The Effects of Script and Orthographic Complexity on the Handwriting and Spelling Performance of Children With Dyslexia

Abstract

Handwriting and spelling problems are often associated in dyslexia. However, the nature of their association is still unclear, and most of the existing research in this area is on deep orthographies (mainly English). The extent to which findings are applicable across languages is uncertain. This article examines the effects of script (manuscript/cursive) and orthographic complexity (complex/simple spellings) on the word dictation and word-copying performance of a group of 24 Italian children with dyslexia and handwriting difficulties (DH group, aged 8–10). Their performance was compared with that of a chronologically age–matched group (CA) and a group of younger children matched to the DH group for their handwriting skills (HA: handwriting age group). Children performed two classical handwriting tasks: the alphabet task and a sentence-copy task, and dictation and copy tasks of orthographically complex words and orthographically simple words. Copying was performed in manuscript and cursive. The results show that although the DH group shows a significant deficit in graphomotor processes, orthographic complexity more than the visual-motor characteristics of the task (i.e., script) affects their performance in handwriting. An advantage for cursive script in DH children, but not in the other two groups, emerges from the study.

How Do Spelling, Handwriting Speed, and Handwriting Quality Develop During Primary School? Cross-Classified Growth Curve Analysis of Children's Writing Development

“…Therefore, the hypotheses proposed in the current study are exploratory. First of all, in line with a recent experiment conducted by Arfé et al (2020), we expect the relationship between handwriting quality and spelling to be less important than the relationship between handwriting speed and spelling accuracy. Moreover, in line with the capacity theory of writing (McCutchen's, 1996), we expect the relationship between spelling and handwriting quality to be stronger at the beginning of the study, before handwriting is automatised.…”

Handwriting Legibility and Its Relationship to Spelling Ability and Age: Evidence From Monolingual and Bilingual Children

“…In studies of skill development, a common approach is to examine how individual and group differences in spelling skills influence handwriting (e.g., Abbott and Berninger, 1993;Sumner et al, 2012). Studies comparing typically developing groups and groups with known deficits in spelling, namely children with dyslexia for whom spelling difficulties are a hallmark feature, have generally focused on the fluency and real-time dynamics of handwriting processes (Sumner et al, 2012(Sumner et al, , 2014Kandel et al, 2017;Afonso et al, 2019;Arfé et al, 2019), but not legibility. These studies concur that, although handwriting difficulties (e.g., dysfluency due to pausing and pen movement durations) are not a core cause of dyslexia, they are concomitant reflections of dyslexic children's weaknesses in orthographic knowledge and processing during spelling.…”

Disruption of Functional Brain Networks Underlies the Handwriting Deficit in Children With Developmental Dyslexia

“…Behaviorally, we found that dyslexics showed reduced handwriting fluency relative to controls. This result is in line with previous research indicating that dyslexics showed impaired handwriting fluency ( Arfe et al, 2020 ). However, dyslexics and controls showed no statistically significant differences in writing speed and quality in the pen-and-paper copying task.…”