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Evaluation of a tactile training for handwriting acquisition in French kindergarten children: A pilot study
Abstract
Handwriting is a complex activity involving perceptivo-motor, cognitive and linguistic skills. Handwriting acquisition is a slow and difficult process which requires several years of formal training for a correct mastering. In this context, we argued that there is a crucial interest in proposing new assessment methods to improve handwriting acquisition. Most of the scholar trainings for handwriting only utilize sensory visual and auditory abilities of young children (5-6 years old). Recently, we have shown that manual tactile exploration efficiently improves classical trainings in reading, handwriting, and geometry. The present work is a continuation of these studies, and aims at elaborating new trainings for handwriting acquisition. Importantly, we hypothesized that proposing exercises which aim at developing proactive motor strategies improve handwriting acquisition. Particularly we designed new handwriting exercises based on the use of a tactile tablet. This training included videos in which the writing production of each cursive letter is presented to the child. We found that this tactile training significantly improves the writing fluency in French preschoolers. Thus, in the line of our earlier studies, this pilot study tends to show that training exercises using tactile devices can be helpful for the acquisition of handwriting in kindergarten children.
... It is considered as one of the current challenges in multi-script handwriting analysis such as Arabic and Latin due to the variability of their characteristics and writing styles. After a comparative study, Jolly et al. [18] have shown that the number of children trained on digital devices [4] has improved significantly compared to others trained on paper especially in fluency terms. In this context, this paper deals with the problem of handwriting quality analysis. ...
... duration, velocity, fluency) to distinguish handwriting pathologies. Jolly et al. [18] focused on handwriting velocity in order to indicate disorders of development coordination. Various features (e.g. ...
... size, form, space, alignment, and legibility) to quantify children's writing skills. More generally, the kinematic aspect is used mainly by medical systems like [12,18] by opposition to educational systems [1,17] which is particularly interested in legibility features. ...
This work is part of an innovative e-learning project allowing the development of an advanced digital educational tool that provides feedback during the process of learning handwriting for young school children (three to eight years old). In this paper, we describe a new method for children handwriting quality analysis. It automatically detects mistakes, gives real-time on-line feedback for children’s writing, and helps teachers comprehend and evaluate children’s writing skills. The proposed method adjudges five main criteria: shape, direction, stroke order, position respect to the reference lines, and kinematics of the trace. It analyzes the handwriting quality and automatically gives feedback based on the combination of three extracted models: Beta-Elliptic Model (BEM) using similarity detection (SD) and dissimilarity distance (DD) measure, Fourier Descriptor Model (FDM), and perceptive Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) with Support Vector Machine (SVM) comparison engine. The originality of our work lies partly in the system architecture which apprehends complementary dynamic, geometric, and visual representation of the examined handwritten scripts and in the efficient selected features adapted to various handwriting styles and multiple script languages such as Arabic, Latin, digits, and symbol drawing. The application offers two interactive interfaces respectively dedicated to learners, educators, experts or teachers and allows them to adapt it easily to the specificity of their disciples. The evaluation of our framework is enhanced by a database collected in Tunisia primary school with 400 children. Experimental results show the efficiency and robustness of our suggested framework that helps teachers and children by offering positive feedback throughout the handwriting learning process using tactile digital devices.
... It is considered as one of the current challenges in multi-script handwriting analysis such as Arabic and Latin due to the variability of their characteristics and writing styles. After a comparative study, Jolly et al. [1] have shown that the number of children trained on digital devices [2] has improved significantly compared to others trained on paper especially in fluency terms. In this context, this paper deals with the problem of handwriting quality analysis. ...
... duration, velocity, fluency) to distinguish handwriting pathologies. Jolly et al. [1] focused on handwriting velocity in order to indicate disorders of development coordination. Various features (e.g. ...
... size, form, space, alignment, and legibility) to quantify children's writing skills. More generally, the kinematic aspect is used mainly by medical systems like [1], [12] by opposition to educational systems [13], [14] which is particularly interested in legibility features. ...
