Development of cursive handwriting

The Effects of Planning and Handwriting Style on Quantity Measures in Secondary School Children’s Writing

The study aimed to evaluate the proposer, translator, editor, and transcriber process model of writing in the context of secondary school children. Eighty-three children completed written texts under conditions that facilitated the proposer and placed resource demands on the transcriber. It was found that the number of words, lexical richness, and the number of sentences were affected by transcription resource demands, while the number of sentences was increased when the proposer was facilitated. There were also by-gender interactions that indicated male writers and female writers completed the tasks to different product levels. The discussion proposes that future developments of the model take into account a more direct interaction between the transcriber and translation level processes when considering this age group.

Predicting Performance in Primary School Subjects

Correlations among letter naming, word reading, letter writing, and visual-motor integration scores at school start in Grade 1 and reading, spelling, and handwriting scores at the end of Grades 2 and 5 obtained in a longitudinal design for 217 boys and 190 girls entering Grade 1 at the age of 7 years are reported. The correlations between letter naming, word reading, and letter writing and reading and spelling in Grades 2 and 5 fall in the ranges .51≤ r≤ .62 and .43 ≤ r≤.50, respectively (α = .01). For all other correlations ( r<.40) α =.01.

Examining the relationship between motor assessments and handwriting consistency in children with and without probable developmental coordination disorder

Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) often experience difficulties in handwriting. The current study examined the relationships between three motor assessments and the spatial and temporal consistency of handwriting. Twelve children with probable DCD and 29 children from 7 to 12 years who were typically developing wrote the lowercase letters "e" and "l" in cursive and printed forms repetitively on a digitizing tablet. Three behavioral assessments, including the Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (VMI), the Minnesota Handwriting Assessment (MHA) and the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC), were administered. Children with probable DCD had low scores on the VMI, MABC and MHA and showed high temporal, not spatial, variability in the letter-writing task. Their MABC scores related to temporal consistency in all handwriting conditions, and the Legibility scores in their MHA correlated with temporal consistency in cursive "e" and printed "l". It appears that children with probable DCD have prominent difficulties on the temporal aspect of handwriting. While the MHA is a good product-oriented assessment for measuring handwriting deficits, the MABC shows promise as a good assessment for capturing the temporal process of handwriting in children with DCD.

Reliability of the detailed assessment of speed of handwriting on Flemish children

PURPOSE

This study evaluates the reliability of the Detailed Assessment of Speed of Handwriting (DASH) in a Dutch-speaking sample of children.

METHODS

The sample included 650 boys and 513 girls (age range = 9-16 years). Handwriting speed measurements were obtained using the DASH. Interrater agreement, test-retest reliability, and internal consistency were calculated; gender and age effects were analyzed.

RESULTS

Interrater agreement shows excellent reliability with intraclass correlation coefficients of at least 0.94. Test-retest correlations ranged from r = 0.65 to r = 0.81. The internal consistency measures, calculated with Cronbach's alpha, were between 0.88 and 0.94. Both gender and age have a significant effect on handwriting speed, with F (7.1144) = 17.43 (P < .001) for gender and F (7.1144) = 21.8 (P < .001) for age.

CONCLUSION

The DASH is a reliable assessment tool to evaluate handwriting speed of Dutch-speaking children. There is a tendency of girls to write faster than boys.

The lognormal handwriter: learning, performing, and declining

The generation of handwriting is a complex neuromotor skill requiring the interaction of many cognitive processes. It aims at producing a message to be imprinted as an ink trace left on a writing medium. The generated trajectory of the pen tip is made up of strokes superimposed over time. The Kinematic Theory of rapid human movements and its family of lognormal models provide analytical representations of these strokes, often considered as the basic unit of handwriting. This paradigm has not only been experimentally confirmed in numerous predictive and physiologically significant tests but it has also been shown to be the ideal mathematical description for the impulse response of a neuromuscular system. This latter demonstration suggests that the lognormality of the velocity patterns can be interpreted as reflecting the behavior of subjects who are in perfect control of their movements. To illustrate this interpretation, we present a short overview of the main concepts behind the Kinematic Theory and briefly describe how its models can be exploited, using various software tools, to investigate these ideal lognormal behaviors. We emphasize that the parameters extracted during various tasks can be used to analyze some underlying processes associated with their realization. To investigate the operational convergence hypothesis, we report on two original studies. First, we focus on the early steps of the motor learning process as seen as a converging behavior toward the production of more precise lognormal patterns as young children practicing handwriting start to become more fluent writers. Second, we illustrate how aging affects handwriting by pointing out the increasing departure from the ideal lognormal behavior as the control of the fine motricity begins to decline. Overall, the paper highlights this developmental process of merging toward a lognormal behavior with learning, mastering this behavior to succeed in performing a given task, and then gradually deviating from it with aging.

