Cursive Letters Research Articles

Types of handwriting and signs of dysgraphia in children and adolescents with learning difficultie

ABSTRACT Purpose: to characterize handwriting aspects of children and adolescents with complaints of learning difficulties, based on the type of handwriting they used. Methods: thirty-two children and adolescents participated in the study. They were first to eighth graders of both sexes, aged 7 to 15 years, with complaints of learning difficulties. The participants were divided according to the type of letter they used: SG1 (block letters), SG2 (cursive letters), and SG3 (mixed letters). A themed composition was analyzed with an adapted Dysgraphia Scale. Afterwards, the score obtained in the items of the Dysgraphia Scale was statistically analyzed, comparing the results between the three groups, between SG1 and SG2, SG1 and SG3, and SG2 and SG3. Appropriate statistical tests were applied, considering as significant the p-value < 0.05. Results: no difference was found regarding the groups’ age and schooling level. As for the items in the Scale, there was a difference between the three groups regarding irregular spacing in between words, collisions and adhesions, and total score. Signs of dysgraphia were observed in the three groups, according to the Scale’s criteria. Conclusion: changes in handwriting are common in children with learning difficulties, especially when they write using cursive and mixed letters.

Ornamentality as an artistic image of cursive writing in national baroque culture

The article deals with the plastic sides of a cursive letter that relates to the heyday of Ukrainian baroque, namely a distinctive and stylistic slice of time where Ukrainian culture rises to one of the highest stages of development. The Ukrainian cursive is studied on a historical paleographic basis by well-known Ukrainian figures, art critics and font-makers, but its artistic features and plastic features are hardly mentioned. The development and formation of graphs over a certain period and their distinguishing features are considered. The basic shaping elements that determine the artistic and plastic properties of Ukrainian cursive are distinguished, they also serve as constructive sign graphemes and decorative and decorative accessories. The font is not only readable – the font is perceived as a visual image, and in this the aesthetic meaning of the font, related to the graphics and painting: the formal laws of decorative image construction act like the laws of ornamental art in the font. Geometric morphology of fonts and landmarks does not use elementary forms, but extremely complex, which tend to natural bionic structures, there is an active development of sheet space, and the abundant decorative of the letter obscures the content itself. And this is one of the most important features of baroque ornamentation. The construction of an art-integral ornamental-font composition is facilitated by the fact that the font and the ornament are two-dimensional planar in nature and offer a clear rhythmic organization. The plastic sides of a cursive letter based on historical specimens are described. The ornamentation can be traced in the sophistication of style, the decorative processing of the sheet, the optimistic rhythm and the freedom to own the instrument and is subject to the most active influence of the individual "hand of the scribe".

Content and Analysis of 󰡔Iudang’s Book of Letters󰡕 Containing Cursive Letters of Cho Taechae

Content and Analysis of 󰡔Iudang’s Book of Letters󰡕 Containing Cursive Letters of Cho Taechae

Yo quiero escribir de puño y letra: cartas de un niño con cáncer sobre el trabajo en educación social en salud

The study was developed and based on the presuppositions of Social Education, therefore, in a scenario and perspective different from those of Hospital Pedagogy. The child and teacher wrote a letter expressing his ideas and feelings about the teacher's work and its implications for the learning of the cursive letter. The results obtained from this study show that the work of the teacher in the home care of children with cancer treatment, in the perspective of Social Education, favors the learning of reading and writing, making possible the cultural appropriation, in the case the written language, as a possibility of construction of the autonomy of the subject, from which he gains voice to express his ideas and feelings.

