Abstract
There is increasing evidence that mastering handwriting skills play an important role on academic achievement. This is a slow process that begins in kindergarten: at this age, writing is very similar to drawing (i.e. scribbles); from there, it takes several years before children are able to write competently. Many studies support the idea that motor training plays a crucial role to increase mental representations of the letters, but relatively little is known about the specific relation between handwriting skills and teaching practices. This study investigated the efficacy of cursive writing teaching. The sample comprised 141 students attending eight classes of the first grade of primary school, all with typical development, not exhibiting any cognitive or sensory disabilities, nor displaying motor disorders that could significantly hinder the execution of the writing task. We tested whether the development of academic writing skills could be effectively supported by training strategies focusing on cursive writing. All rules and characteristics of the letters were explained by demonstrating the correct writing movements, based on the idea that movement learning becomes more valuable when children begin to connect the letters in order to write individual words. Growth models on pre-, post- and follow-up measures showed that performance on prerequisites and writing and reading skills were better overall among the children in the intervention group as compared to control group.
Highlights
The research in the area of handwriting ability highlights an increase in graphical and visualspatial difficulties in handwriting [1]
“Dysfluent writing” and “shape abnormality” are key characteristics of handwriting disorders described in the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-5)
There is a neuropsychological rationale for believing that temporal control for discontinuous handwriting may be more challenging than for continuous patterns in young children due to the relatively slower cerebellum development. If this is the case, these findings suggest that teaching cursive writing should occur much earlier than it is typically done in the current education systems of most countries (e.g., Canada, France, the Netherlands)
Summary
The research in the area of handwriting ability highlights an increase in graphical and visualspatial difficulties in handwriting [1]. “Dysfluent writing” and “shape abnormality” are key characteristics of handwriting disorders described in the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-5). The term “dysfluent writing” refers to less fluent (i.e., slower) handwriting, while the term “shape abnormality” refers to distortions of pressure and irregularities in the forms of letters. According to the official international diagnostic systems [2,3,4], visual-motor and visual-spatial difficulties in writing are manifestations of a motor development disorder (dysgraphy).
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