This work is part of an innovative e-learning project allowing the development of an advanced digital educational tool that provides feedback during the process of learning handwriting for young school children (three to eight years old). In this paper, we describe a new method for children handwriting quality analysis. It automatically detects mistakes, gives real-time on-line feedback for children’s writing, and helps teachers comprehend and evaluate children’s writing skills. The proposed method adjudges five main criteria: shape, direction, stroke order, position respect to the reference lines, and kinematics of the trace. It analyzes the handwriting quality and automatically gives feedback based on the combination of three extracted models: Beta-Elliptic Model (BEM) using similarity detection (SD) and dissimilarity distance (DD) measure, Fourier
Descriptor Model (FDM), and perceptive Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) with Support Vector Machine (SVM) comparison engine. The originality of our work lies partly in the system architecture which apprehends complementary dynamic, geometric, and visual representation of the examined handwritten scripts and in the efficient selected features
adapted to various handwriting styles and multiple script languages such as Arabic, Latin, digits, and symbol drawing. The application offers two interactive interfaces respectively dedicated to learners, educators, experts or teachers and allows them to adapt it easily to the specificity of their disciples. The evaluation of our framework is enhanced by a database collected in Tunisia primary school with 400 children. Experimental results show the efficiency and robustness of our suggested framework that helps teachers and children by offering positive feedback throughout the handwriting learning process using tactile digital devices.<br
... In addition, it facilitates the personalization of the learning process for better learning outcomes. Jolly et al. [7] presented a comparative study in French preschools that focused on handwriting acquisition using digital devices versus paper. The results showed that children trained on digital devices performed significantly better than children trained on paper, particularly in terms of fluency (decreased 'in-air' time and stopping time). ...
Automatic handwriting recognition has received considerable attention over the past three decades. Handwriting recognition systems are useful for a wide range of applications. Much research has been conducted to address the problem in Latin languages. However, less research has focused on the Arabic language, especially concerning recognizing children’s Arabic handwriting. This task is essential as the demand for educational applications to practice writing and spelling Arabic letters is increasing. Thus, the development of Arabic handwriting recognition systems and applications for children is important. In this paper, we propose two deep learning-based models for the recognition of children’s Arabic handwriting. The proposed models, a convolutional neural network (CNN) and a pre-trained CNN (VGG-16) were trained using Hijja, a recent dataset of Arabic children’s handwriting collected in Saudi Arabia. We also train and test our proposed models using the Arabic Handwritten Character Dataset (AHCD). We compare the performance of the proposed models with similar models from the literature. The results indicate that our proposed CNN outperforms the pre-trained CNN (VGG-16) and the other compared models from the literature. Moreover, we developed Mutqin, a prototype to help children practice Arabic handwriting. The prototype was evaluated by target users, and the results are reported.
... L'entraînement visuo-moteur des lettres était le plus efficace pour apprendre à écrire sur une tablette, comparé aux deux autres groupes. Auprès de scripteurs débutants , l'effet de deux entraînements multisensoriels est comparé sur l'automatisation du tracé (Jolly, Palluel-Germain & Gentaz, 2013 ;. Dans la tâche de dictée de lettres, les enfants devaient écrire sur une tablette avec un stylet avant et après l'entraînement. ...
Embodied Cognition and Education: How Does the Sensorimotor Experience Stimulate the Learning of Reading-Writing? Several teaching methods intuitively include the sensorimotor exploration into learning. In order to develop an evidence-based teaching practice, the aim of this synthesis is to demonstrate the role of sensorimotor exploration on the learning of reading and writing, taking into account the diversity of environments (materials and tools). By means of training devices aiming at the association of audio-visual and sensorimotor explorations of letters, studies in psychology, neuropsychology and neuroimaging show that motor processes contribute to the visual recognition and production of letters and words in children with a neurotypical development, children in difficulties or in adults. Consequently, in the field of education, the embodied approach of cognition makes it possible to account for the development of processes in reading-writing where sensorimotor action (kinaesthetic, writing) contributes to learning letters. Indeed, enriched encoding of the letter by the sensory-motor experience facilitates recall through activation of cognitive states of associated prior experiences. Finally, studies also show that the type of action produced by the subject and the level of prior knowledge contributes to the emergence of multimodal knowledge.
... L'entraînement visuo-moteur des lettres était le plus efficace pour apprendre à écrire sur une tablette, comparé aux deux autres groupes. Auprès de scripteurs débutants , l'effet de deux entraînements multisensoriels est comparé sur l'automatisation du tracé (Jolly, Palluel-Germain & Gentaz, 2013 ;. Dans la tâche de dictée de lettres, les enfants devaient écrire sur une tablette avec un stylet avant et après l'entraînement. ...