Does handedness matter? Writing and tracing kinematic analysis in healthy adults

Writing is a complex skill and it can be affected by many factors. One of the most obvious is handedness. The actual influence of handedness (especially left-handedness, since almost 10% of the population is left-handed) onto writing performance has not been fully studied in previous research. Digitalized kinematic analyses and assessments of writing strategies (i.e., graphic rules and principles) are two approaches to investigating writing characteristics poorly addressed in previous research. The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of handedness onto writing kinematics using the aforementioned approach. The study included 34 young healthy adults (of whom 11 were left-handed) performing three writing tasks on a digital board. The tasks included semicircle and figure tracing and cursive letter writing. Regarding kinematics, left-handers performed tracing movements with higher mean horizontal acceleration and lower mean horizontal jerk compared to right-handed subjects. In addition, the left-handed wrote less accurately (i.e., undershooting more writing borders) and made more pauses during the letter writing task. The obtained results suggest that handedness slightly affects writing performance, and since left- and right-handers use the same cognitive strategies to writing and tracing, the observed differences could be mainly due to biomechanical constraints, what needs further studies in more representative samples.

İlkokul Öğretmenlerinin Bitişik Eğik Yazı ve Dik Temel Harflerin Kullanımına İlişkin Görüşlerinin Değerlendirilmesi

The purpose of this study is to reveal the opinions of primary school teachers through the literacy education using joined cursive and manuscript letters. Phenomenology as a part of qualitative research methods was used in this study. The study group consists of 85 primary school teachers which are in active service in various regions of the country within the educational term of 2016-2017. Responses to open-ended statements in the questionnaire were thoroughly examined and concepts within responses were separately coded by two researchers using MAXQDA 12 software and themes were created afterwards. As the result; it was found that, most of the teachers prefer manuscript letters, joined cursive letters were preferred mostly for aesthetical reasons, manuscript letters were mostly preferred for providing ease at writing and reading and for providing more interactivity with life, difficulties in using joined cursive letters were focused mostly on writing and reading processes, and teachers thought that they could face difficulties in using manuscript letters mostly in writing process.

Neural-like computing with populations of superparamagnetic basis functions

In neuroscience, population coding theory demonstrates that neural assemblies can achieve fault-tolerant information processing. Mapped to nanoelectronics, this strategy could allow for reliable computing with scaled-down, noisy, imperfect devices. Doing so requires that the population components form a set of basis functions in terms of their response functions to inputs, offering a physical substrate for computing. Such a population can be implemented with CMOS technology, but the corresponding circuits have high area or energy requirements. Here, we show that nanoscale magnetic tunnel junctions can instead be assembled to meet these requirements. We demonstrate experimentally that a population of nine junctions can implement a basis set of functions, providing the data to achieve, for example, the generation of cursive letters. We design hybrid magnetic-CMOS systems based on interlinked populations of junctions and show that they can learn to realize non-linear variability-resilient transformations with a low imprint area and low power.

How To Write Cursive Letters

How To Write Cursive Letters

Promoting handwriting fluency in fifth graders with slow handwriting: a single-subject design study

This study used a multiple-probe design across three participants to test the effectiveness of a handwriting intervention for fifth graders (age 10–11) displaying less handwriting fluency than their peers, but without spelling disorders. The 5-h handwriting intervention provided students with explicit instruction and intensive practice in writing cursive letters, words, and sentences, through fast-paced alphabet and copying activities. Intervention effects were examined on handwriting fluency, written composition (i.e., text length, clause extension, and story elements), and self-efficacy beliefs. Results showed that the handwriting intervention was highly effective in increasing students’ handwriting fluency. There were also improvements in written composition in terms of clause extension and number of story elements. After the intervention, students also reported strengthened self-efficacy beliefs for grammar and usage skills. Overall, this study showed that handwriting interventions can effectively help students with limited handwriting skills to become fluent handwriters. Critically, findings are in line with the proposition that achieving handwriting fluency is important to support the development of writing.

Learning Letters With the Whole Body: Visuomotor Versus Visual Teaching in Kindergarten.

