Writing motor skills

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Writing motor skills are defined as the entirety of the movement sequences that are necessary for writing by hand. The associated motoric learning to write is also considered. The research area of ​​writing motor skills is designed to be interdisciplinary. He relates u. a. Findings from motor skills , brain research , neuropsychology , learning psychology , pedagogy and ergonomics . By means of kinematic analyzes of the writing movements of experienced, automated writers, criteria for handwriting that is favorable to movement , e.g. B. letter simplifications, motorized favorable letter connections or effective pen dropping can be determined when writing.

History of writing motor skills

Steinwachs and Teuffel (1954) reported in their work "Writing motor skills and writing materials in primary school children" that Goldscheider and Kraepelin, as representatives of psychiatry and neurology, had already dealt with the analysis of individual writing motor functions in 1892 and 1899, respectively. With this in mind, the Kraepelin working group carried out technical and experimental investigations in Germany in order to analyze the partial functions of writing pressure and speed.

In 1970 Grünewald assumed that writing was "an agreed, generally valid form that would help make communication possible". Writing is the method to be able to establish this form of communication in the first place. The motor sequence behind the writing process , the movement of writing [resp. Writing motor skills], is the actual medium that leads to writing. According to Grünewald (1970), statements about a person's writing motor skills can only be determined with the help of writing itself. To be measured writing characteristics and processes of the writing motor skills were u. a. stopping (interruption of the writing) as well as holding and writing times (of letters and sentences). For this he developed the scriptograph : a device that can be regarded as the forerunner of today's kinematic analyzes. For the first time, the opportunity was offered to “record the sequences of movements during the creation of the writing and to assign the writing movements to the writing form”. The device measured the aforementioned features, the presence of a shaky stroke, the writing pressure and the breakdown of more complex writing movements mechanically. It consisted of two paper tapes one on top of the other, which were pulled over tape reels with the help of electric motors, and a strip of carbon paper in the middle.

With the development of graphic tablets, research on writing motor skills achieved a new quality. The writing movements are recorded in real time and can be examined directly with appropriate analysis software in the sense of kinematic writing analyzes.

Starting in the 1990s, the research group around Norbert Mai and Christian Marquardt investigated the criteria and influencing factors of automated writing and thus showed, for example, the counterproductive effect of conscious movement control when writing.

In 2012 the Schreibmotorik Institut, u. a. with Christian Marquardt as a scientific advisory board for motor skills. The non-profit research institute is engaged in research on writing, especially writing motor skills. It carries out high-profile campaigns to promote handwriting that is easy to move around and regularly organizes the “International Symposium on Handwriting Skills”.

Kinematic write analysis

Kinematic writing analyzes work with a special, electronic pen, a tablet and corresponding analysis software. To do this, the position of the pen (both while writing and in the air) and the writing pressure on the tablet are continuously recorded. The writing speed , acceleration and other kinematic aspects of the writing movement can then be calculated from the data obtained.

Marquardt summarizes that the kinematic analysis is used to research handwriting in order to develop models for font generation and for automatic font recognition. The writing process is checked for invariance or development aspects will be the signature acquisition explored.

Movement-friendly writing

Writing movements are “fine motor movements of the fingers and the wrist, connected with the movement of the forearm [...], the aim of which is to convey a context in a script”. Research in writing motor skills speaks of a good or movement-friendly writing process if handwriting is legible, fluid, relaxed and efficient. More specifically, parameters such as simplified letter forms, suitable letter combinations, reducing the change in the direction of rotation or the tolerance ranges at connection points are of central importance when assessing writing that is favorable to movement. For the small-scale design of the letter shapes and to avoid premature fatigue, a high degree of finger and wrist mobility with low grip pressure and a favorable pen grip are important.

Learning to write from a motor perspective

In writing motor research, the acquisition of handwriting is primarily understood as motor movement learning. In addition to learning the shape of the letters, the main thing is to acquire an inexpensive writing movement, e.g. B. an appropriate writing speed or the automation of the writing movement, decisive.

Halsband divides the learning to write process into three phases: At the beginning, children write with controlled and slow movements. Their patterns of movement in terms of letter shapes and timing are irregular. The gradual motor learning takes place in the intermediate phase, with the writing speed increasing steadily. In the advanced phase, the learners are finally able to write automatically and quickly with skillful and even movements.

Automated writing

If a person writes with automated movements, they can unconsciously call up their stored motor processes. You do not have to pay specific attention to the manual writing process, which relieves the working memory. According to Mai and Marquardt, unconscious, automated writing is carried out at high speed, with a steady writing rhythm and a high degree of repeatability of the same movement sequences.

A conscious, visual control of movement when writing disturbs the automated execution. This could be explained by the fact that the eyes can no longer follow a moving stimulus at the usual speed of 5 Hz for experienced writers. Does the writer want to consciously B. Pay attention to individual letter details and visually check the writing process, he must reduce the writing speed accordingly.

