Unraveling the mystery of mirror writing in typically developing children.

Abstract

Most studies of mirror writing have focused on specific populations (e.g., pathological cases) or conditions (e.g., right-handed individuals writing with their left hand); hence, many simple questions about mirror writing in typically developing 5-year-old children remain unanswered. The present study addresses 2 simple but important issues conceming the relation between (a) mirror copying single characters (digits and capital letters) and mirror writing the same characters from memory and (b) mirror writing single characters and mirror writing whole words (e.g., 1st name). To shed light on these issues, the authors carried out 3 experimental studies of children at écoles matemelles in France. The results offer new insights into the phenomenon of mirror writing. A copying task generated considerably fewer mirror writings than a writing-from-memory task, and there was a significant but weak correlation (r^ = .22) between single-character mirror writing and name mirror writing. Academic level correlated positively with the mirror writing of characters (rj = .15); however, it correlated more positively with correct writing (r^ = .32) and negatively with no (or other incorrect) writing (r^ = -.45). This suggests that the mirror writings may occur (depending on the context) between some other incorrect writings (or absence of writing) and correct writings in the development of almost all children. In addition, contextual or situational factors, such as the preceding writing or the position of the writing on the page, had a much stronger infiuence on mirror writing than individual factors, such as writing hand or gender. German articles on mirror writing. However, in recent decades, mirror writing has been discussed only spasmodically (Ellis, 1988), and most research has focused on pathological cases, specific populations, left-handed persons, or children with leaming disabilities. Consequently, many simple but fundamental issues about the normal development of mirror writing remain unresolved, including the relationships between tnirror copying single characters (digits and capital letters) and mirror writing the same characters from memory and between mirror writing single characters and mirror writing whole words (e.g., first name). The The authors thank M.-B. Parisot, an experienced primary school teacher who served as second judge in the coding of the writings of Experiments la and 2, and O. Bartlett, A. Breton, C. Martignon, and M. Traore, who tested the children and coded the writings in Experiment lb. We are also grateful to the participating children, parents, teachers, directors, educational advisers, and education inspectors for their cooperation.

Statistical Learning, Letter Reversals, and Reading

“…Thus, most of the large body of work on reversal errors has studied differences among children. However, there is some evidence that the rate of reversal errors differs for left-facing and right-facing letters, even within the same child (Fischer, 2010, 2011; Fischer & Tazouti, 2012; Simner, 1984; Treiman & Kessler, 2011). These latter studies have some limitations, which we attempted to overcome here.…”

“…The first goal of the present study was to determine whether the finding of higher reversal rates for left-facing than right-facing letters (Fischer, 2010, 2011; Fischer & Tazouti, 2012; Simner, 1984; Treiman & Kessler, 2011) would replicate in a new sample of children that is not limited to typically developing children. Replication is important given that the existing studies suggesting differences across letters have some limitations.…”

“…Supporting the idea that children implicitly learn about the typical graphic pattern, typically developing children of around 5 years of age who are asked to print such letters as d and j sometimes produce forms such as 〈b〉 and 〈 〉, respectively. Both left- and right-handed children appear to make more mirror-image reversals with left-facing letter forms such as these than with right-facing letters such as f and k (Fischer, 2010, 2011; Fischer & Tazouti, 2012; Simner, 1984; Treiman & Kessler, 2011). Children are rarely taught explicitly about the visual commonalities among the letter shapes, but these findings suggest that they pick them up implicitly.…”

“…In most of the studies (see Treiman & Kessler, 2011, for an exception), researchers did not consider whether the elevated reversal rate for a left-facing letter such as j might reflect the fact that this letter is relatively uncommon in English rather than the letter’s orientation. In addition, the children in some previous studies (Fischer, 2010, 2011; Fischer & Tazouti, 2012) wrote only a subset of the reversible letters. Moreover, researchers defined the letter categories of interest in different ways.…”

“…Moreover, researchers defined the letter categories of interest in different ways. Treiman and Kessler (2011) limited their analyses to letters that have the hasta–coda structure described by Brekle (1994); Fischer (Fischer, 2010, 2011; Fischer & Tazouti, 2012) grouped letters such as 〈C〉, which have the main concavity on the right, with letters such as 〈P〉, which have a hasta and an appendage on the right; and Simner (1984) classified letters based on an earlier theory about the motor movements that children use when copying geometric shapes (Goodnow & Levine, 1973). Here we classified letters using data on whether language users perceive them as facing right or left.…”