Handwriting fluency and the quality of primary grade students’ writing

Until children can produce letters quickly and accurately, it is assumed that handwriting disrupts and limits the quality of their text. This investigation is the largest study to date (2596 girls, 2354 boys) assessing the association between handwriting fluency and writing quality. We tested whethe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Reading & writing Vol. 35; no. 2; pp. 509 - 538
Main Authors: Skar, Gustaf B., Lei, Pui-Wa, Graham, Steve, Aasen, Arne Johannes, Johansen, Marita Byberg, Kvistad, Anne Holten
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.02.2022
Springer
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:
Attitudes
Bilingualism
Boys
Correlation
Education
Elementary Education
Elementary School Students
Fluency
Gender
Gender Differences
Girls
Handwriting
Instructional Program Divisions
Language and Literature
Linguistics
Literacy
Native Language
Neurology
Prediction
Psycholinguistics
Scholarship
Second Language Learning
Second language writing
Social Sciences
Student Attitudes
Students
Writing
Writing ability
Writing Attitudes
Writing Skills
Attitudes
Handwriting fluency
Motivation
Children’s writing
Writing quality
ISSN:0922-4777, 1573-0905
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Until children can produce letters quickly and accurately, it is assumed that handwriting disrupts and limits the quality of their text. This investigation is the largest study to date (2596 girls, 2354 boys) assessing the association between handwriting fluency and writing quality. We tested whether handwriting fluency made a statistically unique contribution to predicting primary grade students’ writing quality on a functional writing task, after variance due to attitude towards writing, students’ language background (L1, L2, bilingual), gender, grade, and nesting due to class and school were first controlled. Handwriting fluency accounted for a statistically significant 7.4% of the variance in the writing quality of primary grade students. In addition, attitude towards writing, language background, grade and gender each uniquely predicted writing quality. Finally, handwriting fluency increased from one grade to the next, girls had faster handwriting than boys, and gender differences increased across grades. An identical pattern of results were observed for writing quality. Directions for future research and writing practices are discussed.
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ISSN:0922-4777
1573-0905
DOI:10.1007/s11145-021-10185-y