What constitutes effective teaching of letter learning in early school years is still uncertain. We assessed the impact of a teacher-implemented visuomotor intervention program to teach 5-year-olds' cursive letter knowledge. We compared a program in which letters were explored with the arm and whole body, with a typical visual training program. Children were tested before and after the intervention with different measures of letter knowledge. We showed a greater improvement in letter recognition following the visuomotor intervention, compared with the visual intervention. Results were mixed for letter handwriting for which we found higher scores on stroke direction and overall quality, but lower scores on fluency following whole body visuomotor teaching. We discuss our results in terms of the link between action and perception, the interaction between the different components of letter knowledge, and the link between fine and gross motor development and handwriting.

Offline Handwritten Arabic Character Recognition Using Features Extracted from Curvelet and Spatial Domains

Arabic character recognition is a challenging problem in several artificial intelligence applications, especially when recognizing connected cursive letters. Another dimension of complexity is that Arabic characters may form various shapes depending on their positions in the word. As a result, unconstrained handwritten Arabic character recognition has not been well explored. In this study, we propose an efficient algorithm for Arabic character recognition. The new algorithm combines features extracted from curvelet and spatial domains. The curvelet domain is multiscale and multidirectional. Therefore, curvelet domain is efficient in representing edges and curves. Meanwhile, the spatial domain preserves original aspects of the characters. This feature vector is then trained using the back propagation neural network for the recognition task. The proposed algorithm is evaluated using a database containing 5,600 handwritten characters from 50 different writers. A promising average success rate of 90.3% has been achieved. Therefore, the proposed algorithm is suitable for the unconstrained handwritten Arabic character recognition applications.

ГУД БАЙ, RUSSKIY ALFAVIT? ПРОБЛЕМЫ ИЗУЧЕНИЯ КИРИЛЛИЦЫ НА УРОКАХ РКИ

According to the standards of teaching RFL (Russian as a foreign language), students have to acquire the written language in the following way: cursive and printed letters should be mastered simultaneously. It is strongly recommended to start teaching the Cyrillic alphabet from the very first class. However, nowadays the situation is the following: very often students complete the studies of the Russian alphabet having mastered the printed letters only. It is at this stage of language acquisition that the majority of students experience certain serious problems, which result in the fact that the students stop learning the Russian language or their motivation to learn it decreases. More often, according to our research results, the learners are inclined to study the printed letters due to the shortage of a sufficient number of teaching hours and lack of practical necessity for them to learn to write in Russian. The teachers of Russian as a foreign language (RFL) have to adjust to the real situation and the audience: they have to avoid using the cursive letters. Sometimes RFL teachers have to exclude the use of the Cyrillic alphabet at all. Globalization, commercialism, the language policy have led to the activization of the tendency to abandon the Cyrillic alphabet and pass on to transliteration. At present there are many variants of transliteration. In the language classroom, maximum attention is paid to the teaching of listening and speaking skills at the expense of developing written skills. In our view, this causes the further levelling of the role of the Cyrillic alphabet in the Russian as a foreign language classroom, which results in setting new methodological tasks to RFL teachers. Undoubtedly, it is worth remembering that the Cyrillic alphabet is an invaluable national heritage of the Russian people, the stem of the Russian culture and a part of a cultural-educational space. Therefore, we consider any infringement on the Russian alphabet as unlawful and intolerable. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7220/2335-2027.7.2

“GOOD BYE” TO THE RUSSIAN ALPHABET: PROBLEMS OF LEARNING THE CYRILLIC ALPHABET IN THE RUSSIAN AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

