Uppeldi og menntun - 01.01.2014, Page 76

Uppeldi og menntUn/icelandic JoUrnal of edUcation 23(1) 201476
framfarir í HanDskrifT Hjá grUnnskÓLaBörnUm í reyk javík
quality and speed profiles are similar to corresponding profiles obtained in primary
schools in the United States and Norway. The conclusion is that the new handwriting
model has been successfully introduced.
To enquire into the roots of handwriting dysfunction three different groups of chil-
dren were established. Group A, consisting of the 9 children who at the end of Grade
3 wrote all letters correctly according to the model, Group B, consisting of the 11 chil-
dren with average performance in handwriting quality and Group C, consisting of the
35 children that constitute the 22% of low performers in handwriting quality.
Analysis of the results from the visual motor integration test with respect to the
three groups indicated that visual motor integration did not contribute much to hand-
writing dysfunction. Analysis of the handwriting quality profiles with respect to the
three groups indicated that the main difference between the groups was in the devel-
opment of quality throughout Grade 2 when the letter forms were taught. The number
of letters the children on the average could write correctly at the end of Grade 2 was
22.4 in Group A, 16.8 in Group B and 13.3 in Group C and this difference was main-
tained more or less from Grade 3–6. Thus it was concluded that the teaching of letter
forms in Grade 2 resulted in curbing the development in handwriting quality.
Examination of the average scores for individual letter forms showed a consider-
able variation in the letter form scores. It is reasonable to assume that, for each
individual child, the result of learning the form of a specific letter depends on an
interaction between the difficulty of the graphic form of the letter, the abilities of the
child and the teaching quality. Then, taking into account that equal time was spent on
teaching each form, the average of over 160 children, ten teachers and three schools
may be expected to cancel the children’s and teachers’ contributions to the variation
and therefore it will mainly reflect the effect of the graphic form. Thus, ranging the
letter forms according to the average letter score may be interpreted as ranging the
letter forms according to the difficulty of the graphic form. Using the average scores
for the letters at the end of Grade 3 when the first formal teaching of letter forms and
joins was completed, the letter forms could be classified into three difficulty classes
with approximately equal numbers of letters in each class. It was then found that it
was likely that the children did not master the difficult letters (p, r, j, f, m, g, k) as
well as the easy letters (i, v, l, a, o, h, u). Thus it was concluded that the main reason
for handwriting dysfunction is that too little effort was invested in the teaching of
difficult letter forms in Grade 2 and 3. There was no indication that the new model
alphabet reduced handwriting dysfunction.
Keywords: Iceland, handwriting, model alphabet, dysfunction