TY - JOUR
T1 - Dyslexic children fail to comply with the rhythmic constraints of handwriting
AU - Pagliarini, Elena
AU - Guasti, Maria Teresa
AU - Toneatto, Carlo
AU - Granocchio, Elisa
AU - Riva, Federica
AU - Sarti, Daniela
AU - Molteni, Bruna
AU - Stucchi, Natale
PY - 2015/8/1
Y1 - 2015/8/1
N2 - In this study, we sought to demonstrate that deficits in a specific motor activity, handwriting, are associated to Developmental Dyslexia. The linguistic and writing performance of children with Developmental Dyslexia, with and without handwriting problems (dysgraphia), were compared to that of children with Typical Development. The quantitative kinematic variables of handwriting were collected by means of a digitizing tablet. The results showed that all children with Developmental Dyslexia wrote more slowly than those with Typical Development. Contrary to typically developing children, they also varied more in the time taken to write the individual letters of a word and failed to comply with the principles of isochrony and homothety. Moreover, a series of correlations was found among reading, language measures and writing measures suggesting that the two abilities may be linked. We propose that the link between handwriting and reading/language deficits is mediated by rhythm, as both reading (which is grounded on language) and handwriting are ruled by principles of rhythmic organization.
AB - In this study, we sought to demonstrate that deficits in a specific motor activity, handwriting, are associated to Developmental Dyslexia. The linguistic and writing performance of children with Developmental Dyslexia, with and without handwriting problems (dysgraphia), were compared to that of children with Typical Development. The quantitative kinematic variables of handwriting were collected by means of a digitizing tablet. The results showed that all children with Developmental Dyslexia wrote more slowly than those with Typical Development. Contrary to typically developing children, they also varied more in the time taken to write the individual letters of a word and failed to comply with the principles of isochrony and homothety. Moreover, a series of correlations was found among reading, language measures and writing measures suggesting that the two abilities may be linked. We propose that the link between handwriting and reading/language deficits is mediated by rhythm, as both reading (which is grounded on language) and handwriting are ruled by principles of rhythmic organization.
KW - Developmental Dyslexia
KW - Digitizing tablet
KW - Dysgraphia
KW - Handwriting
KW - Rhythm
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84931267574&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84931267574&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.humov.2015.04.012
DO - 10.1016/j.humov.2015.04.012
M3 - Article
C2 - 26037277
AN - SCOPUS:84931267574
VL - 42
SP - 161
EP - 182
JO - Human Movement Science
JF - Human Movement Science
SN - 0167-9457
ER -