Fast and accurate visual recognition of single characters is crucial for efficient reading. We explored the possible contribution of writing memory to character recognition processes. We evaluated the ability of adults to discriminate new characters from their mirror images after being taught how to produce the characters either by traditional pen-and-paper writing or with a computer keyboard. After training, we found stronger and longer lasting (several weeks) facilitation in recognizing the orientation of characters that had been written by hand compared to those typed. Functional magnetic resonance imaging recordings indicated that the response mode during learning is associated with distinct pathways during recognition of graphic shapes. Greater activity related to handwriting learning and normal letter identification was observed in several brain regions known to be involved in the execution, imagery, and observation of actions, in particular, the left Broca's area and bilateral inferior parietal lobules. Taken together, these results provide strong arguments in favor of the view that the specific movements memorized when learning how to write participate in the visual recognition of graphic shapes and letters.

Learning through hand-or typewriting influences visual recognition of new graphic shapes: Behavioral and functional imaging evidence

Early fine motor writing skills are quickly becoming recognized as an important school readiness skill associated with later academic success (Dinehart and Manfra, 2013; Grissmer et al., 2010; Son and Meisels, 2006). Yet, little is known about the development of handwriting, the extent to which it is of value in the early childhood classroom and the best means by which to teach handwriting, or at least handwriting readiness, to young children. The current work reviews the literature on handwriting and its place in early childhood education. Overall, this article serves as a call for (a) researchers to continue examining the role of handwriting in the early education and development of young children and (b) practitioners to develop and implement programmes they know to be best practice in teaching early handwriting or handwriting ‘readiness’ skills.

Handwriting in Early Childhood Education: Current Research and Future Implications.

The objective of this exploratory investigation was to examine the nature of writing instruction in kindergarten classrooms and to describe student writing outcomes at the end of the school year Participants for this study included 21 teachers and 238 kindergarten children from nine schools Classroom teachers were videotaped once each in the fall and winter during the 90 min instructional block for reading and language arts to examine time allocation and the types of writing instructional practices taking place in the kindergarten classrooms Classroom observation of writing was divided into student-practice variables (activities in which students were observed practicing writing or writing independently) and teacher-instruction variables (activities in which the teacher was observed providing direct writing instruction) In addition, participants completed handwriting fluency, spelling, and writing tasks Large variability was observed in the amount of writing instruction occurring in the classroom, the amount of time kindergarten teachers spent on writing and in the amount of time students spent writing Marked variability was also observed in classroom practices both within and across schools and this fact was reflected in the large variability noted in kindergartners’ writing performance

https://works.bepress.com/luana_greulich/1/download/

Exploring the amount and type of writing instruction during language arts instruction in kindergarten classrooms

As robots are entering into educational fields to enhance children’s learning, it becomes relevant to explore different methods of learning in the area of child–robot interaction. In this article, we present an autonomous educational system incorporating a social robot to enhance children’s handwriting skills. The system provides a one-to-one learning scenario based on the learning-by-teaching approach where a tutor-child assess the handwriting skills of a learner-robot. The robot’s writing was generated by an algorithm incorporating human-inspired movements and could reproduce a set of writing errors. We tested the system by conducting two multi-session studies. In the first study, we assigned the robot two contrasting competencies: ‘learning’ and ‘non-learning’. We measured the differences in children’s learning gains and changes in their perceptions of the learner-robot. The second study followed a similar interaction scenario and research questions, but this time the robot performed three learning competencies: ‘continuous-learning’; ‘non-learning’ and ‘personalised-learning’. The findings of these studies show that the children learnt with the robot that exhibits learning competency and children’s learning and perceptions of the robot changed as interactions unfold, confirming the need for longitudinal studies. This research supports that the contrasting learning competencies of social robots can impact children’s learning differently in peer-learning scenarios.

