Quantitative Evaluation of Handwriting Skills during Childhood.

Background: Handwriting skills are very important skills for school-aged children, and consist of the abilities to control writing pressure and to assess shapes visually. Currently, various kinds of research have been conducted to clarify the developmental process of handwriting to establish methods for evaluating handwriting skills. However, a gold standard method has not been established.

Purpose: This study aimed to clarify the developmental process of handwriting and to develop a new method for evaluating handwriting skills.

Method: One hundred ninety-nine children aged from 4 to 12 years old and 17 young adults participated in this study. They were asked to draw a line carefully between two parallel lines with an electronic pen. Pressure during drawing and distance from the center point of the parallel lines were monitored continually using originally developed computer software.

Results: Depending on age, the average pressure increased until seven years old, and afterward it was sustained at almost the same level as adults. The distance from the center points was similarly reduced until seven years old, and afterward it also remained at the same level. On the other hand, the time required for performance increased until the age of 7, whereupon it decreased with age. Considering the factor of speed in the second step, handwriting skills gradually improved depending on age even after seven years old.

Conclusion: In the development of handwriting skills, our study suggests that accuracy develops in an earlier stage and then the ability of speed control develops in the next stage. The new method developed in this study is expected to be useful as a tool for evaluating handwriting skills. Our method might be useful in evaluating and supporting children with neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder, who are often affected by a lack of dexterity．.