Tse Linda F L, Siu Andrew M H, Li-Tsang Cecilia W P
Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Aust Occup Ther J. 2019 Jun;66(3):292-303. doi: 10.1111/1440-1630.12550. Epub 2018 Dec 18.
This study aimed to examine the differences in developmental skills between children with and without handwriting difficulties in their last year of kindergarten education.
Standardised tests on handwriting performance and developmental skills were administered to 20 typically developing children, 21 children with handwriting difficulties in Chinese and 23 children with handwriting difficulties in both Chinese and English. We used one-way MANOVA, univariate ANOVA and post hoc comparisons, to compare the developmental skills between children with and without handwriting difficulties. Multiple regression analysis was used to identify the significant predictors of developmental skills for Chinese and English handwriting performance.
Higher proportion of children faced handwriting difficulties in Chinese than in English. Their major problem in Chinese handwriting was on stroke formation, while the results did not indicate the key factor leading to English handwriting difficulties. The results also showed that children with handwriting difficulties had significantly poorer visual motor integration, some aspects of visual perception and fine motor skills than typically developing children. Reading skills were not a key factor contributing to handwriting performance. In addition, visual and fine motor integration and spatial relationship were the significant predictors of Chinese and English handwriting performance, which accounted for 39.7 and 43.6% of the variance respectively.
First, the results suggested that more resources should be devoted to coaching children to learn Chinese than English handwriting. Second, besides direct repetitive practice on handwriting, there is a need to incorporate learning activities to facilitate the development of visual motor skills, visual perception, and fine motor skills as a preparation for learning to write or in improving handwriting performance among kindergarten children.
本研究旨在考察在幼儿园教育最后一年中，有书写困难和无书写困难的儿童在发展技能方面的差异。
对20名发育正常的儿童、21名有中文书写困难的儿童和23名有中英文书写困难的儿童进行了书写表现和发展技能的标准化测试。我们使用单因素多元方差分析、单变量方差分析和事后比较，来比较有书写困难和无书写困难儿童之间的发展技能。多元回归分析用于确定中英文书写表现的发展技能的显著预测因素。
面临中文书写困难的儿童比例高于英文。他们中文书写的主要问题在于笔画形成，而结果并未表明导致英文书写困难的关键因素。结果还显示，有书写困难的儿童在视觉运动整合、视觉感知的某些方面和精细运动技能方面明显比发育正常的儿童差。阅读技能不是影响书写表现的关键因素。此外，视觉和精细运动整合以及空间关系是中英文书写表现的显著预测因素，分别占方差的39.7%和43.6%。
首先，结果表明应投入更多资源指导儿童学习中文书写而非英文书写。其次，除了直接的书写重复练习外，有必要纳入学习活动以促进视觉运动技能、视觉感知和精细运动技能的发展，为幼儿园儿童学习书写或提高书写表现做好准备。
