Educationally-oriented measures of handwriting fluency--tasks such as written alphabet recall and sentence copying--conflate graphomotor skill and various higher-level abilities. Direct measurement of pen control when forming letters requires analysis of pen-tip velocity associated with the production of sub-letter features that, in a skilled…

Research Findings: Fluent and legible handwriting is associated with longer texts and higher text quality and is therefore an important goal in the primary school curriculum. While girls' handwriting tends to be more proficient than boys', potential differences in the correlates of girls' and boys' early handwriting are poorly understood. In this…

Researchers have argued that writing skills have significant implications for developing reading skills. A growing body of research has provided evidence that writing skills, in particular invented spelling, provide unique predictive information regarding future reading skills. This study examined which preschool early writing skills (i.e., name…

The aim of this research is to reveal the effects of symbolic play content activities organized in kindergarten to first reading and writing skills. For this purpose, mixed-method research has been designed. In the first stage of this research, four experiments, including pretest-posttest applied, a paired experiment-control group, were applied.…

This research article uses content analysis and descriptive analysis to examine phonics proficiency in first-grade students having difficulty learning to read, specifically examining those with and without characteristics associated with dyslexia. Writing samples from a dictation task were collected and analyzed at the beginning of the school year…

This study aimed to investigate the predictability of writing development and if scores on a writing test in the first weeks of first grade accurately predict students' placements into different proficiency groups. Participants were 832 first grade students in Norway. Writing proficiency was measured twice, at the start and at the end of first…

This study analyses the impact of certain cognitive processes on the writing of words in languages with different orthographic consistency (Spanish and Arabic) in the first and second years of Primary Education. One hundred twenty-eight schoolchildren from Ecuador and 109 from Algiers participated in this study. All the participants were aged…

This qualitative study employed a discourse analysis methodology to compare Korean bilingual students in first and third grades by examining different functions and forms of translanguaging in Korean heritage language (HL) classrooms in the U.S. By identifying linguistic functions and forms of each translanguaging occurrence, the study presents…

The objective for beginning writers is to learn how to generate alphabet-letters which are recognisable and easy to read. This study investigated the accuracy of Year 1 and 2 children's alphabet-letter-writing by evaluating their alphabet and orthographic knowledge, following evidence which identifies these skills as important for correctly…

For the proper development of writing, teachers must choose the best line for their students. To this day, it is still not very clear which is the correct or the most suitable letter for the beginning of this learning process. However, there are certain parameters that allow us to observe the "pros" and "cons" that have been…

This study investigated the role of domain-specific and domain-general factors in predicting early literacy skills in Italian children. A sample of 239 first-grade students was evaluated using a broad neuropsychological battery to assess their cognitive skills. The results showed that phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, speed of…

The purposes of this study were to identify if correlations exist between the eight sub-components of visual perception including eye hand coordination, position in space, copying, figure ground discrimination, spatial relations, visual closure, visual motor speed and form constancy, and handwriting ability. The studies also further determined…

We examined the relations of language skills (vocabulary, listening comprehension, and oral retell), transcription skills (spelling and handwriting fluency), and domain-general cognitions/executive functions (working memory and attentional control) to writing quality for English-Spanish emergent bilingual children in Grade 1. Data were from a…

Reading and writing go hand in hand, students who struggle in reading are likely to struggle in writing. Yet, when we research interventions for students with reading difficulties and writing difficulties, we rarely combine the two. In a study by Puranik et al. (2017, 2018) investigating the feasibility and promise of a whole-class peer-assisted…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine whether there is a correlation between English language proficiency level (ELP) and growth in reading for English learners (ELs) in first, second, and third grade in suburban Virginia. In order to develop language skills, it is important to take the four language domains into consideration,…