Handwriting: Difficulties and Possible Solutions

Abstract

The skill of handwriting is considered as a perceptual-motor skill. A closed-loop model of motor control is adapted to describe this skill. The role of kinaesthesis in the acquisition and performance of handwriting is described. Application of the Kinaesthetic Sensitivity Test shows that 33 per cent of five-and six-year-old children are kinaesthetically incompetent. The concept of kinaesthetic readiness is introduced, and the lack of kinaesthetic readiness is discussed as one possible source of the difficulty which may hinder effective training of writing in this age group. As a tentative suggestion it is proposed that formal training of handwriting could be delayed till the age of seven, by which age most children develop kinaesthetic readiness naturally.