Cursive Writing Difficulties in the 1st Level: Effect of a Perceptive-Motor Stimulation Program

Abstract

Difficulties in cursive writing are detectable due to spatial inconsistency and slowness. With an incidence of up to 30% in the 1st grade, they are associated with poor school performance. The aim of this study is to analyze the effect of a perceptual-motor stimulation program on children with problems in learning cursive writing. The sample consisted of 9 children (7 from the 1st year and 2 from the 4th year of the Portuguese 1^st grade of basic school) with problems with cursive writing, flagged and with individualized pedagogical support, that were matched by gender, school year and class with 9 other children without learning problems. The intervention program had a significant beneficial effect on children with problems with cursive writing, identifiable by the reduction of the space between letters, of the height of the letters and of the time of their execution. From the results obtained, it is suggested that learning the spatial design of the letter should precede the training to reduce its height, and that the control of the letter size is more difficult and more time consuming than that of the letter execution speed. Based on the results obtained, it is proposed that for children with difficulties in learning cursive writing it should be afforded more space available and time to write letters, and that they should regularly exercise interdigital motor coordination without and with pencils, on various surfaces and available writing areas, as well as the identification of the same letter in different types.