From Scribbles to Script: Graphomotor Skills' Impact on Spelling in Early Primary School.

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.

Handwriting legibility and fluency and their patterns of concurrent relations with spelling, graphomotor, and selective attention skills.

Recent research suggests that handwriting comprises two separate subskills: legibility and fluency. It remains unclear, however, how these subskills differ in their relationship to other abilities associated with handwriting, including spelling, graphomotor, and selective attention skills. In this study, we sought to examine the extent and nature of concurrent relationships that may exist among these skills. Children in Year 3 (n = 293), Year 4 (n = 291), and Year 5 (n = 283) completed a large, group-administered battery to assess each of the above skills. Using multigroup structural equation modeling, we found that spelling, graphomotor, and selective attention skills together explained a moderate amount of variance in handwriting legibility (R2 = .37-.42) and fluency (R2 = .41-.58) and that these subskills 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, graphomotor, and attentional abilities even during later primary school years.

No Motor Costs of Physical Education with Eduball.

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.

How effective is fine motor training in children with ADHD? A scoping review.

BACKGROUND: Motor deficiencies are observed in a large number of children with ADHD. Especially fine motor impairments can lead to academic underachievement, low self-esteem and frustration in affected children. Despite these far-reaching consequences, fine motor deficiencies have remained widely undertreated in the ADHD population. The aim of this review was to systematically map the evidence on existing training programs for remediating fine motor impairments in children with ADHD and to assess their effectiveness. METHODS: The scoping review followed the PRISMA-ScR guidelines. In March 2020, PsycINFO, MEDLINE (PubMed), Web of Science, Google Scholar and The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews were searched for evidence. The eligibility criteria and the data charting process followed the PICO framework, complemented by study design. The investigated population included children with a formal ADHD diagnosis (either subtype) or elevated ADHD symptoms aged between 4 and 12 years, both on and off medication. All training interventions aiming at improving fine motor skills, having a fine motor component or fine motor improvements as a secondary outcome were assessed for eligibility; no comparators were specified. RESULTS: Twelve articles were included in the final report, comprising observational and experimental studies as well as a review. Both offline and online or virtual training interventions were reported, often accompanied by physical activity and supplemented by training sessions at home. The training programs varied in length and intensity, but generally comprised several weeks and single or multiple training sessions per week. All interventions including more than one session were effective in the treatment of fine motor deficiencies in children with ADHD and had a wide range of additional positive outcomes. The effects could be maintained at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Fine motor training in children with ADHD can be very effective and multiple approaches including specific fine motor and cognitive training components, some kind of physical activity, feedback mechanisms, or multimodal treatments can be successful. Training programs need to be tailored to the specific characteristics of the ADHD population. A mHealth approach using serious games could be promising in this context due to its strong motivational components.

The Implicit Contribution of Fine Motor Skills to Mathematical Insight in Early Childhood.

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. Recent research suggested that through repeated finger counting, children internalize their fingers as representations of number magnitude. Furthermore, finger counting habits have been proposed to predict concurrent and future mathematical performance. However, little is known about how finger-based number representations are formed and by which processes they could influence mathematical development. Regarding the emergence of finger-based number representations, it is likely that they result from repeated 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, we investigated (a) whether children's FMS (dexterity and graphomotor skills) 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. We tested associations between preschool children's (N = 80) FMS (dexterity and graphomotor skills), 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.

The role of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity in the fine motor coordination in children with ADHD.

OBJECTIVE: 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. METHOD: 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). RESULTS: 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 (ß 0.39-0.58, ps<0.05). CONCLUSION: 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.

Influence of handwriting skills during spelling in primary and lower secondary grades.

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.

Avaliação da relação entre o déficit de atenção e o desempenho grafo-motor em estudantes com Síndrome de Down / Evaluation of the relationship between attention-deficit disorder and the development of graphomotor skills in students with Down Syndrome

Este estudo teve como objetivo avaliar a relação existente entre o déficit de atenção e o desempenho de uma conduta grafo-motora necessária à aquisição da linguagem lecto-escrita em cinco estudantes com Síndrome de Down, de ambos os sexos, com idade compreendida entre 17 e 21 anos, matriculados na Escola Estadual Presidente Costa e Silva em Belém-PA. A metodologia de trabalho foi própria de uma avaliação de contexto que permitiu elaborar um estudo descritivo e correlacional. Como estratégia metodológica foram realizados dois testes: um de Processamento Mental para avaliar o tempo de reação a um estímulo programado e outro de avaliação das variáveis relacionadas à conduta grafo - motora. Os resultados indicaram uma estreita relação entre as duas variáveis pesquisadas, ou seja, estudantes que apresentaram um longo tempo de reação alcançaram um baixo escore no teste grafo motor e aqueles que tiveram rápido tempo de reação obtiveram um alto escore no teste grafo-motor.

This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between attention-deficit disorder and the development of graphomotor skills in language acquisition processes related to reading and writing readiness skills. The participants of the study were five students with Down syndrome, both sexes, aged 17-21, enrolled at Presidente Costa e Silva School, Belém-PA. The working methodology was a contextual evaluation within a descriptive and correlational study framework. As a methodological strategy, two tests were performed: a mental concentration processing test aimed to evaluate the reaction time to an input stimulus and a Graphomotor Developmental Test was designed to analyze the variables involved in the development of the graphomotor skills. The results indicated that there was a strict relationship between RT (reaction time) and the scores on the graphomotor tests. A low RT implied a low score on the graphomotor developmental test while a high RT implied a high score on the graphomotor developmental test.