Assessing the acquisition of pre-writing skills in children with and without special educational needs is a time-consuming task for educators and therapists. It also involves a level of subjectivity, ...because the same set of strokes may receive different scores from different professionals. We present a system that automates the task by rating the execution of elementary figures (circle, square and triangle) according to the criteria of the Battelle guide for fine motor skills rating. The system uses a neural network trained with a collection of images drawn by 300 children and optimized through a systematic scan of hyperparameters, which revealed that shape signatures are better descriptors than Hu moments. Experiments carried out in collaboration with educators and therapists in Cuenca (Ecuador) provide evidence that the proposed system facilitates their work, automatically providing reliable assessments and in much shorter time than they would need for manual assessment, thus freeing their valuable time for education and therapy tasks.
Aim: To compare fine motor performance of 3-year-old children with visual impairment with peers having normal vision, to provide reference scores for 3-year-old children with visual impairment on the ...ManuVis, and to assess inter-rater reliability. Method: 26 children with visual impairment (mean age: 3 years 7 months (SD 3 months); 17 boys) and 28 children with normal vision (mean age: 3 years 7 months (SD 4 months); 14 boys) participated in the study. The ManuVis age band for 3-year-old children comprised two one-handed tasks, two two-handed tasks, and a pre-writing task. Results: Children with visual impairment needed more time on all tasks (p < .01) and performed the pre-writing task less accurately than children with normal vision (p < .001). Children aged 42-47 months performed significantly faster on two tasks and had better total scores than children aged 36-41 months (p < .05). Inter-rater reliability was excellent (Intra-class Correlation Coefficient = 0.96-0.99). Conclusions: The ManuVis age band for 3-year-old children is appropriate to assess fine motor skills, and is sensitive to differences between children with visual impairment and normal vision and between half-year age groups. Reference scores are provided for 3-year-old children with visual impairment to identify delayed fine motor development.
Objectve: Attention deficit with hyperactivity disorder is one of the most important mental disorders in childhood (ADHD). The American Psychiatric Associated has estimated it’s out bread between 3-5 ...Percent. On the other hand, writing is also one of the special needs in every Body’s life, and any disorders and difficulties in it, may lead to Many problems in making social communication and learning. In the study, using one of the most efficient Prehensioble tests, and furtherly analyzed the pre – writing skills in ADHD children. The goal of this study is to compare ADHD children with normal children in age group of 4-6 years of old. Materials & Methods: The present study is a cross-sectional&case-control Study on 21 boys of about 4-6 years of old, without any mental disease record, orthopedic disease in hand either out any other affected diseases, and without the application of any occupational therapy. 21 boys of the some age were chosen as a control group. Pre – writing skills were analyzed utilizing EDPA test, and in two sections of pencil grasp and drawing skills. Test score’s ranking valued “between” 1-4 in every question. Results: The T test results showed that the Pencil grasps and drawing skills in ADHD Children and normal Children are different. According to the T test, the average scores in ADHD children in pencil grasp is lower than normal children. The T test also showed differences between the two groups in drawing skills. Conclusion: Generally, the results of this study showed ADHD children have weaker pre – writing skills than the normal children.
Assessing the acquisition of pre-writing skills in children with and without special educational needs is a time-consuming task for educators and therapists. It also involves a level of subjectivity, ...because the same set of strokes may receive different scores from different professionals. We present a system that automates the task by rating the execution of elementary figures (circle, square and triangle) according to the criteria of the Battelle guide for fine motor skills rating. The system uses a neural network trained with a collection of images drawn by 300 children and optimized through a systematic scan of hyperparameters, which revealed that shape signatures are better descriptors than Hu moments. Experiments carried out in collaboration with educators and therapists in Cuenca (Ecuador) provide evidence that the proposed system facilitates their work, automatically providing reliable assessments and in much shorter time than they would need for manual assessment, thus freeing their valuable time for education and therapy tasks.
Razvoj predvještina čitanja i pisanja počinje u najranijoj dobi. Kako bi dijete napredovalo tijekom formalnoga obrazovanja, u predškolskom se razdoblju trebaju stvoriti preduvjeti za uredan jezični ...razvoj. U teorijskom okviru ovoga rada definiramo temeljne jezične predvještine i određujemo moguće metodičke postupke odgojitelja. U te se postupke ubrajaju svi oblici aktivnosti, komunikacije i ponašanja odgojitelja i djece, partnerstvo s roditeljima, motiviranost s ciljem dosezanja definiranih kurikulskih ishoda. U istraživačkom dijelu prikazujemo kvalitativno istraživanje provedeno metodom intervjua. Ispitanice su bile odgojiteljice iz dviju predškolskih ustanova u Zagrebu (N=6). Cilj istraživanja bio je dobiti uvid u metodičke postupke odgojitelja koji pridonose razvoju jezičnih predvještina čitanja i pisanja. Odgovori ispitanica analizirani su i kategorizirani prema postavljenim istraživačkim pitanjima. Rezultati istraživanja upućuju na to da odgojiteljevi metodički postupci pridonose razvoju predvještina čitanja i pisanja. Iznimno je važno uvažavati individualne karakteristike svakoga djeteta te utjecati na njegov jezični razvoj.
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