Research Round-Up: Visual Perception and Handwriting!
THE QUESTION:
How can we improve handwriting that's not exactly legible?
Some ideas include the following:
* Address Fine Motor Skills
* Improve Visual Motor Intergration (a sub-set of eye-hand coordination)
* Teach Letter Formation in a way that kids will recall letters
* Address Visual Perception . . . WAIT! WHAT IS THAT EXACTLY?
Visual perception is the ability to make sense of visual information and includes categories such as visual discrimination, visual memory, visual closure, and visual figure ground, to name some.
Think about it: If a child cannot differentiate well between complex shapes, then how can he to copy letters and remember details, such as the letters' direction, orientation, its parts, or whether it falls below the line or reaches tall above it?
THE STUDY:
Researchers in China wondered what effect addressing visual perception would have on handwriting. You can see the study here! Published in 2017 by The American Journal of Occupational Therapy two scientists worked with 28 first and second graders who were all diagnosed with dysgraphia (handwriting difficulty). For six weeks researchers worked with half of the kids in the following way:
"The focus was on training visual–perceptual . . . activities, which focused mainly on visual perception, including visual discrimination, visual memory, visual closure, and visual searching (e.g., match the picture, object, direction, sequence with one of the choices; identify the figures partially hidden; draw the missing parts of the picture)."
THE RESULTS:
Good news!
Researchers found improvement in two different areas. One was in the childrens' ability to copy at near and far-point with fewer errors. The other was in their speed of copying from a point far away.
THE PLAN:
Addressing visual perceptual skills CAN improve a child's copying speed as well as reduce the number or copying errors.
So, let's work on Visual Perception!
Our website has some ideas to build these skills. CLICK HERE TO SEE.
And try these visual perceptual activities!
* Picture Matching, What is Wrong With This Picture?, Same/Different Pictures
* Mazes, Copying shapes, Ed Emberly books are fantastic!
