Development of graphomotor skills in school-age children

Graphomotor skills development can be studied in different way; recently the use of digital tablets allowed a more accurate system for examining kinematic characteristics of writing movement. Although the importance of study of pre-writing skills is known, in the literature the investigations are limited to the first years of primary school. The aim of this study is the evaluation of the evolution of graphomotor skills with schooling. In order to achieve this goal, the drawing of sequence of simple shapes as well as of continuous shapes produced by 257 children from 1st to 8th grade were acquired by using a digital tablet and a series of kinematic parameters (like horizontal, vertical and curvilinear velocities, number of strokes/cm, pen lift duration, etc.) was extracted from the handwriting. Results showed dependence of the performance on the specific test used (small improvements corresponding to greater complexity) with a general increase in velocity and reduction in stroke number per cm, caused by a less fragmentation of trace and greater automation of the movement with schooling. The kinematic analysis of pre-writing patterns allows an early stimation of preschool drawing abilities and the monitoring of handwriting skills evolution with schooling.