According to the standards of teaching RFL (Russian as a foreign language), students have to acquire the written language in the following way: cursive and printed letters should be mastered simultaneously. It is strongly recommended to start teaching the Cyrillic alphabet from the very first class. However, nowadays the situation is the following: very often students complete the studies of the Russian alphabet having mastered the printed letters only. It is at this stage of language acquisition that the majority of students experience certain serious problems, which result in the fact that the students stop learning the Russian language or their motivation to learn it decreases. More often, according to our research results, the learners are inclined to study the printed letters due to the shortage of a sufficient number of teaching hours and lack of practical necessity for them to learn to write in Russian. The teachers of Russian as a foreign language (RFL) have to adjust to the real situation and the audience: they have to avoid using the cursive letters. Sometimes RFL teachers have to exclude the use of the Cyrillic alphabet at all. Globalization, commercialism, the language policy have led to the activization of the tendency to abandon the Cyrillic alphabet and pass on to transliteration. At present there are many variants of transliteration. In the language classroom, maximum attention is paid to the teaching of listening and speaking skills at the expense of developing written skills. In our view, this causes the further levelling of the role of the Cyrillic alphabet in the Russian as a foreign language classroom, which results in setting new methodological tasks to RFL teachers. Undoubtedly, it is worth remembering that the Cyrillic alphabet is an invaluable national heritage of the Russian people, the stem of the Russian culture and a part of a cultural-educational space. Therefore, we consider any infringement on the Russian alphabet as unlawful and intolerable. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7220/2335-2027.7.2

Un graffito de Nyon aux caractères araméens?

An intriguing graffito on wall plaster has been recently discovered during an excavation in Nyon (VD, Switzerland). During the Roman Period, Nyon named Colonia Iulia Equestris was a Roman colony of legionary’s veterans on the strategic road of Lake Geneva. The inscription does not seem to be a Latin or Greek inscription. It may be Aramaic cursive letters. The close comparison with other Hebrew and Aramaic inscriptions may give a palaeographical date around the first-second century CE. But several hypotheses of decipherment are available. If this identification is right, it would be the oldest inscription in Aramaic script discovered in modern Switzerland.

Do children with autism and Asperger's disorder have difficulty controlling handwriting size? A kinematic evaluation

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often show difficulties in controlling letter size and consistent letter formation during handwriting; however, there has been little research into the underlying nature of handwriting impairments in this group. The aim of this study was to assess the ability of children with ASD to regulate the size and consistency of fundamental handwriting movements when using writing guides, and determine whether the kinematic profile during writing is different to typically developing children. Twenty-six boys with ASD (16 with high-functioning autism, 10 with Asperger's disorder) aged 8–13 years (IQ>75), and 17 typically developing children wrote a series of four cursive letter l's using 10mm and 40mm writing guides, using a graphics tablet and stylus. Movement size and consistency was comparable between groups when the writing guides were set at 10mm; however, handwriting movements of children with ASD were significantly faster and more fluent than typically developing children when writing guides were set at 40mm. Neuromotor noise was comparable to that of typically developing children across both writing sizes. Clinically, our findings indicate that children with ASD have a well-automated motor plan for simple handwriting movements when writing guides are present and that problems of handwriting legibility in ASD are likely to arise from other factors, such as complex motor chaining (i.e. writing whole words and sentences), or attentional, working memory and linguistic demands when writing.

THE IMPACT OF THE ACQUISITION OF THE LETTERS IN A SYSTEMATIC LITERACY ON WRITING SKILLS

Learning letters is associated with a long-term learning. Two basic models are present in obtaining letters in a systematic literacy in Slovenia and abroad. One represents a separate acquisition of the uppercase and lowercase printed letters (sequentially) and the other deals with letters simultaneously. In practice, teachers often asked themselves, especially in times of reforms in literacy, which model of the acquisition of the letters in initial literacy is more efficient. The research focused on the effect of the two most frequently chosen procedures for acquiring letters of structured literacy in Slovenia, namely the simultaneous treatment of the uppercase and lowercase printed letters (lowercase cursive letters and upper-case cursive letters) and consecutive treatment of letters (uppercase printed letters, lowercase printed letters, lowercase cursive letters, and at last, uppercase printed letters). Furthermore, the focus of the research was on the impact of gender on the ability to write. The incidence of errors was observed in terms of selected procedures for acquiring the letters in groups and gender. At the same time, the effect of consolidation of writing individual letters (uppercase and lowercase printed letters in 2nd class, and lowercase and uppercase cursive letters in 3rd class), was examined. Key words: literacy, the process of acquiring letters, 2nd class, 3rd class, prior knowledge, writing skills.