Au sein des approches incarnées de la cognition, un nombre croissant
d’études souligne l’étroite intrication, voire le recouvrement, des mécanismes qui
sous-tendent la sensorimotricité et la mémoire. Parmi ces approches incarnées, le
modèle Act-In (Versace et al., 2014) propose que lors d’une expérience vécue, des
traces mnésiques se forment automatiquement par le biais d’une dynamique
d’activations et d’intégrations des différentes dimensions de cette expérience, en
particulier les dimensions sensorimotrices. Lors d’une seconde expérience vécue
ultérieurement, la situation réactive en cascade ces traces antérieures, provoquant
ainsi une intégration des dimensions de la situation présente perçue et des situations
antérieurement vécues. Ainsi dans ce modèle, la perception de la situation présente
peut être influencée par les traces antérieures tout autant que les traces antérieures
peuvent être influencées par la perception présente.
Parallèlement au développement de ces approches incarnées de la cognition, la
question des liens entre la mémoire et le corps est par ailleurs discutée et
opérationnalisée dans le domaine de l’hypnose. Depuis l’essor de l’hypnose à la fin du
18e siècle jusqu’à sa pratique actuelle amorcée par Milton Erickson, plusieurs
techniques centrales en hypnose utilisent un jeu avec la mémoire de façon à pouvoir
accompagner un patient en souffrance physique ou psychique. Notamment, les
« régressions en âge » consistent à proposer à un patient de « revivre » un épisode de
sa vie de façon à l’aider à dépasser une difficulté actuelle ou modifier une perception
présente. Ces techniques centrées sur la mémoire sont courantes et leurs effets sont
souvent décrits dans la littérature. Certains domaines spécifiques, comme la question
des faux souvenirs qui peuvent apparaître consécutivement « aux régressions en âge »,
ont donné lieu à des travaux cliniques et expérimentaux alliant mémoire et hypnose.
Cependant à l’heure actuelle, ces pratiques ne bénéficient d’aucune base théorique ou
conceptuelle consensuelle, et les mécanismes permettant d’expliquer les effets de ces
techniques sont encore mal compris.
En conséquence, à travers le prisme d’une réflexion pluridisciplinaire, cet article
poursuit un double objectif. Premièrement, il s’agit de discuter de la pertinence
heuristique du modèle Act-in pour comprendre pourquoi ces techniques d’hypnose
qui disent utiliser des processus mémoriels produisent leurs effets. Deuxièmement, il
s’agit de discuter des perspectives offertes par l’hypnose, et en particulier l’intérêt de
ces techniques, pour étayer l’arsenal méthodologique qui permet d’explorer la
dimension dynamique et incarnée de la mémoire humaine.
... Accadro et al. analyze handwriting kinematics of kids on tablets by dealing with different types of features (number of strokes per letter, pen down duration...) and shows that the handwriting is based on various kinematics characteristics like velocity and spatial grouping... [6] Only one work [7] deals with Chinese characters that identify 3 types of errors related to sequence stroke, stroke relationship and stroke production. Jolly et al. [8] compare the acquisition of traces from paper and tablets. This study encourage the using of digital devices in primary schools and preschools and the development of digital workbooks to assist teachers and children. ...
div>An innovative e-learning project is presented in this paper, which is a mobile workbook that teaches handwriting at school. This mobile application proposes a new qualitative and quantitative analysis process of online cursive handwriting. It gives a real-time feedback, detects mistakes and helps teachers evaluate children’s writing skills. The main aim of this notebook is to aid kids learn how to write correctly. We analyze handwriting according to major criteria like shape, kinematics of the trace, position respect to the reference lines,
stroke order and direction.</div
... Accadro et al. analyze handwriting kinematics of kids on tablets by dealing with different types of features (number of strokes per letter, pen down duration...) and shows that the handwriting is based on various kinematics characteristics like velocity and spatial grouping... [6] Only one work [7] deals with Chinese characters that identify 3 types of errors related to sequence stroke, stroke relationship and stroke production. Jolly et al. [8] compare the acquisition of traces from paper and tablets. This study encourage the using of digital devices in primary schools and preschools and the development of digital workbooks to assist teachers and children. ...
div>An innovative e-learning project is presented in this paper, which is a mobile workbook that teaches handwriting at school. This mobile application proposes a new qualitative and quantitative analysis process of online cursive handwriting. It gives a real-time feedback, detects mistakes and helps teachers evaluate children’s writing skills. The main aim of this notebook is to aid kids learn how to write correctly. We analyze handwriting according to major criteria like shape, kinematics of the trace, position respect to the reference lines,
stroke order and direction.</div
... A subsequent study revealed a significant interaction between visual and kinesthetic feedback on hand movement control during handwriting [7]. Recent studies demonstrated that training with combined haptic and visual guidance on a touchscreen display improves the quality of handwriting in children [6], [8], [9]. ...
