Abstract
The role of two different layouts of school furniture was investigated in the pattern legibility and spatial–temporal parameters of a graphic skill acquisition. Thirty children from the first grade of elementary school (mean age = 6 years) practiced a graphic task according to a criterion figure. They were assigned to two groups, Group of Fixed School Desk (GF) and Group with Adjustable School Desk (GA). Each child practiced the task on a digital tablet for 25 trials. The software Movalyser 2.3 processed the data from which the following measures were obtained: pattern legibility, linear spatial error and speed of execution. Two expert teachers also judged legibility. Children in the GA showed more number of legible patterns, they were slower to complete the task but they were more accurate in its reproduction. The adjustable school desk facilitates the acquisition of legible graphic patterns. Since stable graphic skills are positively correlated to the production of creative texts, studies unraveling the role of school desks to facilitate handwriting and drawing skills will contribute ultimately children’s literacy and overall educational development.
Highlights
Learning to write has been a key process in Education as it is vital for literacy
The children were randomly assigned to one of two groups defined by the school furniture layout: Group Fixed School Desk (GF) with seven boys and eight girls (n = 15), mean age of 6 years and 9 months, and Group Adjustable School Desk (GA) with nine boys and six girls (n = 15), mean age of 6 years and 7 months
Drawing without back support was predominant in both groups; still 33 % of the children form the GA rest their back on the chair while only 7 % of the children in the GF did the same
Summary
Learning to write has been a key process in Education as it is vital for literacy. Postman (1994) argues that childhood was “invented” when the need to become literate was urgent in the eighteenth century Europe. Graphic and handwriting skills have been cherished as truly motor milestones in childhood alongside walking, speaking and tool use. Even though in the twenty-first century the use of notebooks and tablets with their keyboard and touch screen, respectively, is increasing among children, there is evidence that handwriting is a skill that needs to be acquired prior to keyboarding skills (Stevenson and Just 2014). Christensen (2004) points out a significant correlation between the automaticity to perform graphic skills and the production of creative quality texts. Bearing in mind that children with handwriting difficulties are prone to have their ability to learn minimized in various dimensions (Coates and Coates 2006), the understanding of how children acquire
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