Acquisition of handwriting in children with and without dysgraphia: A computational approach.

Handwriting is a complex skill to acquire and it requires years of training to be mastered. Children presenting dysgraphia exhibit difficulties automatizing their handwriting. This can bring anxiety and can negatively impact education. 280 children were recruited in schools and specialized clinics t...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Thomas Gargot, Thibault Asselborn, Hugues Pellerin, Ingrid Zammouri, Salvatore M Anzalone, Laurence Casteran, Wafa Johal, Pierre Dillenbourg, David Cohen, Caroline Jolly
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2020-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237575
_version_ 1827151324536373248
author Thomas Gargot
Thibault Asselborn
Hugues Pellerin
Ingrid Zammouri
Salvatore M Anzalone
Laurence Casteran
Wafa Johal
Pierre Dillenbourg
David Cohen
Caroline Jolly
author_facet Thomas Gargot
Thibault Asselborn
Hugues Pellerin
Ingrid Zammouri
Salvatore M Anzalone
Laurence Casteran
Wafa Johal
Pierre Dillenbourg
David Cohen
Caroline Jolly
author_sort Thomas Gargot
collection DOAJ
description Handwriting is a complex skill to acquire and it requires years of training to be mastered. Children presenting dysgraphia exhibit difficulties automatizing their handwriting. This can bring anxiety and can negatively impact education. 280 children were recruited in schools and specialized clinics to perform the Concise Evaluation Scale for Children's Handwriting (BHK) on digital tablets. Within this dataset, we identified children with dysgraphia. Twelve digital features describing handwriting through different aspects (static, kinematic, pressure and tilt) were extracted and used to create linear models to investigate handwriting acquisition throughout education. K-means clustering was performed to define a new classification of dysgraphia. Linear models show that three features only (two kinematic and one static) showed a significant association to predict change of handwriting quality in control children. Most kinematic and statics features interacted with age. Results suggest that children with dysgraphia do not simply differ from ones without dysgraphia by quantitative differences on the BHK scale but present a different development in terms of static, kinematic, pressure and tilt features. The K-means clustering yielded 3 clusters (Ci). Children in C1 presented mild dysgraphia usually not detected in schools whereas children in C2 and C3 exhibited severe dysgraphia. Notably, C2 contained individuals displaying abnormalities in term of kinematics and pressure whilst C3 regrouped children showing mainly tilt problems. The current results open new opportunities for automatic detection of children with dysgraphia in classroom. We also believe that the training of pressure and tilt may open new therapeutic opportunities through serious games.
first_indexed 2024-04-24T16:05:12Z
format Article
id doaj.art-5d67f3661d694122837723a89e47378c
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 1932-6203
language English
last_indexed 2025-03-20T21:48:10Z
publishDate 2020-01-01
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
record_format Article
series PLoS ONE
spelling doaj.art-5d67f3661d694122837723a89e47378c2024-08-11T05:34:00ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032020-01-01159e023757510.1371/journal.pone.0237575Acquisition of handwriting in children with and without dysgraphia: A computational approach.Thomas GargotThibault AsselbornHugues PellerinIngrid ZammouriSalvatore M AnzaloneLaurence CasteranWafa JohalPierre DillenbourgDavid CohenCaroline JollyHandwriting is a complex skill to acquire and it requires years of training to be mastered. Children presenting dysgraphia exhibit difficulties automatizing their handwriting. This can bring anxiety and can negatively impact education. 280 children were recruited in schools and specialized clinics to perform the Concise Evaluation Scale for Children's Handwriting (BHK) on digital tablets. Within this dataset, we identified children with dysgraphia. Twelve digital features describing handwriting through different aspects (static, kinematic, pressure and tilt) were extracted and used to create linear models to investigate handwriting acquisition throughout education. K-means clustering was performed to define a new classification of dysgraphia. Linear models show that three features only (two kinematic and one static) showed a significant association to predict change of handwriting quality in control children. Most kinematic and statics features interacted with age. Results suggest that children with dysgraphia do not simply differ from ones without dysgraphia by quantitative differences on the BHK scale but present a different development in terms of static, kinematic, pressure and tilt features. The K-means clustering yielded 3 clusters (Ci). Children in C1 presented mild dysgraphia usually not detected in schools whereas children in C2 and C3 exhibited severe dysgraphia. Notably, C2 contained individuals displaying abnormalities in term of kinematics and pressure whilst C3 regrouped children showing mainly tilt problems. The current results open new opportunities for automatic detection of children with dysgraphia in classroom. We also believe that the training of pressure and tilt may open new therapeutic opportunities through serious games.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237575
spellingShingle Thomas Gargot
Thibault Asselborn
Hugues Pellerin
Ingrid Zammouri
Salvatore M Anzalone
Laurence Casteran
Wafa Johal
Pierre Dillenbourg
David Cohen
Caroline Jolly
Acquisition of handwriting in children with and without dysgraphia: A computational approach.
PLoS ONE
title Acquisition of handwriting in children with and without dysgraphia: A computational approach.
title_full Acquisition of handwriting in children with and without dysgraphia: A computational approach.
title_fullStr Acquisition of handwriting in children with and without dysgraphia: A computational approach.
title_full_unstemmed Acquisition of handwriting in children with and without dysgraphia: A computational approach.
title_short Acquisition of handwriting in children with and without dysgraphia: A computational approach.
title_sort acquisition of handwriting in children with and without dysgraphia a computational approach
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237575
work_keys_str_mv AT thomasgargot acquisitionofhandwritinginchildrenwithandwithoutdysgraphiaacomputationalapproach
AT thibaultasselborn acquisitionofhandwritinginchildrenwithandwithoutdysgraphiaacomputationalapproach
AT huguespellerin acquisitionofhandwritinginchildrenwithandwithoutdysgraphiaacomputationalapproach
AT ingridzammouri acquisitionofhandwritinginchildrenwithandwithoutdysgraphiaacomputationalapproach
AT salvatoremanzalone acquisitionofhandwritinginchildrenwithandwithoutdysgraphiaacomputationalapproach
AT laurencecasteran acquisitionofhandwritinginchildrenwithandwithoutdysgraphiaacomputationalapproach
AT wafajohal acquisitionofhandwritinginchildrenwithandwithoutdysgraphiaacomputationalapproach
AT pierredillenbourg acquisitionofhandwritinginchildrenwithandwithoutdysgraphiaacomputationalapproach
AT davidcohen acquisitionofhandwritinginchildrenwithandwithoutdysgraphiaacomputationalapproach
AT carolinejolly acquisitionofhandwritinginchildrenwithandwithoutdysgraphiaacomputationalapproach