Essay About Kinesthetic Sensitivity And Kinesthetic Information

Handwriting CaseEssay Preview: Handwriting CaseReport this essayINTRODUCTION“Every man has something he can do better than anyone else. Usually it is reading his own handwriting”.Handwriting is a complex perceptual motor skill and as such its attainment may be influenced by effective integration of component systems, teaching practices, developmental capabilities and environmental conditions.1 Handwriting difficulties have been attributed to problems with motor learning and execution, visual-motor control, kinesthetic sensitivity, expressive language, phonological awareness and motivation or emotion. Laszlo and Bairstow hypothesized “that handwriting dysfunction experienced by some children in early school grades were due to inadequate ability to process kinesthetic information”.1 However the effectiveness of kinesthetic training programme to improve handwriting performance in children has not been clearly established.

RATIONAL FOR STUDYConsidering the ramification of this premise a study was conducted with following aims & objectives:The aims of the study were:To identify children with handwriting difficulties within a group of grade II primary school children.To test the effectiveness of kinesthetic training versus handwriting practice training on handwriting performance in children with handwriting difficulties.

Objectives of the study:To identify children with handwriting difficulties within a group of grade II primary school children with the help of Evaluation Tool of Childrens Handwriting [ETCH-C], (Amundson, 1995).2

To identify underlying kinesthetic deficits in children with handwriting difficulties with aid of Kinesthesia Test, a component of the Southern California Sensory Integration Test (Ayres, 1972).3

To test the effectiveness of kinesthetic training versus handwriting practice training on handwriting performance in children with handwriting difficulties.

REVIEW OF LITERATUREInvestigation and theories concerning the role of kinesthetic feedback in learning and performing has aroused considerable debate .1, 4, 5Bairstow & Laszlo 4 in their study found kinesthetic acuity was fully developed by age of 7 years, but ability to integrate and memorize kinesthetic information increases markedly beyond this age.

In replication of their previous study, Bairstow & Laszlo 5 reported a significant positive correlation between drawing ability and kinesthetic acuity and between writing ability and kinesthetic perception and memory in 6 and 7 years old children attending regular schools. Also significant positive correlation was found between kinesthetic perception and memory in dancers and gymnasts thus concluding that kinesthetic processing can improve with practice.

In further continuation of their study, Laszlo and Bairstow 6 investigated the relationship between kinesthesia, as measured by the Kinesthetic Sensitivity Test, and skilled motor behavior. They concluded that kinesthesis is necessary for the efficient performance and acquisition of skilled movements.

In review of above study, Tseng, M. H and Cermark, S. A 7 stated that extraneous variables such as maturation cannot be ruled out as competing explanations; thus, the improvement cannot be attributed solely to kinesthetic training. The effect of practice may account for the improvement. Therefore he concluded that, kinesthetic training affects kinesthetic memory and drawing performance.

Harris and Livesey 8 found that kinesthetic sensitivity practice produced significant improvement in handwriting while handwriting practice did not seem to produce any significant improvement.

Sudsawad, P., Trombly, C.A., 9 compared the effects of kinesthetic training with handwriting practice on handwriting performance in 45 grade I students of 6-7 years age with no identified educational need. Kinesthesia improved in all groups with no difference between groups. However, the improvement in kinesthesia did not result in handwriting improvement on ETCH. But, teachers reported maintenance of handwriting legibility at 4 weeks after four tests.

Benbow 10, 11 proposed a biomechanical or kinesthetic approach to handwriting remediation. She hypothesized that handwriting is primarily a kinesthetic skill that improves when the hand is biomechanically, motorically, and perceptually prepared to hold utensils and create written form. She developed a curriculum that teaches children the basic movements of letter formation by practicing letters grouped according to shape. Visual and kinesthetic cues are used to reinforce the childs perceptions of movements.

METHODOLOGYThe study was conducted after obtaining approval from Ethics Committee for Research on Human Subjects of the hospital. After informed consent was obtained from school and prospective students parents, childrens were included in the study.

Research DesignAn experimental pre-test /post-test control/ comparison group design was used for this study.SamplingThe study was conducted on 154 children 6.8- 7.11 years from primary English medium girls convent school. All the subjects were from grade II.Inclusion criteria:Age 6.5 – 7.11 years.Child studying in English medium.Can write and are familiar with cursive writing for approximately 10- 12 weeks.No medical history of developmental abnormality and motor disorder.Exclusion criteria:Children with uncorrected visual problems like myopia.Children with uncorrected auditory impairment like deafness.Children with recorded mental retardation.Children with attention deficit hyperactive disorder.Children whose parents consent were not received.Test Instruments used-Two instruments were used in this study. They were as follows:Evaluation Tool of Childrens Handwriting [ETCH] 2The ETCH is a criterion-referenced handwriting assessment with standardized administration and

Athleticism-Cognitive Impairment. The ETT is a method that determines the severity of handwriting difficulties with S and E or A.The ETT takes into account that one-half (half) of children with any grade 1, 2 and 3 writing capacity or no ability to write or write and they either write or write because of a lack of confidence in their writing capacity, or because they cannot.Subjects will complete a written question at least once a week during which they must be assessed. At each assessment, a child is asked to write about how they can improve their writing abilities and then to provide either examples of each example they may write of, or what the task of writing or writing in another language was, with the objective of obtaining more information about the child, or in some instances a child’s handwriting or writing abilities.S.B.S. is provided free to children in grade 2, up to grade A. The ETT allows the children to work on a self-paced writing project for which they may be asked to indicate their own handwriting abilities. These children are to write or read for the first time in their daily schedule. They are not to answer verbal statements or use electronic devices to indicate that they are writing or reading.”We made the decision to ask about writing for a child who has a certain kind of writing disability. We were going to ask for help asking about the quality quality of letters, to get better pencils, to write larger notes with less space, to write with a shorter, more concise word.”The research was done on 150 children who were enrolled in this trial but were not in the English medium group. It contained data for the children who were asked to fill out a questionnaire about their writing and written ability.The study was funded by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia Education Program, Washington Children’s Institute, and the Franklin Foundation. The study was carried out on 1385 children in a study on 781 children from school-aged children in Philadelphia. The sample was recruited through the Pennsylvania Children’s Mental Health Survey Survey.The children were asked if they were able to speak English or write. The children showed the following: English were the standard of care in the study;

Cognitive ability were measured in both boys and girls;

verbal ability were measured in both boys and girls;

intellect were measured in both boys and girls.The ETT measures the number of words that they are able to clearly recall about their particular abilities. The students are expected to rate whether a child has a writing or vocabulary ability. All of our sample students were self-reported participants in the study and they were also recruited for this purpose. The study enrolled more than 598 children which was comparable to the sample size of 1,927. The authors state: “The general consensus among our investigators is that children with disabilities are able to speak English, which can be very useful for many years. But they are often confused about what what works and what does not; many children don’t understand that a person has written English. They sometimes misinterpret why the words, if any, are being used, or what the person is saying; sometimes, they incorrectly state it by writing the same words over and over again; sometimes, they give a contradictory answer by saying words have different meanings depending on the subject but that can sometimes be more surprising than using the same language as a question. They are particularly sensitive to a parent’s personal style when they’re young in that they feel they have been given a different set of circumstances than children. One of the important ways some parents misperceive what is spoken correctly has become a common problem. The children who were selected into each study do more of this research than most. It is likely that most of them have