Is Handwriting Performance Affected by the Writing Surface? Comparing Preschoolers', Second Graders', and Adults' Writing Performance on a Tablet vs. Paper

Abstract

Due to their multifunctionality, tablets offer tremendous advantages for research on handwriting dynamics or for interactive use of learning apps in schools. Further, the widespread use of tablet computers has had a great impact on handwriting in the current generation. But, is it advisable to teach how to write and to assess handwriting in pre- and primary schoolchildren on tablets rather than on paper? Since handwriting is not automatized before the age of 10 years, children's handwriting movements require graphomotor and visual feedback as well as permanent control of movement execution during handwriting. Modifications in writing conditions, for instance the smoother writing surface of a tablet, might influence handwriting performance in general and in particular those of non-automatized beginning writers. In order to investigate how handwriting performance is affected by a difference in friction of the writing surface, we recruited three groups with varying levels of handwriting automaticity: 25 preschoolers, 27 second graders, and 25 adults. We administered three tasks measuring graphomotor abilities, visuomotor abilities, and handwriting performance (only second graders and adults). We evaluated two aspects of handwriting performance: the handwriting quality with a visual score and the handwriting dynamics using online handwriting measures [e.g., writing duration, writing velocity, strokes and number of inversions in velocity (NIV)]. In particular, NIVs which describe the number of velocity peaks during handwriting are directly related to the level of handwriting automaticity. In general, we found differences between writing on paper compared to the tablet. These differences were partly task-dependent. The comparison between tablet and paper revealed a faster writing velocity for all groups and all tasks on the tablet which indicates that all participants—even the experienced writers—were influenced by the lower friction of the tablet surface. Our results for the group-comparison show advancing levels in handwriting automaticity from preschoolers to second graders to adults, which confirms that our method depicts handwriting performance in groups with varying degrees of handwriting automaticity. We conclude that the smoother tablet surface requires additional control of handwriting movements and therefore might present an additional challenge for learners of handwriting.

Literacy Training of Kindergarten Children With Pencil, Keyboard or Tablet Stylus: The Influence of the Writing Tool on Reading and Writing Performance at the Letter and Word Level

“…Instead keyboarding on the tablet was associated with better writing and reading performance only compared with the group of children, who wrote with a stylus on the tablet screen. We assume that the increased effort in controlling the writing movements on the slippery surface of the tablet (Alamargot and Morin, 2015;Gerth et al, 2016;Guilbert et al, 2019) led to inferior word writing because children had to focus their attention on motor control and had less capacity to retrieve and write the correct letters at the appropriate positions of the word (Genlott and Grönlund, 2013). This deficit was only present at the word, but not at the letter level, presumably due to the greater complexity of word writing compared with letter writing.…”

“…Accordingly, training in both handwriting groups (pencil and stylus) should be better than in the keyboard training group. However, as writing with a stylus on the slippery surface of the tablet screen is associated with lower friction and greater demands on motor control compared with writing with pencil on a paper (Alamargot and Morin, 2015;Gerth et al, 2016;Guilbert et al, 2019), children trained with the pencil on paper should outperform children trained with the stylus on the tablet. In contrast to our assumptions, differential effects of the writing medium used during our literacy training program were heterogeneous for handwriting with pencil and keyboarding and seem to support either theoretical stance (easiness of the motor program vs. grounded cognition).…”

“…The tablet computers allowed us to implement two digital training conditions with the same device: In one digital training condition, children wrote the letters by hand on the touchscreen using a special stylus (stylus group). Handwriting training using a stylus on a tablet screen is an interesting comparison condition for traditional handwriting with paper and pencil for two reasons (for discussions, see Alamargot and Morin, 2015;Gerth et al, 2016): Firstly, writing with a stylus on a tablet screen is an option for the classroom, when handwriting, and not typewriting, should be combined with the use of a digital device (Kiefer and Velay, 2016). Secondly, the slippery glass surface of a tablet touchscreen has lower friction than paper and thus provides less sensory feedback for the writer (Guilbert et al, 2019).…”

“…Secondly, the slippery glass surface of a tablet touchscreen has lower friction than paper and thus provides less sensory feedback for the writer (Guilbert et al, 2019). Writing on a touchscreen might thus increase difficulty of motor control and might lead to disturbed writing movements compared to writing on paper as suggested by several recent studies (Alamargot and Morin, 2015;Gerth et al, 2016;Guilbert et al, 2019). It is therefore important to assess the influence of handwriting with a stylus on a tablet compared with pencil and paper.…”

36‐2: Magnetically Written Electrophoretic Display

“…If lower magnetic fields or faster writing speeds are used, the contrast ratio of the written image is reduced but there is never a condition that produces a temporal lag. In normal handwriting, speeds in the range of 60-120 mm/sec are commonly encountered [9], although for drawing and shading faster speeds may be required.…”