A one-year survey of cursive letter handwriting in a French second-grade child with developmental coordination disorder

Nous avons analysé l’évolution de l’écriture des lettres cursives au cours de l’année de Cours élémentaire 1 (CE1/7-8ans) chez une enfant présentant un Trouble d’acquisition de la coordination (TAC), en comparaison avec celle d’enfants typiques de grande section de maternelle (GS/5-6ans; N = 98), Cours préparatoire (CP/6-7 ans, N = 85), et CE1 (N = 88). Vingt lettres de l’alphabet ont été dictées aux enfants dans un ordre aléatoire. Pour chaque lettre, huit paramètres cinématiques ont été mesurés pour évaluer la fluidité des tracés. Nos résultats montrent que les tracés des lettres de l’enfant TAC évoluent beaucoup moins au cours de l’année de CE1 que celles d’enfants typiques, et demeurent similaires à celles d’enfants de GS. En outre, le nombre de paramètres différents entre l’enfant TAC et les enfants typiques augmente avec le temps, les plus discriminatifs étant la taille des lettres et la vitesse d’écriture. Ces observations questionnent une nouvelle fois sur l’utilité d’une remédiation de l’écriture chez les enfants TAC lorsque le retard par rapport aux enfants typiques devient trop important.

A one-year survey of cursive letter handwriting in a French second-grade child with developmental coordination disorder

Nous avons analysé l’évolution de l’écriture des lettres cursives au cours de l’année de Cours élémentaire 1 (CE1/7-8ans) chez une enfant présentant un Trouble d’acquisition de la coordination (TAC), en comparaison avec celle d’enfants typiques de grande section de maternelle (GS/5-6ans; N = 98), Cours préparatoire (CP/6-7 ans, N = 85), et CE1 (N = 88). Vingt lettres de l’alphabet ont été dictées aux enfants dans un ordre aléatoire. Pour chaque lettre, huit paramètres cinématiques ont été mesurés pour évaluer la fluidité des tracés. Nos résultats montrent que les tracés des lettres de l’enfant TAC évoluent beaucoup moins au cours de l’année de CE1 que celles d’enfants typiques, et demeurent similaires à celles d’enfants de GS. En outre, le nombre de paramètres différents entre l’enfant TAC et les enfants typiques augmente avec le temps, les plus discriminatifs étant la taille des lettres et la vitesse d’écriture. Ces observations questionnent une nouvelle fois sur l’utilité d’une remédiation de l’écriture chez les enfants TAC lorsque le retard par rapport aux enfants typiques devient trop important.

Fragmentos manuscritos hebraicos del Arxiu Municipal de Girona sobre enfermedades genitales y sus remedios: edición, traducción y glosario

Two bifolios and one fragment from among the fragments of medical and pharmacological texts found in the binding of the Llibre d’Apoques (containing the receipts of payments made by the clavario on behalf of the municipal council) dating from 1380 from the Municipal Archives of Girona, are analyzed because of their linguistic and historial value. The writing and the presentation suggest that they share the same author. Relying on content details, the author presents a probable arrangement of the pages’ original order. Many of the botanical terms are given in the Catalan language (they appear in the translation in cursive letters). The rendition of the Catalan words in Hebrew letters enables us to know their pronunciation at the time.

Developmental Characteristics in Cursive and Printed Letter-Writing for School-Age Children

The current study evaluated the developmental characteristics of printed and cursive letter writing in early school-age children. We predicted fewer age-related changes on spatial and temporal measures in cursive letter writing due to lower explicit timing demands compared with printed letter writing. Thirty children wrote the letters e and l in cursive and printed forms repetitively. For printed letters, significant age effects were seen in temporal consistency, whereas cursive letters showed age-related improvement in spatial consistency. Children tended to have higher consistency for printed handwriting than they did for cursive writing. Because of an overall advantage for printed handwriting, the explicit timing hypothesis was not fully supported. We argue that experiential factors influence the development of handwriting.