Rosenblum Sara, Livneh-Zirinski Miri
Department of Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, 31905 Haifa, Israel.
Hum Mov Sci. 2008 Apr;27(2):200-14. doi: 10.1016/j.humov.2008.02.011. Epub 2008 Mar 24.
Deficits in handwriting performance limit the school participation of children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD). The aim of this study was to compare the handwriting process and product characteristics of children with DCD to those of typically developing (TD) children in order to determine the best means of differentiation between the groups. Participants were 40 children, from 7 to 10 years old. The experimental group consisted of 20 children who met the criteria of DCD, and the control group consisted of 20 age- and gender-matched controls. The children were asked to perform three graded writing tasks on an electronic tablet, which was part of a computerized handwriting evaluation system (ComPET), in order to obtain measures of their handwriting process. The children's handwriting product was then evaluated by the Hebrew Handwriting Evaluation (HHE). Results showed significant differences between the groups for the handwriting process measures (on-paper and in-air time, mean pressure) and for the handwriting product characteristics (global legibility, number of letters erased or overwritten, spatial arrangement, and number of letters written in the first minute). The discriminant analysis yielded a high significant discrimination (80-90%), with the 'number of letters erased or overwritten' variable as the most differentiating variable (-.67). We concluded that an evaluation of both handwriting process and product characteristics among children with DCD provides a more comprehensive picture of their deficits. Using this method may enable practitioners to focus on children's main deficits and to tailor intervention methods so as to prevent academic underachievement and its consequences on their emotional well-being.
书写能力缺陷限制了发育性协调障碍（DCD）儿童的学校参与度。本研究的目的是比较DCD儿童与发育正常（TD）儿童的书写过程和书写成品特征，以确定区分这两组儿童的最佳方法。参与者为40名7至10岁的儿童。实验组由20名符合DCD标准的儿童组成，对照组由20名年龄和性别匹配的儿童组成。孩子们被要求在电子平板电脑上完成三项分级书写任务，该平板电脑是计算机化书写评估系统（ComPET）的一部分，以获取他们书写过程的相关测量数据。然后通过希伯来语书写评估（HHE）对孩子们的书写成品进行评估。结果显示，两组在书写过程测量指标（纸上和空中书写时间、平均压力）以及书写成品特征（整体易读性、擦除或重写的字母数量、空间排列以及第一分钟内书写的字母数量）方面存在显著差异。判别分析得出了高度显著的区分度（80 - 90%），其中“擦除或重写的字母数量”变量是最具区分性的变量（-.67）。我们得出结论，对DCD儿童的书写过程和书写成品特征进行评估，可以更全面地了解他们的缺陷。使用这种方法可能使从业者能够关注儿童的主要缺陷，并调整干预方法，以防止学业成绩不佳及其对他们情绪健康的影响。
