Production of a written text involves the coordination of many skills. Handwriting represent one of main component of writing abilities (Feder & Majnemer 2007). Many studies suggest that handwriting is an important factor in composition of young children and that the poor automaticity of handwriting may interfere with the text composition (Graham et al, 1997, Medwell & Strand, 2009). For this reason it may be important to explore the development of handwriting skills as early as preschool age. The skills that contribute most to handwriting are motor skills, hand-eye coordination, attention, visual-motor integration and perceptual skills (Volman et al., 2000). There are few recent studies that have investigated the development of handwriting skills from 3 to 6 years. (Tolchinsky-Landsmann, 2003; Levine & Bus, 2003). The aims of this pilot study were: a) to explore the development of pre-writing skills in preschool children; b) analyze the relationship between the basic skills and pre-writing abilities in the different age groups. Thirty-nine preschool children (21 boys and 18 girls; 36 to 65 months) participated at this study. They were divided into three age groups: 3 years old (n = 15, M = 38 months), 4 years old (n =16, M = 50 months), 5 years old (n = 8, M = 61 months). To evaluate pre-writing skills was used the Shore Handwriting Screening (SHS, Shore, 2003), this non-standardized tool includes observation of the child’s postural and hand control, bilateral hand skills, in-hand manipulation and the child’s ability to letter formation. In addiction were evaluated visual-motor integration and visual-perceptual skills (VMI), receptive vocabolary (PPVT), nonverbal ability (Raven’s CPM) and attention ability (Barrage Leiter-r). The results showed that the older children performed better than the younger children in every skills investigated. There was no significant differences between 4 years and 5 years old children in visual-perceptual skills and in the SHS scores. The relationship between the SHS and VMI scores was significant at all age. The correlation between SHS scores and Barrage scores was significant only at 4 years. These interesting preliminary results seem useful to define different developmental profiles in pre-writing skills in preschool children.
The development of pre-writing skills: A pilot study / S., Baldi; Devescovi, Antonella; Longobardi, Emiddia. - (2012). (Intervento presentato al convegno Sig Writing Conference tenutosi a Porto, Portugal nel July 11-13, 2012).
The development of pre-writing skills: A pilot study
DEVESCOVI, Antonella;LONGOBARDI, Emiddia
2012
Abstract
Production of a written text involves the coordination of many skills. Handwriting represent one of main component of writing abilities (Feder & Majnemer 2007). Many studies suggest that handwriting is an important factor in composition of young children and that the poor automaticity of handwriting may interfere with the text composition (Graham et al, 1997, Medwell & Strand, 2009). For this reason it may be important to explore the development of handwriting skills as early as preschool age. The skills that contribute most to handwriting are motor skills, hand-eye coordination, attention, visual-motor integration and perceptual skills (Volman et al., 2000). There are few recent studies that have investigated the development of handwriting skills from 3 to 6 years. (Tolchinsky-Landsmann, 2003; Levine & Bus, 2003). The aims of this pilot study were: a) to explore the development of pre-writing skills in preschool children; b) analyze the relationship between the basic skills and pre-writing abilities in the different age groups. Thirty-nine preschool children (21 boys and 18 girls; 36 to 65 months) participated at this study. They were divided into three age groups: 3 years old (n = 15, M = 38 months), 4 years old (n =16, M = 50 months), 5 years old (n = 8, M = 61 months). To evaluate pre-writing skills was used the Shore Handwriting Screening (SHS, Shore, 2003), this non-standardized tool includes observation of the child’s postural and hand control, bilateral hand skills, in-hand manipulation and the child’s ability to letter formation. In addiction were evaluated visual-motor integration and visual-perceptual skills (VMI), receptive vocabolary (PPVT), nonverbal ability (Raven’s CPM) and attention ability (Barrage Leiter-r). The results showed that the older children performed better than the younger children in every skills investigated. There was no significant differences between 4 years and 5 years old children in visual-perceptual skills and in the SHS scores. The relationship between the SHS and VMI scores was significant at all age. The correlation between SHS scores and Barrage scores was significant only at 4 years. These interesting preliminary results seem useful to define different developmental profiles in pre-writing skills in preschool children.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
