Hand copy performance of young children and the illiterate, semi-illiterate, and literate adults

Abstract

AbstractHandwriting is essential for both children and adults. It is still unclear, however, how handwriting skills could be obtained. Here we tested the hand copy, the first step of handwriting, of children who started kindergarten for about one year (3–5 years old), who were in kindergarten for 2–3 years (5–6 years old), and who started elementary school for less than a year (6–7 years old). Participants were asked to copy down simple numbers and shapes under no time restraint. Their copy was also presented as visual feedback. In this case, their copy performance mainly reflects their abilities in visuomotor transformation. We found that the performance of children aged 5–6 years old was much better than that of the 3–5 years old ones, which could be due to the natural development of muscles and joints or the training at home or in kindergarten. We next tested illiterate, semi-illiterate, and literate adults with the same task to elucidate the contribution of natural development. Although illiterate adults had never been to school and could not read, they had well-developed and trained muscles and joints and had acquired fine motor skills during everyday life and work. Surprisingly, we found that the overall performance of the illiterate group was similar to that of the youngest (3–5 years old) children, which suggests that the visuomotor ability required for hand copy cannot be automatically obtained during growing up but requires specific training. Our findings provide new insights into visuomotor learning and have implications for handwriting interventions.