Handwriting Performance of Typical Second-Grade Students as Measured by the Evaluation Tool of Children\u27s Handwriting - Manuscript and Teacher Perceptions of Legibility

Background: The purpose of the study was to describe scores achieved by typical second-grade students on the Evaluation Tool of Children’s Handwriting – Manuscript and to compare scores with teacher perceptions. Method: As part of a larger study, the ETCH-M was administered to 74 second-grade students. Teachers scored classroom samples of handwriting assignments using a researcher-developed scale and scores were compared to ETCH-M scores to determine cutoff values for good versus poor handwriting. Results: Mean scores for total word legibility, total letter legibility, and total numeral legibility were 88.82%, 84.30%, and 89.26%, respectively. Cutoff scores below 82% for word legibility and 77% for letter legibility for second-grade students based on teacher perceptions of below average handwriting are cautiously suggested. Research with a larger dataset is needed. Boys scored significantly lower on the ETCH-M and this finding warrants further research. Conclusion: The findings add to the limited body of information about the psychometric properties of the ETCH-M and the normative performance of typical second-grade students

Victorian modern cursive handwriting in West Australian schools

The Victorian Modern Cursive script was introduced to Western Australia as the newly recommended handwriting style in 1990. The choice of this handwriting style, which is a foundation style similar to the Simple Modern Hand (Gourdie, 1981), was based upon the prediction that its use would facilitate the transition from beginners\u27 script to full cursive writing. This assumption has not been tested in West Australian schools and hitherto no evaluation of the new handwriting model has been conducted. This study set out to evaluate and compare the legibility and fluency of cursive writing of a group of Year 3 children who had been taught the Victorian Modern Cursive style since Year 1 with the cursive writing of a group of Year 3 children who had previously been instructed in manuscript. The subjects were 60 randomly selected children from six schools in the Perth Metropolitan area. The sample contained an equal number of boys and girls and left- and right-handed children in each group. The children were individually rated for fluency of writing behaviours (posture, pencil hold, paper position and writing movement) as they completed a short writing task. The writing samples were then rated on a 20 point scale based on the criteria of letter formation, spacing, size and alignment and slant and joins. The teachers of the six classes were also interviewed to determine their attitudes toward the new style. It was found that the children in the group who had been learning the Victorian Modern Cursive style since Year 1 (experimental group) produced significantly more legible cursive writing than the group who had previously been instructed in manuscript (control group) [t(58) =3.25,

Handwriting style classification

This paper describes an independent handwriting style classifier that has been designed to select the best recognizer for a given style of writing. For this purpose a definition of handwriting legibility has been defined and a method implemented that can predict this legibility. The technique consists of two phases. In the feature-extraction phase, a set of 36 features is extracted from the image contour. In the classification phase, two nonparametric classification techniques are applied to the extracted features in order to compare their effectiveness in classifying words into legible, illegible, and middle classes. In the first method, a multiple discriminant analysis (MDA) is used to transform the space of extracted features (36 dimensions) into an optimal discriminant space for a nearest mean based classifier. In the second method, a probabilistic neural network (PNN) based on the Bayes strategy and nonparametric estimation of probability density function is used. The experimental results show that the PNN method gives superior classification results when compared with the MDA method. For the legible, illegible, and middle handwriting the method provides 86.5% (legible/illegible), 65.5% (legible/middle), and 90.5% (middle/illegible) correct classification for two classes. For the three-class legibility classification the rate of correct classification is 67.33% using a PNN classifier

The relationship between handwriting, reading, fine motor and visual-motor skills in kindergarteners

Little is known about handwriting development in kindergarten. A vast number of studies can be found on reading, but few include writing skills and even fewer include handwriting skills in kindergarteners. This study examined the relationship between 7handwriting and reading measures at the kindergarten mid-year using the Alphabet Writing Test (Clark, 2010), Name Writing Test (Clark, 2010), and the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS; Good & Kaminiski, 2002). The 48 participating students ranged in ages from 68 to 82 months, with boys making up 53.8% of the study. Significant correlations were found between handwriting measures and DIBELS measures. Students who scored lower on DIBELS measures also scored lower on handwriting measures. The study also found a significant difference between the student`s legibility in writing upper case letters compared to lower case letters; however, the speed of writing these letters was not significantly different. Variables that predicted alphabet writing included the student`s age, ability to write first and last name, and the score on the DIBELS Initial Sound Fluency. Variables that predicted name writing were the student`s age, writing the upper and lower case alphabet, the Beery TMVisual Motor Integration (Beery & Berry, 2006), and Motor Coordination test (Beery & Beery, 2006). The implications for kindergartener`s handwriting skills and future research are discussed

Investigating Relationships Among Measures of English and Chinese Handwriting Fluency in Early-Elementary Chinese Dual Language Immersion Students

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between English and Chinese handwriting fluency measures in early-elementary Chinese Dual Language Immersion students. This was done by conducting five handwriting fluency tasks among Chinese Dual Language Immersion students and comparing the findings. First, the findings showed that there was a moderate correlation between the participants\u27 English and Chinese handwriting fluencies and that English fluencies predicted Chinese fluencies. However, the students could write English numbers and letters much faster than Chinese characters. Second, as expected, Chinese DLI participants showed that handwriting fluency improved as grade level increased. Third, third-grade students were not much faster than second-grade students on both English number and English Chinese number tasks. The study informs Chinese DLI programs as it shows that supplemental handwriting instruction is likely necessary to narrow the differences between English and Chinese handwriting fluencies. Instructional amount and quality could be improved to increase Chinese fluency, and English and Chinese partner teachers should collaborate more closely and complement each other\u27s handwriting instructional efforts. In summary, this study identifies significant differences in English and Chinese handwriting fluencies, and further studies may be necessary to consider ways to address these differences