How Do Spelling, Handwriting Speed, and Handwriting Quality Develop During Primary School? Cross-Classified Growth Curve Analysis of Children's Writing Development

Aim: Longitudinal studies are rare in the field of writing research, and little is known about the concurrent development of the two transcription skills: spelling and handwriting. This study was designed to provide a comprehensive picture of the development and the longitudinal relations between spelling, handwriting speed, and handwriting quality at the word level.Method: Over a period of 3 years (coh1: Grades 2–4; coh2: Grades 3–5), 117 French-speaking children were assessed on a single-word dictation task. At each testing time, measures of spelling accuracy, handwriting speed, and handwriting quality were collected on 40 words. Words varied in both orthographic and graphic complexity, making it possible to investigate the influence of these levels of complexity on transcription abilities.Results: Linear growth analyses using cross-classified Bayesian structural equation modeling (CC-BSEM) revealed that spelling and speed continued to improve until Grade 5, while handwriting quality reached an early plateau in Grade 2. In the younger cohort, graphic complexity had a significant influence on the pace of development of handwriting speed and on spelling and handwriting quality performance in Grade 2. In the older cohort, a positive relation between spelling and speed and a negative relation between handwriting speed and handwriting quality were found, indicating that fast handwriting is associated with high spelling ability and that fast handwriting is detrimental to handwriting quality. By providing a better understanding of writing development, this study yields innovative findings not only regarding the development of transcription skills but also regarding how spelling, handwriting speed, and handwriting quality can influence each other's performance throughout primary school.

Characteristics of the preschool home literacy environment which predict writing skills at school

Aspects of the preschool home learning environment which may foster reading development have been identified, although their relationships with spelling and writing remain unclear. The present study explored associations between the preschool home literacy environment (HLE), language and nonverbal abilities and children’s spelling and writing skills measured two years later. A parental questionnaire recorded the reported frequency of pre-schoolers’ code- and meaning-related home literacy experiences, alongside an index of book exposure. One hundred and twenty one children (60 female, Mage = 6:7, SD = 3.67 months) contributed data assessing their transcription skills, indexed by handwriting fluency and word spelling, and translation abilities, indexed by sentence generation and the ability to produce more extended text. Exploratory factor analyses confirmed distinct factors relating to the productivity and complexity of writing samples. Regression analyses revealed that the frequency of preschool code-related, letter-sound interactions explained significant variance in children’s transcription skills at school, independently of earlier language and nonverbal abilities. In contrast, experiences in the preschool HLE were not related to the higher level writing skills of translation and text production. The implications of the findings for our understanding of the cognitive and environmental factors associated with children’s early writing development are discussed.

Written Language Bursts Mediate the Relationship Between Transcription Skills and Writing Performance

It is established that transcription skills (handwriting and spelling) constrain children’s writing. Yet, little is known about the mechanism underlying this relationship. This study examined the mediating role of bursts and pauses on the link between transcription skills and writing fluency or text quality. For that, 174 second graders did the alphabet task and wrote a story using HandSpy. Path analyses indicated that writing fluency and text quality models were excellent descriptions of the data, with 80% and 46% of explained variance, respectively. Results showed that handwriting and spelling influenced writing fluency only indirectly via burst length and short pauses duration (full mediation); and that whereas only handwriting contributed to text quality directly, both handwriting and spelling contributed to text quality indirectly, via burst length (partial mediation). These findings suggest that better transcription skills allow students to write more words without pausing, which in turn results in more fluent and better writing.

Theorization and an Empirical Investigation of the Component-Based and Developmental Text Writing Fluency Construct

We discuss a component-based, developmental view of text writing fluency, which we tested using data from children in Grades 2 and 3. Text writing fluency was defined as efficiency and automaticity in writing connected texts, which acts as a mediator between text generation (oral language), transcription skills, and writing quality. We hypothesized that in the beginning phase, text writing fluency would be largely constrained by transcription skills (spelling and handwriting), while at a later phase, oral language would make an independent contribution to text writing fluency. Furthermore, we hypothesized that text writing fluency would have a stronger relationship with writing quality at a later phase than at an earlier phase. We operationalized text writing fluency using two curriculum-based measurement writing scores: percentage correct word sequences and correct minus incorrect word sequences. Results revealed that in Grade 2, only transcription skills were uniquely related to text writing fluency, whereas in Grade 3, oral language was also related to text writing fluency. Text writing fluency was weakly related to writing quality in Grade 2 but strongly related to writing quality in Grade 3, over and above oral language and transcription skills. In both grades, oral language and handwriting fluency were independently related to writing quality. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.