•Handwriting legibility and fluency should be considered as separable constructs.•Graphomotor skills are a stronger predictor than spelling of legibility.•Spelling skills are a stronger predictor ...than graphomotor skills of fluency.•Relations between handwriting and correlates are similar in 8-to 10-year-olds.
Recent research suggests that handwriting comprises two separate sub-skills, legibility and fluency. It remains unclear, however, how these sub-skills differ in their relationship to other abilities associated with handwriting including spelling, graphomotor skills, and selective attention. In this study, we sought to examine the extent and nature of concurrent relationships that may exist among these skills. Children in Years 3 (n = 293), 4 (n = 291), and 5 (n = 283) completed a large, group-administered battery to assess each of the above skills. Using multigroup SEM, we found that spelling, graphomotor skills, and selective attention together explained a moderate amount of variance in handwriting legibility (R2=.37–.42) and fluency (R2=.41–.58) and that these sub-skills differed in their concurrent relations. Graphomotor skills accounted for a relatively greater proportion of variance in legibility than did spelling. Conversely, there were relatively stronger contributions from variations in spelling ability to variations in fluency than from graphomotor skills. Furthermore, selective attention predicted handwriting fluency only, and it partially mediated the influence of graphomotor skills. This study further demonstrates that handwriting legibility and fluency are separable and complex skills, each differentially related to spelling, motor, and attentional abilities even in later primary school years.
Understanding number magnitude is an important prerequisite for children’s mathematical development. One early experience that contributes to this understanding is the common practice of finger ...counting. …. Accordingly, children need sufficient fine motor skills (FMS) to successfully count on their fingers. However, the role that different types of FMS (such as dexterity and graphomotor skills) might play in the development of finger-based number representations is still unknown. In the current study, the authors investigated (a) whether children’s FMS … are associated with their emerging finger-based number representations (ordinal and cardinal), (b) whether FMS explain variance in children’s finger-based number representations beyond the influence of general cognitive skills, and (c) whether the association between FMS and numerical skills is mediated by finger-based representations. The authors tested associations between preschool children’s … FMS …, finger-based number representations, and numerical skills. Furthermore, visuo-spatial working memory and nonverbal intelligence were controlled for. Dexterity was related to children’s finger-based number representations as well as numerical skills after controlling for chronological age, but not after also controlling for cognitive skills. Moreover, the relationship between dexterity and numerical skills was mediated by finger-based number representations. No such associations were observed for graphomotor skills. These results suggest that dexterity plays a role in children’s development of finger-based number representations, which in turn contribute to their numerical skills. Possible explanations are discussed. (Orig.).
We sought to identify, the impact of handwriting skills on the efficiency and temporal course of word spelling across Grades 2-9. Eighty-four students, drawn from primary and lower secondary schools, ...were asked to perform a dictation task to assess their word spelling. They also had to write out the letters of the alphabet, as well as their firstnames and surnames, from memory to assess their handwriting skills. Handwriting kinematics were recorded using a digitizing tablet and a computer running Eye and Pen software. Results revealed that graphomotor skills (as assessed by the name writing task) influenced the success and temporal course of spelling, but only in primary grades, whereas the influence of orthographic knowledge (as assessed by the alphabet task) could still be observed in the lower secondary grades, even if it ceased to influence the temporal course and only affected errors. We discuss what these findings tell us about changes in transcription processes over the course of child development.
Objective: The effectiveness of occupational therapy school programme through collaborative practice was test in pre-writing skills and the participation in school. Methods: A randomized controlled ...trial in 4 to 5-year-old students with and without disability at three ordinary schools in Alicante. The control group will participate in the ordinary literacy programme and the intervention group will be involved in an occupational therapy pre- writing programme that lasts 3 months consisting of 36 sessions. The pre-writing skills are evaluated with the McCarthy Scales of Children’s Abilities, and the participation in the school with the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2 Checklist. Discussion: To generate evidence to justify the benefits in the participation in the school that pre-writing programs could provide, implemented by occupational therapists in the school environment.
