Handwriting is a complex skill that improves with
schooling and it is accomplished after the child has
achieved and integrated underlying perceptual-motor
performance components. Even though nowadays children
are expected to acquire a level of handwriting
proficiency, even on the first day of school, at least 27%
of the school population has difficulty with handwriting
and needs to be screened for (with) an intervention
program. In this paper, we examined the influence of
dysgraphia on kinematic characteristics of normal and
dysgraphic Italian children from 2nd to 5th grade of
primary school. Three cursive tasks (sequence of lelele
and Accurate and Fast copy of a sentence) were proposed
and several kinematic parameters were evaluated. Since
differences were present among grades both in normal
and dysgraphic children, each parameter was compared
between children coming from corresponding grades by
means of the Wilcoxon rank sum test. The main results
showed significant differences between the two groups
within each grade for curvilinear velocity, total length and
number of letters per second. Pen-lift durations were
significantly different only in the Accurate and Fast tasks
while number of strokes per second as well as stroke
duration and length showed significant differences
depending on the task and grade. These differences
support the hypothesis of a lower fluency and automation
as well as a different motor planning in dysgraphic
subjects. Finally, many kinematic parameters could be
useful for an early identification of dysgraphia in order to
activate an immediate rehabilitative treatment.
