The Critical Role Handwriting Plays in the Ability to Produce High Quality

Written Text

Carol Christensen

The story of Rick

There is a surprisingly robust relationship between orthographic-motor integration and students’ capacity to produce high quality written text.

Measurement of orthographic-motor integration

I. Alphabet task

II.Copy or dictate text

Evaluating Students’ Writing

• Technical accuracy of spelling and grammar

• Originality and creativity

• Logical structure, organisation and coherence

• Comprehensiveness

• Clarity, sensitivity to audience and communicative competence

Significant correlations between quality and quantity of written text which students produce, and fluency of handwriting for:

Elementary students:

Biemiller , Regan and Gang (1993)

Students Grades 1-6

Correlations .34 - .76 (fluency in handwriting and fluency in written text)

Graham, Berninger, Abbott, Abbott, and Whitaker (1997)

300 primary (Grades 1,2,3).81 mechanics and quantity of written text.5 Mechanics and quality

300 intermediate (Grades 4,5,6)Correlation .64 mechanics and fluency of written

text .64 mechanics and quality

Jones and Christensen (correlation handwriting and quality of written text).

455 Grade 1 .79 114 Grade 2 .82 115 Grade 3 .74 104 Grade 5 .70165 Grade 9 .81 158 Grade 10 .80

Handwriting exerts a continuing influence on students’ writing skills.

Smits-Engelsman and Van Galen (1997)

Longitudinal study 16 Grade 2,3,4 children.

Without assistance, children did not ‘grow out’ of difficulties.

Mojet (1991)

Normally developing children (8 to 12 years) improved with age. Children with handwriting problems, continued to experience difficulties.

The continuing role of handwriting for difficulties in written language for older students.

Connelly (2006) post secondary students.Compared with age-matched control group, students experiencing writing difficulties were poorer on measures of lower-order transcription skills but not higher-order processes (ideation, organisation, cognitive monitoring)

Peverly (2006) Handwriting exerts an influence into adulthood.

Tertiary students can experience problems in note taking and essay writing.

Children with Learning Disabilities (dyslexia)

Weintraub and Graham (1998)Grade 5 students with learning disabilities had:•Slower handwriting•Difficulty in increasing handwriting speech (executive control)

Yates, Berninger and Abbott (1994)Transcription skills best variable to differentiate good and poor writers among intellectually gifted students.

Issues of Cognitive Load• Ideation• Technical accuracy• Communicative competence• Sequencing ideas• Genre• Executive control (eg cognitive monitoring)

Resolve issues of cognitive load

Automaticity in orthographic-motor integration.

Intervention studies show that practice in handwriting can improve the quality and quantity of text that students write.

Jones and Christensen (1999)19 six and seven year-olds with difficulties in handwriting and 19 age and reading-matched peers. 10 minutes handwriting intervention per day for one semester. Significant differences in quality and quantity of text children produced at pretest which disappeared at post text

Pretest Scores for Year 8 and 9 StudentsJournal Handwriting

OMI 26.7 26.3

Quality of 10.8 9.9Written Text

Length of 116.3 108.5Written Text

Post Test Scores for Year 8 and 9 StudentsJournal Handwriting

OMI 28.5 (26.7) 48.5 (26.3)

Quality of 10.8 (10.8) 15.9 (9.9) Written Text

Length of 87.9 (116.3) 197.8 (108.5)Written Text

Effective Strategies to Teach Handwriting

• Relatively little research on teaching strategies.

• Teaching should focus on handwriting skills, little support for development of general fine motor skills.

• Focus should be on fluency not neatness or motor control.

• It’s the little things that count.

Berninger, Vaughn, Abbott, Rogan, Brooks, Reed and Graham (1997)Compared 5 conditions with a control group working on phonological awareness. The groups were, writing letters:i.after seeing teacher modelii.after looking at a written model with arrows to indicate directioniii.while looking at an unmarked exampleiv.from memory after looking at a copy with direction arrows.v.from memory after looking at an unmarked copy.

All handwriting groups improved more than the control.

Best performance was for group who wrote letters from memory after looking at a copy with arrows.

Role of Teacher Verbal MediationGraham and Weintraub (1996)found that verbal

descriptions were helpful for young beginning writers.

Berninger, et al (1997)Teacher mediation was not effective for older

students.

Jones (2004)

Gave a group of teachers one hour of professional development on how to teach handwriting and another group an hour on the importance of handwriting as well as some tips on developing students’ written language.

At the end of the year:Children in experimental classrooms had:• Significantly higher quality and quantity of written

text.• Significantly fewer spelling errors.At the end of the second year:Children in experimental classrooms:• Scored 40% higher in handwriting• Wrote 65% more text• Scored 30% higher on quality of written language• Made 50% fewer spelling errors

Teaching Practices for Young Children

ControlEmphasized skilled pencil control

Used double-lined paper

Used commercial texts

ExperimentalFocused on learning letter shapes and fluency rather then motor controlTaught all letters in Term 1Assessed each student on letter names, sounds and formationsEarly intervention to ensure individual students knew letter names, sounds and formations

Christensen (2005)Working with adolescents:Practice handwriting 15 minutes per day.Sequence:Letters based on anticlockwise circle (a, d, o, c)Stroke (l, i, j)Arch (n, m, n, r, f)Slanting strokes (v, w)Clockwise circle (b, p)Other (s,u, z)

Began with single letters, then two letters, and words.

Timed mastery tests a key feature.

In summary:Orthographic-motor integration has a remarkably strong

and enduring relationship with students’ capacity to produce high quality written text.

This applied to:young beginning writersolder secondary studentstertiary students and adults

The problem is embedded in issues of cognitive load.Effective instruction in handwriting can prevent the

development of problems in written language for young children and remediate them for older students.