Children Teach Handwriting to a Social Robot with Different Learning Competencies

Objective We examined the effectiveness of an occupational therapist-led handwriting intervention for special education and at-risk kindergarteners. Method We incorporated a two-group, pretest-posttest design. Both groups consisted of kindergarteners receiving individualized education program (IEP) or Response to Intervention (RtI) support. An occupational therapist provided biweekly group handwriting instruction using the Size Matters Handwriting Program to students in the intervention group (n = 23). The control group (n = 12) received the standard handwriting instruction. Results Students in the intervention group demonstrated significantly greater gains in handwriting legibility than students in the control group. Students in the intervention group also demonstrated significantly greater gains in the prereading skills of uppercase letter recognition, lowercase letter recognition, and letter sound recognition. Conclusion This study provides preliminary support for an occupational therapist-led handwriting intervention to improve writing legibility and letter recognition in kindergarteners receiving RtI and IEP supports.

Effectiveness of a Handwriting Intervention With At-Risk Kindergarteners.

The quality of handwriting curriculum and instructional practices in actual classrooms was investigated in an in-depth case study of four inner city kindergarten classrooms using quantitative and qualitative methods. The handwriting proficiency of students was also evaluated to assess the impact of the instructional practices observed. The findings suggest that even though teachers employ a number of effective strategies, there is room for improvement in implementing effective, research-approved handwriting instruction. In particular, daily, explicit instruction, writing for fluency, writing from memory, and use of self-evaluation are areas that need improvement. Results indicate that the lack of emphasis on these practices impacted the quality of teaching and learning of handwriting skills. Future research is needed on the impact of teacher training, use of an assessment tool that objectively assesses students’ handwriting, use of reading and handwriting curriculum that complement and reinforce one another, and the effectiveness of research-based strategies in practice.

In-depth analysis of handwriting curriculum and instruction in four kindergarten classrooms

History of concussion impacts electrophysiological correlates of working memory.

Handwriting is used throughout the school day and is important to demonstrate knowledge. This research evaluated how handwriting instructional practices and intrinsic and extrinsic factors in actual classroom settings impacted learning handwriting over the course of the school year. Findings indicated that extrinsic factors (educational instructional practices, spatial constraints) and intrinsic factors (task cognitive complexity) influenced handwriting performance, but not always in the same way for writing product and process measures. In addition, stronger relationships were found between writing process measures and handwriting fluency than legibility. Even though handwriting improved over the school year, some instructional practices resulted in a widening performance gap as the school year progressed. The impact of these findings for implementing and differentiating handwriting instruction and guiding future research is discussed.

The Influence of Instructional Variables and Task Constraints on Handwriting Performance

Constraints and Development in Children's Block Construction.

In this paper we address the task of recognizing assembly actions as a structure (e.g. a piece of furniture or a toy block tower) is built up from a set of primitive objects. Recognizing the full range of assembly actions requires perception at a level of spatial detail that has not been attempted in the action recognition literature to date. We extend the fine-grained activity recognition setting to address the task of assembly action recognition in its full generality by unifying assembly actions and kinematic structures within a single framework. We use this framework to develop a general method for recognizing assembly actions from observation sequences, along with observation features that take advantage of a spatial assembly's special structure. Finally, we evaluate our method empirically on two application-driven data sources: (1) An IKEA furniture-assembly dataset, and (2) A block-building dataset. On the first, our system recognizes assembly actions with an average framewise accuracy of 70% and an average normalized edit distance of 10%. On the second, which requires fine-grained geometric reasoning to distinguish between assemblies, our system attains an average normalized edit distance of 23% -- a relative improvement of 69% over prior work.

Cathryn S. Cortesa

Papers

In-depth analysis of handwriting curriculum and instruction in four kindergarten classrooms

History of concussion impacts electrophysiological correlates of working memory.

The Influence of Instructional Variables and Task Constraints on Handwriting Performance

Constraints and Development in Children's Block Construction.

Fine-grained activity recognition for assembly videos