in the field this year along with guest The Research Digest reviews nine research ‘out there’. As a result of her work and leadership Catherine Elsey contributor Dr Carolyn Dunford. She has provided papers published in 2017 with a specific focus on the NHA organisation has an international Paediatric Occupational Therapist handwriting. her own reflections on the events she attended. The Current Issues section is written by Pam The NHA News section was compiled by Wendy Hulme who offers an insightful review/critique of Cumines, Karen Nichols and Hilary Cook and the Ofted report entitled Reception Curriculum showcases the work of the charity over the in Good and Outstanding Primary Schools: Bold past year and includes Angela’s final report as Message from New Chair – Dr Mellissa Prunty Beginnings. Pam provides an overview of this Chairman. It also provides information on our next Dear Members, Member’s Day in June 2019 and information about report and makes for an interesting and important It is a great privilege to write to you as the new • To develop and launch a new website (2018) read for members who work in early years our upcoming training and events. Chair of the NHA. While I am fully aware of the • To make 10+ CPD courses available online education. I would like to finish by saying a huge thank you large shoes that have been left to fill, I am very (early 2019) excited about the future of the charity. I would The Tips for Teaching section is written by Isabelle to my sub-editors who have produced excellent • To update all of our publications and tip sheets like to acknowledge the inspiring work that Vandevyvere & Birger Destoop from Belgium. sections this year. I am very grateful for their time (early 2019) to be available for download and/or Angela completed during her time as Chair of the Isabelle presented at our member’s day in June and effort. I am also grateful to Karen Nicholas purchase in hard copy format. 2018 and has provided a very interesting section and Wendy Cumines who helped me collect NHA. She steered the charity through numerous on Apps for handwriting. and check the material for this edition. I hope you important initiatives and projects and has made These are our top three priorities for the next 12-15 enjoy it. the charity into the success it is today. On a months which we hope you will be excited about Our Handwriting in the Media section is compiled personal level I have learnt a tremendous amount too. We are also re-designing our face-to-face by Ewan Clayton who has spent the last year Mellissa Prunty – 2018 Editor from Angela over the past few years and I will very courses and will run our first two-day course (with tracking the news for anything handwriting much miss her involvement with the charity. Alas, an optional third day) in spring 2019. related. This year was a busy one for coverage on we will continue to work on NHA specific projects handwriting and Ewan has summarised the main together so she won’t be going too far too soon! We will report on the progress of these initiatives at stories beautifully! the next AGM but until then, do watch out for our Since taking over as Chair in June I have been making new website. I would like to take this opportunity moves towards scaling up our online presence. We to thank you all for your continued support of the are aware that many charities now use the internet as NHA. Here’s to an exciting year ahead. their main shop window and as such we are working on a number of exciting initiatives which we hope will Mellissa be of interest and of value to you. Our main focus for the next year will include the following: 4 Handwriting Today Handwriting Today 5 Research Articles Compiled by Emma Sumner Robot Guided ‘Pen Skill’ Training in Children with Motor Difficulties Katy A. Shire1,2*, Liam J. B. Hill1, Winona Snapp-Childs3, Geoffrey P. Bingham3, Georgios K. As technology develops, new tools and methods are Kountouriotis4, Sally Barber2 & Mark Mon-Williams1 devised to analyse and support the development Abstract. struggle with the mechanics of handwriting have of handwriting skills. The two research articles that Motor and handwriting difficulties are linked to a been shown to have reduced cognitive capacity range of negative physical, social and academic for other cognitive tasks such as generating are presented in this section share insights into new consequences. Robotic interventions have been creative ideas (Medwell et al., 2009). Therefore, it technological developments in the field. shown previously to help children with motor is unsurprising that handwriting has been found problems learn new movements. We therefore to predict academic attainment even at an early examined whether the training benefits of a robotic age (Dinehart, 2015), and manual motor control The first article, by Katy Shire and colleagues, details system would generalise to a standardised test of ability has been found to predict later academic ‘pen-skills’, assessed using objective measures attainment in both reading and mathematics a novel approach to supporting pen skill training in (e.g., the Clinical Kinematic Assessment Tool: (Cameron et al., 2012; Dinehart & Manfra, 2013; children with motor difficulties; using a robotic arm to CKAT). A counterbalanced, cross-over design Grissmer, Grimm, Aiyer, Murrah, & Steele, 2010; was used in a group of 51 children (37 male, Roebers et al., 2014). It is clearly important to guide pen movements. aged 5–11 years) with manual control difficulties. find ways of supporting children with motor and Improved performance on a novel task using handwriting difficulties in order to help them realise their academic potential. In the second study, Audrey van der Meer and the robotic device could be attributed to the intervention. However, there was no evidence Using robotic devices to support the learning of Ruud van der Weel discuss findings from adults that of generalisation to any of the CKAT tasks. The movements has shown increasing promise in the robotic system appears to have the potential to field of rehabilitation medicine (Reinkensmeyer & demonstrate the brain regions that are associated support motor learning. However, the training Patton, 2009; Williams & Carnahan, 2014).