Handwriting in Children and Adults With Down Syndrome: Developmental Delay or Specific Features?

Raphaële Tsao (1) , Eloïse Moy (1) , Jean-Luc Velay (2) , Nicolas Carvalho (3) , Carole Tardif (1)

1 PsyCLÉ - Centre de Recherche en Psychologie de la Connaissance, du Langage et de l'Émotion
2 LNC - Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives [Marseille]
3 Maison de la Recherche

While there is a long history and tradition of behavioral research on basic motor skills in Down syndrome (DS), there has been only limited research on handwriting ability. We analyzed the spatiotemporal features of handwriting produced by children and adults with DS (n = 24), and compared their productions with those of comparison groups matched for developmental (n = 24) or chronological (n = 24) age. Results indicated that the participants with DS performed an alphabet letter-writing task just as efficiently as the children of the same developmental age, in terms of the length, duration and speed of their handwriting, and the number and duration of their pauses. Our study highlights a substantial delay in the stages of writing acquisition.

Keywords: Down syndrome; temporal analysis of handwriting; controlled movement; intra-individual variability; copying task

Domains: Cognitive science; Cognitive science; Psychology

Raphaële Tsao, Eloïse Moy, Jean-Luc Velay, Nicolas Carvalho, Carole Tardif. Handwriting in Children and Adults With Down Syndrome: Developmental Delay or Specific Features?. American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities , 2017, 122 (4), pp.342 - 353. ⟨10.1352/1944-7558-122.4.342⟩. ⟨hal-01772022⟩