Writing and Drawing Performance of School Age Children

Abstract

The aim of our study was to investigate possible relationships between writing and drawing performance of school-aged children, in order to compare the two skills at the within-individual level. The sample consisted of 182 right- and left-handed children, aged 8 to 12 years. Children were examined by the Greek adaptation of the Luria-Nebraska neuropsychological battery in spontaneous writing, copying and writing to dictation and they were asked to complete four different drawing tasks. The results produced significant correlations between drawing scores and scores in all three writing tasks. Significant differences in drawing performance among proficient and poor hand writers were also found. On the other hand, there were no significant differences between right- and left-handers’ performance on the above tasks, despite the overrepresentation of left-handed amongst between poor writers. Our findings create a fruitful ground for the further study of early drawing as a means to predict later handwriting problems.

Handwriting speed: duration of testing period and relation to socio‐economic disadvantage and handedness

“…Finally, the results of this study also confi rm the fi ndings of recent empirical investigations (Wallen and Mackay, 1999;Bonoti et al, 2005), which indicate that there is no signifi cant difference in handwriting speed between left-and right-handed students. The surprising result that some years had twice as many left-handed students as others raises interesting questions for research around the variability of teachers' policies with regard to handedness and handwriting and around the student's perception of the issue and his or her inclination to experiment with writing with the non-preferred hand.…”

“…Phelps et al (1985) have reported a pronounced tendency for right-handed students to write faster than left-handed students. Bonoti et al (2005) found no statistically signifi cant difference between left-and right-handed groups in drawing and writing performance, but found a greater-than-expected proportion of left-handers among poor writers. Ziviani and Elkins (1984) and Wallen and Mackay (1999) found that left-and right-handed students did not differ in handwriting speed.…”

Handedness and developmental coordination disorder in Portuguese children: Study with the M-ABC test

“…As in our study, some studies pointed out no differences between right-and left-handers in motor performances (e.g., Olex-Zarychta & Raczek, 2008;Rodrigues, Freitas, Vasconcelos, & Barreiros, 2007;Rousson, Gasser, Caflisch, & Jenni, 2009), while others had revealed that left-handed children performed worse than right-handed children (Bonoti, Vlachos, & Metallidou, 2005;Giagazoglou, Fotiadou, Angelopoulou, Tsikoulas, & Tsimaras, 2001;KastnerKoller, Deimann, & Bruckner, 2007). To support our findings, there are other two studies (Cairney et al, 2008;Goez & Zelnik, 2008) which concluded that right-handed children display higher levels of TIS in the M-ABC than lefthanded children.…”

Facilitating complex shape drawing in Williams syndrome and typical development

“…The ability to produce a drawing is underpinned by a range of abilities, such as perception, spatial cognition and the execution of planned movements (Bonoti, Vlachos & Metallidou, 2005). As a result, drawing is a marker of both cognitive and neurobiological maturation.…”