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.

The Development of Graphic Representation in Abugida Writing: The Akshara’s Grammar

Phonological writing systems can use different modes in the arrangement of phonological information: linear or emblematic. The latter presupposes a two-dimensional composition of graphic elements which convey information of different levels: basic phonological units or their secondary features. Abugida is one of the most perfect modes of writing, using a two-dimensional principle of organization in its graphemes. Indian scripts imply forms of abugida, based on aksharas - orthographic syllables - as main graphemes, with their vocalization marked by sub-graphemes. Their complex forms reveal hierarchical structures representing phonological structures. Thus, “the akshara’s grammar” may be described, with its paradigms of shapes and meanings, their organization in space, their modes of conjunction. The functional characteristics of diacritic types and ligatures can be specified. The graphic shapes of the akshara can be represented as forming a “grammar” comparable to morphological structures. The graphic complexity of writing can then be estimated in typological perspective. This paper is an attempt to describe such a grammar.

Visualized System Dynamics models as Information and Planning Tools

In this paper, we describe the use of visualization of system dynamics models as client information and management tools. System dynamics is a methodology for analyzing and understanding how complex systems change over time. System dynamic models have been developed for a broad range of information to client applications - from resource management problems to the mapping of stocks and flows on factory floors. The problem faced by many users of system dynamic models is their graphic complexity for users not trained in the field. This paper addresses new research into visualization of system dynamics models to make client information more efficient and accessible. This research involves the use of narrative, video and sound embedded in statistical material. This paper also considers one particular client group - that of politicians, planners and civil society in developing countries.