Handwriting A Struggle For Kids With Autism
By Shaun HeasleyChildren with autism often have more trouble with handwriting than their non-autistic peers, new research indicates.
In a study of 28 children ages eight to 13 — half with autism and normal IQ’s and half without any developmental issues — researchers observed the children as they attempted to copy a sentence using their best handwriting. Each child was evaluated based on the legibility, form, alignment, size and spacing of their writing as well as at their motor skills.
Half of the kids with autism scored less than 80 percent on the evaluation while only one of the children without autism scored below that threshold, the researchers report in the Nov. 10 issue of the journal Neurology.
Even though handwriting quality was worse in the children with autism, all of the kids in the study were able to properly align, space and size their letters.
“Our results suggest that therapies targeting motor skills may help improve handwriting in children with autism, which is important for success in school and building self-esteem,” said study author Amy Bastian of the Kennedy Krieger Institute and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. “Such therapies could include training of letter formation and general training of fine motor control to help improve the quality of their writing.”
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“Our results suggest that therapies targeting motor skills may help improve handwriting in children with autism, which is important for success in school and building self-esteem,”
Considering that most of the target population has little difficulty keyboarding or utilizing their fine motor skills to use a mouse and that handwriting is being forced into extinction by technology, (whew) then WHY would it be necessary to base a student’s worth on their capacity to produce written work? What difference does it really make? If they want to write something on paper, they type it into their computer or Blackberry and click Print.
Our AS daughter also has dysgraphia, which makes it very difficult to write. Homework was a disaster, she knew the answers, but couldn’t get them on paper. Hours wasted at the kitchen table because the school insisted it was important for her success in school. How self-esteem building was that? At 27, with 60 credits and having graduated from several career training schools and programs, she still doesn’t have a job. And she still can’t write.
If you want to teach and train, forget handwriting and make it the executive functioning, life and social skills that they need.
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