A Systematic Review of Interventions to Improve Handwriting

Background. Handwriting difficulties are among the most common reasons for referral of children to occupational therapy. Purpose. To determine the effectiveness of handwriting interventions. Methods. A systematic review was carried out. Included studies were randomized or nonrandomized controlled trials of interventions that could be used by an occupational therapist to improve written output (printing or writing) among school-aged children identified as having difficulties with handwriting. Electronic searches of relevant databases were conducted up to January 2010. Findings. Eleven studies met the inclusion criteria. These studies tested (1) relaxation and practice with or without EMG, (2) sensory-based training without handwriting practice, and (3) handwriting-based practice (including sensory-focused or cognitive focused handwriting practice). Regardless of treatment type, interventions that did not include handwriting practice and those that included less than 20 practice sessions were ineffective. Implications. Effective occupational therapy for improving handwriting must include adequate handwriting practice.

Effects of a kinesthetic cursive handwriting intervention for grade 4-6 students

OBJECTIVE

We studied whether Grade 4-6 students who participated in a kinesthetic writing intervention improved in legibility, speed, and personal satisfaction with cursive handwriting.

METHOD

Small groups of students with handwriting difficulties were seen weekly for 7 wk using a kinesthetic writing system. A repeated measures design was used to evaluate change in global legibility, individual letter formation, specific features of handwriting, and personal satisfaction.

RESULTS

Analysis revealed (1) a significant increase in ratings of global legibility (p <.01; clinically significant improvements in 39% of students); (2) significant improvements in letter formation and legibility features of baseline, closure, and line quality (all p < .05); (3) increased handwriting speed (p < .05; not clinically significant); and (4) significant increase in measures with personal satisfaction of handwriting (p < .01). CONCLUSION. A kinesthetic handwriting intervention may be effective in improving the skills of students with handwriting challenges.

Problems in developing functional handwriting

The development of handwriting quality and speed of 407 primary school children was followed from Grade 1 to Grade 5 in a longitudinal experiment. Performance was analyzed to enquire into the extent and bases for handwriting dysfunction. 27% of the children were classified as dysfunctional at the end of Grade 1. At the end of Grade 5 only 13% were so classified. Most children have adequate perception and motor abilities to develop functional handwriting. Dysfunction of handwriting speed can usually be traced to dysfunction of its quality. Dysfunction of quality can be traced to insufficient individualization in the primary instruction in handwriting which leads to a mismatch between the time allocated to teach certain letters to certain children and the time required for these children to learn the form of these letters.

Selective phosphodiesterase inhibitors for the treatment of bronchial asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Theophylline is commonly used in the treatment of obstructive airway diseases. The identification and functional characterization of different phosphodiesterase (PDE) isoenzymes has led to the development of various isoenzyme-selective inhibitors as potential anti-asthma drugs. Considering the distribution of isoenzymes in target tissues, with high activity of PDE3 and PDE4 in airway smooth muscle and inflammatory cells, selective inhibitors of these isoenzymes may add to the therapy of chronic airflow obstruction. However, initial data from clinical trials with selective PDE3 and PDE4 inhibitors have been somewhat disappointing and have tempered the expectations considerably since these drugs had limited efficacy and their use was clinically limited through side effects. The improved understanding of the molecular biology of PDEs enabled the synthesis of novel drugs with an improved risk/benefit ratio. These 'second generation' selective drugs have produced more promising clinical results not only for the treatment of bronchial asthma but also for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Comparison of cursive models for handwriting instruction

The efficiency of four different cursive handwriting styles as model alphabets for handwriting instruction of primary school children was compared in a cross-sectional field experiment from Grade 3 to 6 in terms of the average handwriting speed developed by the children and the average rate of convergence of the children's handwriting to the style of their model. It was concluded that styles with regular entry stroke patterns give the steadiest rate of convergence to the model and styles with short ascenders and descenders and strokes with not too high curvatures give the highest handwriting speed.