Objetivos: comprobar la efectividad de un programa escolar de terapia ocupacional mediante la práctica colaborativa de habilidades de preescritura y participación en el ámbito escolar. Métodos: ensayo clínico controlado y aleatorizado en alumnado de 4-5 años en tres escuelas ordinarias de Alicante. El grupo no intervenido recibirá un programa ordinario de lecto-escritura y el grupo intervenido participará en un programa de preescritura desde terapia ocupacional de tres meses de duración, con un total de 36 sesiones. Las habilidades de preescritura serán evaluadas a través de la batería de pruebas McCarthy y la participación en el ámbito escolar a través del Listado de Observación Conductual de la Batería de Evaluación del Movimiento para Niños-2. Discusión: generar evidencia para justificar los beneficios en la participación en el ámbito escolar que pueden aportar programas de preescritura, implementados desde terapia ocupacional en el ámbito escolar.
Deficits in fine motor coordination have been suggested to be associated with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). However, despite the negative impact of poor fine motor skills on ...academic achievement, researchers have paid little attention to this problem. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between ADHD dimensions and fine motor performance.
Participants were 43 children with a diagnosis of ADHD aged between 7 and 14 years (M=9.61; 81% male) and 42 typically developing (TP) children in the same age range (M=10.76; 75.2% male).
Children with ADHD performed worse than TP on all tasks (δFine_motor_tasks, −0.19 to −0.44). After controlling for age and ADHD-HY (hyperactivity/impulsivity), higher scores on ADHD-IN (inattentiveness) predicted a larger number of mistakes among all psychomotricity tasks and conditions (β 0.39–0.58, ps<0.05).
The ADHD group showed poorer fine motor performance than controls across all fine motor coordination tasks. However, lower performance (more mistakes), was related to the inattention dimension but not to the hyperactivity/impulsivity dimensions. Authors recommend including training and enhancement of the fine motor skills for more comprehensive ADHD treatment.
No Motor Costs of Physical Education with Eduball Cichy, Ireneusz; Kruszwicka, Agnieszka; Przybyla, Tomasz ...
International journal of environmental research and public health,
11/2022, Volume:
19, Issue:
23
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Numerous neuroscience studies demonstrate that when motor and cognitive tasks are performed simultaneously, there is dual-task interference. Experiments show that the cost is a temporal deterioration ...in motor functioning. However, there is no comprehensive research on the developmental costs of dual-task exercises incorporated into physical education (PE). Such an approach is called the interdisciplinary model of PE and is used to stimulate cognitive development. Therefore, there is a knowledge gap regarding the motor costs of methods based on this model, e.g., Eduball. The Eduball method integrates core academic subjects with PE using a set of educational balls printed with letters, numbers, and other signs. To fill this knowledge gap, we replicated the Eduball experiment, focusing on motor development. The half-year intervention occurred in one primary school class. The control group was a peer class participating in traditional PE, not based on dual tasks. We tested students' space-time orientation and graphomotor, locomotor, and object control skills. We found no motor costs of the intervention. Eduball-based PE stimulated motor development as much as traditional PE. Our study suggests that methods based on the interdisciplinary model of PE are safe for motor development. As such, it is worth considering their use in children's education.
The acquisition of handwriting skills is a crucial goal in early primary school. Yet our comprehension of handwriting development, encompassing graphomotor skills and spelling, remains fragmented. ...The identification of predictors for handwriting skills is essential for providing early support. This longitudinal study aimed to explore the predictive roles of gender, working memory, and motivation to handwrite for graphomotor skills six months later and spelling skills one year later. Paper-and-pencil tasks (graphomotor skills, spelling), a tablet task (working memory), and a questionnaire (teachers' ratings of children's handwriting motivation) were employed. This study included 363 first-grade children (49.8% girls) aged 6-9 years. Results from a structural equation model, controlling for age and socioeconomic background, revealed that girls exhibited superior performance in graphomotor skills, while boys tended to spell more accurately. Furthermore, working memory predicted graphomotor skills but not spelling. Additionally, motivation to handwrite predicted both first-grade graphomotor skills and second-grade spelling. This study extends contemporary evidence, demonstrating that graphomotor skills predict spelling while considering gender and motivation. The findings underscore the pivotal role of graphomotor skills in spelling acquisition and suggest their contribution to spelling difficulties.
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