Learning handwriting: factors affecting pen-movement fluency in beginning writers

Skilled handwriting of single letters is associated not only with a neat final product but also with fluent pen-movement, characterized by a smooth pen-tip velocity profile. Our study explored fluency when writing single letters in children who were just beginning to learn to handwrite, and the extent to which this was predicted by the children’s pen-control ability and by their letter knowledge. 176 Norwegian children formed letters by copying and from dictation (i.e., in response to hearing letter sounds). Performance on these tasks was assessed in terms of the counts of velocity inversions as the children produced sub-letter features that would be produced by competent handwriters as a single, smooth (ballistic) action. We found that there was considerable variation in these measures across writers, even when producing well-formed letters. Children also copied unfamiliar symbols, completed various pen-control tasks (drawing lines, circles, garlands, and figure eights), and tasks that assessed knowledge of letter sounds and shapes. After controlling for pen-control ability, pen-movement fluency was affected by letter knowledge (specifically children’s performance on a task that required selecting graphemes on the basis of their sound). This was the case when children retrieved letter forms from dictated letter sounds, but also when directly copying letters and, unexpectedly, when copying unfamiliar symbols. These findings suggest that familiarity with a letter affects movement fluency during letter production but may also point towards a more general ability to process new letter-like symbols in children with good letter knowledge

Handwriting versus keyboarding: does writing modality affect quality of narratives written by beginning writers?

To date, there is no clear evidence to support choosing handwriting over keyboarding or vice versa as the modality children should use when they first learn to write. 102 Norwegian first-grade children from classrooms that used both electronic touchscreen keyboard on a digital tablet and pencil-and-paper for writing instruction wrote narratives in both modalities three months after starting school and were assessed on several literacy-related skills. The students’ texts were then analysed for a range of text features, and were rated holistically. Data were analysed using Bayesian methods. These permitted evaluation both of evidence in favour of a difference between modalities and of evidence in favour of there being no difference. We found moderate to strong evidence in favour of no difference between modalities. We also found moderate to strong evidence against modality effects being moderated by students’ literacy ability. Findings may be specific to students who are just starting to write, but suggest that for children at this stage of development writing performance is independent of modality

Cognitive predictors of shallow-orthography spelling speed and accuracy in 6th grade children

Spelling accuracy and time course was investigated in a sample of 100 Norwegian 6th grade students completing a standardized spelling-to-dictation task. Students responded by keyboard with accurate recordings of response-onset latency (RT) and inter-keypress interval (IKI). We determined effects of a number of child-level cognitive ability factors, and of word-level factors—particularly the location within the word of a spelling challenge (e.g., letter doubling), if present. Spelling accuracy was predicted by word reading (word split) performance, non-word spelling accuracy, keyboard key-finding speed and short-term memory span. Word reading performance predicted accuracy just for words with spelling challenges. For correctly spelled words, RT was predicted by non-word spelling response time and by speed on a key-finding task, and mean IKI by non-verbal cognitive ability, word reading, non-word spelling response time, and key-finding speed. Compared to words with no challenge, mean IKI was shorter for words with an initial challenge and longer for words with a mid-word challenge. These findings suggest that spelling is not fully planned when typing commences, a hypothesis that is confirmed by the fact that IKI immediately before within word challenges were reliably longer than elsewhere within the same word. Taken together our findings imply that routine classroom spelling tests better capture student competence if they focus not only on accuracy but also on production time course

Assessing handwriting: a method for detailed analysis of letter-formation accuracy and fluency

Educationally-oriented measures of handwriting fluency – tasks such as written alphabet recall and sentence copying – conflate graphomotor skill and various higher-level abilities. Direct measurement of pen control when forming letters requires analysis of pen-tip velocity associated with the production of sub-letter features that, in a skilled handwriter, are typically produced in a single, smooth movement. We provide a segmentation and coding scheme that identifies these features in manuscript letters and gives criteria for whether or not a feature is accurately formed. We demonstrate that, in skilled handwriters, these features are the product of smooth movements: The velocity profiles of adult writers (N = 27 performing a letter-copying task) producing straight-line features and curved features gave modal velocity-peak counts of 1 and 2 respectively. We then illustrate the utility of our segmentation and coding scheme by describing the velocity profiles of beginning writers (176 first grade students with minimal handwriting training). This sample produced the same features with less accuracy and with a substantially greater number of velocity peaks. Inaccurate features tended to be produced more slowly and less fluently.publishedVersio

The process-disruption hypothesis: how spelling and typing skill affects written composition process and product

This study investigates the possibility that lack of fluency in spelling and/or typing disrupts writing processes in such a way as to cause damage to the substance (content and structure) of the resulting text. 101 children (mean age 11 years 10 months), writing in a relatively shallow orthography (Norwegian), composed argumentative essays using a simple text editor that provided accurate timing for each keystroke. Production fluency was assessed in terms of both within-word and word-initial interkey intervals and pause counts. We also assessed the substantive quality of completed texts. Students also performed tasks in which we recorded time to pressing keyboard keys in response to spoken letter names (a keyboard knowledge measure), response time and interkey intervals when spelling single, spoken words (spelling fluency), and interkey intervals when typing a simple sentence from memory (transcription fluency). Analysis by piecewise structural equation modelling gave clear evidence that all three of these measures predict fluency when composing full text. Students with longer mid-word interkey intervals when composing full text tended to produce texts with slightly weaker theme development. However, we found no other effects of composition fluency measures on measures of the substantive quality of the completed text. Our findings did not, therefore, provide support for the process-disruption hypothesis, at least in the context of upper-primary students writing in a shallow orthography.publishedVersio

Writing by hand or digitally in first grade: effects on rate of learning to compose text

Data and R scripts and the development of handwriting and typing skills in Norwegian pupils

Trends in educational inequalities in old age mortality in Norway 1961−2009: a prospective register based population study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The vast majority of deaths occur in older adults. Paradoxically, knowledge on long-term trends in mortality inequalities among the aged, and particularly for those aged 80 years and over, is sparse. The historical trends in size and impact of socioeconomic inequalities on old age mortality are important to monitor because they may give an indication on future burden of inequalities. We investigated trends in absolute and relative educational inequalities in old age mortality in Norway between 1961 and 2009.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We did a register-based population study covering the entire Norwegian population aged 65-94 in the years 1961−2009 (1,534,513 deaths and 29,312,351 person years at risk). By examining 1-year mortality rates by gender, age and educational level we estimated trends in mortality rate ratios and rate differences.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>On average, age-standardised absolute inequalities increased by 0.17 deaths per 1000 person-years per year in men (P<0.001), and declined by 0.07 deaths per 1000 person-years per year in women (P<0.001). Trends in rate differences were largest in men aged 75−84 years, but differed in direction by age group in women. The corresponding mean increase in age-standardised relative inequalities was 0.4% and 0.1% per year in men and women, respectively (P<0.001). Trends in rate ratios were largest in the youngest age groups for both genders and negligible among women aged 85−94 years.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>While relative educational inequalities in old age mortality increased for both genders, absolute educational inequalities increased only temporarily in men and changed little among women. Our study show the importance of including absolute measures in inequality research in order to present a more complete picture of the burden of inequalities to policy makers. As even in older ages, inequalities represent an unexploited potential to public health, old age inequalities will become increasingly important as many countries are facing aging populations.</p