Relationship between automaticity in handwriting and students' ability to generate written text

The ability to generate written text requires the execution of a complex array of cognitive and metacognitive skills. Because of the cognitive demands of this complexity, successful writers must be able to write letters and words automatically. This article reports 2 studies that examined the relationship between orthographic-motor integration related to handwriting and the ability to generate creative and well-structured written text. Participants in the first study were 114 Grade 1 students. When the effect of reading was controlled, orthographic-motor integration accounted for 67% of the variance in written expression. An intervention study with 19 students experiencing difficulty in handwriting and 19 students matched on gender and reading examined the impact of improving students automaticity in handwriting. The intervention eliminated the detrimental effects on writing of lack of automaticity in orthographic-motor integration.

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