Handwriting is a fundamental human skill that is essential for communication yet is one of the most complex skills to be mastered. Pen-based interaction with touchscreen devices are increasingly used in digital handwriting practices to simulate pen and paper experience, but are mostly based on auditory-visual feedback. Given that handwriting relies on visual and motor skills, haptic feedback is recently explored to augment audio-visual systems to further support the handwriting process. In this article, we present an assistive platform entitled KATIB (means
writer
in Arabic) that provides high fidelity kinesthetic feedback, in addition to audio-visual feedback, to support handwriting using magnetic forces. We propose novel contactless kinesthetic guidance methods, namely proactive and retroactive guidance, to guide the handwriting stylus along a desirable trajectory based on position control. Detaching the handwriting stylus from any mechanical device enables learners to have full control over grasping and moving at their own pace and style. The proposed platform is characterized for haptic interaction. Finally, a psychophysical experiment is conducted to validate that the kinesthetic guidance is perceivable and beneficial as a sensory feedback using a novel handwriting copy task. Contactless kinesthetic feedback seems to play a significant role in supporting digital handwriting by influencing the kinematics of the handwriting process.
In this study the structure of handwriting was investigated longitudinally, across grades. The scripts of 63 primary school children were evaluated annually, starting in Grade 2. Children were followed for 5 years. An evaluation scale for children's handwriting (the BHK-scale) was used to rate the scripts on 13 characteristics and to measure the speed of writing. Principal component analysis of the BROAD matrix (in which the data collected on the five occasions are arranged side by side) showed that the structure of handwriting characteristics is very stable over these years. Principal component analysis of the LONG matrix (in which the data collected on the five occasions are arranged beneath each other) yielded three clusters of items, which concern (a) fine motor ability of the children, (b) structural performance, and (c) stylistic preference. Sex, grade, and writing speed were related to this structure. In yet another approach a principal component analysis was performed on the within-group correlation matrix of the different grades. In this way the effect of differences in means between grades was removed from the analysis. Three principal components emerged, which, after varimax rotation, correspond to the three clusters noted in the principal component analysis of the LONG matrix.
To explore the nature of directional experience and directional behavior in countries with different scripts, children and adults in the United States and in Israel were asked to copy a number of geometric shapes. The paths or sequences of strokes displayed some common developmental trends together with some specific differences stemming from the patterns taught for forming letters. Generalization from letter patterns, however, followed a nonlinear course: strongest at the time when writing is first being mastered and then declining. A similar course, it is suggested, may occur in generalizations among other cognitive or perceptual behaviors.
This study investigated the nature of the learning involved in the acquisition of perceptual motor skill in young children. A pre- to posttest paradigm was used to evaluate the effects of rule-based instruction on rule observance, copying performance, and discrimination skill. 3 ways of imparting rules were examined: demonstration, verbal description, and combined demonstrated-verbal description. The usefulness of these methods was compared with that of copying without instruction. 4 instructed and 4 noninstructed letters were presented on the pre- and posttest. 4 instructed and 4 novel letters were copied during the second posttest. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the data indicated that letter copying is a rule-governed task requiring problem-solving, hypothesis-testing activity. Demonstration of rules contributed to improved performance and to transfer of learning to novel letters. Demonstration contributed to more consistent and flexible use of rules on the posttest. Evidence of rule-based error was produced. Discrimination improved from pre- to posttest, but there was no effect specific to instruction.
Cet article présente une synthèse des travaux sur l’apprentissage du tracé de lettres par les enfants et sur les méthodes d’apprentissage de l’écriture. Après avoir brièvement présenté quelques modèles de la production écrite chez l’adulte, nous détaillons les débuts de l’acquisition de l’écriture et plus particulièrement l’étape de différenciation entre le dessin et l’écriture. Nous décrivons ensuite l’évolution des aspects statiques et dynamiques de l’écriture avec l’âge. Enfin, nous abordons les méthodes d’apprentissage de l’écriture et leurs effets.
The predictions made by the capacity theory of writing are stated, in particular with reference to the balance between the components mobilized during the management of written verbal production. Two illustrations are presented, one relating to graphical transcription and the other to spelling. A review of earlier studies demonstrates that the available data confirm the predictions of the capacity theory. An experiment is then reported relating to the effect of the level of graphical control attained by children in 3rd grade on their dictation performance. The results suggest that the components involved in written verbal production should be the focus of more precise descriptions, which will make it possible to determine which of these may be affected by an increase or reduction in the cost of the other components and the form of this effect.