Writing motor skills and graphic motor skills

Sattler and Marquardt (2010) use the term writing motor skills to deliberately differentiate it from the term graphomotor skills, which “aims more generally at the generation of shapes and only indirectly describes the quality of the movement patterns behind it”. Grafomotorik does not differentiate between the simple copying of letters and the much more complex process of writing. When a writing movement is economical, which influencing factors play a role and what significance the conscious visual perception has when writing is not clarified. In writing motor skills, however, reference is made to such aspects.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Homepage of the Schreibmotorik Institut eV: Definition of terms: writing motor skills and graphomotor skills . Heroldsberg 2017
  2. ↑ N. Mai: Why is it difficult for children to write? For analyzing the writing movements . In: Psychologische Rundschau, 42/1991, pp. 12-18.
  3. ↑ F. Steinwachs, I. Teuffel: Writing motor skills and writing materials in elementary school children - basics of psychomotor skills and handwriting . Goettingen 1954.
  4. ↑ A. Goldscheider: On the physiology and pathology of handwriting . In: Archives for Psychiatry, 24, 1892.
  5. ^ E. Kraepelin: General Psychiatry (Volume I) . Leipzig 1899.
  6. ↑ a b c H. Grünewald: Writing as Movement . Studies in Educational Psychology, 7, 1970.
  7. ↑ a b C. Marquardt: Writing analysis . In: D. Nowak (ed.): Hand dysfunction in neurology. Berlin / Heidelberg 2011, p. 380.
  8. ↑ a b N. Mai, C. Marquardt: Writing training in neurological rehabilitation . Dortmund 1995.
  9. ↑ I. Quenzel, N. Mai: Kinematic analysis of writing movements in first writing lessons . In: Educational Science, 28 (4), 2000, pp. 290–303.
  10. ↑ AJWM Thomassen, HL Teulings: Computer-aided analyzes of handwriting movements . In: Visible Language, 13, 1979, pp. 299-313.
  11. ↑ a b N. Mai, C. Marquardt: Analysis and therapy of motor writing disorders . In: L. Jäncke, H. Heuer (ed.): Psychological contributions. Düsseldorf 1995, p. 547 ff.
  12. ↑ JA Hollerbach: An oscillation theory of handwriting . In: Biological Cybernetics, 39, 1981, pp. 139-156.
  13. ^ R. Plamondon, CY Suen, ML Simmer (Eds.): Computer Recognition and Human Production of Handwriting . Singapore 1989.
  14. ↑ P. Viviani, C. Terzuolo: Space-time invariance in learned motor skills . In: GE Stelmach, J. Requin (Ed.): Tutorials in Motor Behavior. Amsterdam 1980.
  15. ^ J. Wann, AM Wing, N. Sovik (ed.): Development of Graphic Skills. Research Perspectives and Educational Implications . London 1991.
  16. ↑ G. Nottbusch: Handwritten language production: Language Structural and ontogenetic aspects. Tübingen 2008.
  17. ↑ G. Luria, S. Rosenblum: Comparing the handwriting behaviors of true and false writing with computerized handwriting measures . In: Applied Cognitive Psychology, 24 (8), 2010, pp. 1115-1128.
  18. ↑ a b c B. Sattler, C. Marquardt: Motor writing performance of left-handed and right-handed children in the 1st to 4th grade of primary school. In: Ergotherapy and Rehabilitation, 49 (1/2), 2010. (PDF)
  19. ↑ M. Diaz Meyer, M. Schneider, C. Marquardt, J. Knopf, C. Luptowicz: Writing motor development in first graders: results of an intervention study . In: Didaktik Deutsch, 43, 2017, pp. 33–56.
  20. ↑ N. Mai, C. Marquardt: Registration and analysis of writing movements: Questions to the writing class In: L. Huber, G. Kegel, A. Speck-Hamdan (Ed.): Insights into the acquisition of written language. Braunschweig 1998, pp. 83-99.
  21. ↑ Bavarian State Ministry for Education and Culture, Science and Art: LehrplanPLUS Grundschule .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Munich 2014. (PDF)@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.lehrplanplus.bayern.de  
  22. ↑ E. Blöcher: Difficulties in learning to write. Identifying and treating root causes . Langenau 1983.
  23. ↑ C. Marquardt, K. Söhl, E. Kutsch, Erni: Motoric writing disorders . In: U. Bredel, H. Günther, P. Klotz, J. Ossner, G. Selbert-Ott (eds.): Didactics of the German language - A manual. Paderborn 2002, pp. 341-351.
  24. ↑ U. Halsband: Motor Learning . In: S. Gauggel, M. Herrmann: Handbuch der Neuro- und Biopsychologie. Göttingen 2008, pp. 265-273.
  25. ^ PM Fitts: Perceptual-motor skill learning . In: AW Melton (ed.): Categories of human learning. New York / London 1965, pp. 243-285.
  26. ^ S. Graham, KR Harris: The role of self-regulation and transcription skills in writing and writing development . In: Educational Psychologist. 35 (1), 2000.
  27. ^ A b C. Marquardt, W. Gentz, N. Mai: On the role of vision in skilled handwriting . In: ML Simner, CG Leedham, AJWM Thomassen (eds.): Handwriting and Drawing Research: Basic and Applied Issues. Amsterdam 1996, pp. 87-97.
  28. ↑ A. Leist, H.-J. Freund, B. Cohen: Comparative characteristics of predictive eye-hand tracking . In: Human Neurobiology, 6, 1987.
  29. ↑ N. Mai, C. Marquardt, I. Quenzel: How can the fluency of writing movements be promoted . ln: H. Ballhorn, H. Niemann (ed.): Languages ​​become writing. Langwil 1997, pp. 222-230.