Design, Implementation and Evaluation of a Support System for Educators and Therapists to Rate the Acquisition of Pre-Writing Skills
Assessing the acquisition of pre-writing skills in children with and without special educational needs is a time-consuming task for educators and therapists. It also involves a level of subjectivity, because the same set of strokes may receive different scores from different professionals. We presen...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IEEE
2021-01-01
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| Series: | IEEE Access |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9440430/ |
| _version_ | 1828407041645871104 |
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| author | Luis Javier Serpa-Andrade Jose Juan Pazos-Arias Martin Lopez-Nores Vladimir Espartaco Robles-Bykbaev |
| author_facet | Luis Javier Serpa-Andrade Jose Juan Pazos-Arias Martin Lopez-Nores Vladimir Espartaco Robles-Bykbaev |
| author_sort | Luis Javier Serpa-Andrade |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Assessing the acquisition of pre-writing skills in children with and without special educational needs is a time-consuming task for educators and therapists. It also involves a level of subjectivity, because the same set of strokes may receive different scores from different professionals. We present a system that automates the task by rating the execution of elementary figures (circle, square and triangle) according to the criteria of the Battelle guide for fine motor skills rating. The system uses a neural network trained with a collection of images drawn by 300 children and optimized through a systematic scan of hyperparameters, which revealed that shape signatures are better descriptors than Hu moments. Experiments carried out in collaboration with educators and therapists in Cuenca (Ecuador) provide evidence that the proposed system facilitates their work, automatically providing reliable assessments and in much shorter time than they would need for manual assessment, thus freeing their valuable time for education and therapy tasks. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T11:19:53Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e6c9d9a1d37f4c809a11a85fc39eddf8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2169-3536 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T11:19:53Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | IEEE |
| record_format | Article |
| series | IEEE Access |
| spelling | doaj.art-e6c9d9a1d37f4c809a11a85fc39eddf82022-12-22T01:51:01ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362021-01-019779207792910.1109/ACCESS.2021.30834969440430Design, Implementation and Evaluation of a Support System for Educators and Therapists to Rate the Acquisition of Pre-Writing SkillsLuis Javier Serpa-Andrade0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1338-7868Jose Juan Pazos-Arias1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0424-5481Martin Lopez-Nores2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4802-607XVladimir Espartaco Robles-Bykbaev3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7645-8793GI-IATa, UNESCO Chair on Support Technologies for Educational Inclusion, Universidad Politécnica Salesiana, Cuenca, EcuadorDepartment of Telematics Engineering, AtlanTTic Research Center, University of Vigo, Vigo, SpainDepartment of Telematics Engineering, AtlanTTic Research Center, University of Vigo, Vigo, SpainGI-IATa, UNESCO Chair on Support Technologies for Educational Inclusion, Universidad Politécnica Salesiana, Cuenca, EcuadorAssessing the acquisition of pre-writing skills in children with and without special educational needs is a time-consuming task for educators and therapists. It also involves a level of subjectivity, because the same set of strokes may receive different scores from different professionals. We present a system that automates the task by rating the execution of elementary figures (circle, square and triangle) according to the criteria of the Battelle guide for fine motor skills rating. The system uses a neural network trained with a collection of images drawn by 300 children and optimized through a systematic scan of hyperparameters, which revealed that shape signatures are better descriptors than Hu moments. Experiments carried out in collaboration with educators and therapists in Cuenca (Ecuador) provide evidence that the proposed system facilitates their work, automatically providing reliable assessments and in much shorter time than they would need for manual assessment, thus freeing their valuable time for education and therapy tasks.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9440430/Pre-writing skillseducationcommunicationartificial neural networksshape signaturesHu moments |
| spellingShingle | Luis Javier Serpa-Andrade Jose Juan Pazos-Arias Martin Lopez-Nores Vladimir Espartaco Robles-Bykbaev Design, Implementation and Evaluation of a Support System for Educators and Therapists to Rate the Acquisition of Pre-Writing Skills IEEE Access Pre-writing skills education communication artificial neural networks shape signatures Hu moments |
| title | Design, Implementation and Evaluation of a Support System for Educators and Therapists to Rate the Acquisition of Pre-Writing Skills |
| title_full | Design, Implementation and Evaluation of a Support System for Educators and Therapists to Rate the Acquisition of Pre-Writing Skills |
| title_fullStr | Design, Implementation and Evaluation of a Support System for Educators and Therapists to Rate the Acquisition of Pre-Writing Skills |
| title_full_unstemmed | Design, Implementation and Evaluation of a Support System for Educators and Therapists to Rate the Acquisition of Pre-Writing Skills |
| title_short | Design, Implementation and Evaluation of a Support System for Educators and Therapists to Rate the Acquisition of Pre-Writing Skills |
| title_sort | design implementation and evaluation of a support system for educators and therapists to rate the acquisition of pre writing skills |
| topic | Pre-writing skills education communication artificial neural networks shape signatures Hu moments |
| url | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9440430/ |
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