M.Ed. / A concern with regard to the apparent drop in achievement levels in the area of literacy and the implementation of the Teaching Handwriting Spelling and Spelling Skills (THRASS) programme, introduced as part of the strategy to address the problem, prompted this research. A qualitative case study was undertaken in order to determine 1. The experiences of the Foundation Phase teachers from Grade 1 to Grade 3 with regard to THRASS in the first year of implementation. 2. The influence of THRASS on the spelling ages the spelling strategies and the independent written of the Foundation Phase learners. 3. Imperatives for management when introducing new programmes into schools. Using the chronological age of the learners as the baseline indicator the findings indicated that an age appropriate development in the spelling age of the Grade 1 learners. These results were similar to those of 2006 when a different system was being used. On average the Grade 2 and Grade 3 learners had a spelling age which was a year or more greater than their chronological age. These results were better than those recorded in 2006. The learners were using the majority of the strategies embedded in the THRASS programme and were experiencing greater confidence when attempting to complete independent written tasks. No conclusive evidence indicated the influence of THRASS on the independent written work of the learners. There was, however, evidence in support of the finding that the learners were using the majority of the strategies embedded in the programme. It became apparent, with regard to management, that ensuring the sustainability of programmes requires as much attention as the implementation of the programmes.

This study analyzed the effects of a training package containing response constraint, self-evaluation, reinforcement, and a fading procedure on written letter components and whole letter writing in four elementary school participants. The effect on accuracy of written components was evaluated using a multiple-baseline-across components and a continuous probe design of components, as well as pre-test, baseline, and post-test measures. The results of this study show that response constraint and self-evaluation quickly improved students' performance in writing components. Fading of the intervention was achieved quickly and performance maintained. Results also show that improvement in component writing improved whole letter and full name writing and letter reversals in the presence of a model were corrected.

The problem of this investigation is a comparative study of the elementary-school handwriting program as outlined in the courses of study offered by the State Departments of Education in five states.

The expressive nature of typing has been mostly neglected in research. The possibilities of our full expressive selves are not included in typing experiences.The aim of this thesis is to explore the expressive qualities and experiences of typing and open up new opportunities and possibilities for interaction designers. To fulfil this aim, the qualities of typing itself as a medium are investigated, as well as how handwriting can be used as inspiration and guidance to investigate the potential expressive qualities of typing.The result of this investigation showed how typing possesses personal, behavioral and emotional expressions. Additionally, the investigation lead to the discovery of how typing possesses impressionable experiences. These impressions changed the feeling while typing, could make the user write in a particular way and be used as an expressive tool to another person.

Stroke order and velocity are helpful features in the fields of signature verification, handwriting recognition, and handwriting synthesis. Recovering these features from offline handwritten text is a challenging and well-studied problem. We propose a new model called TRACE (Trajectory Recovery by an Adaptively-trained Convolutional Encoder). TRACE is a differentiable approach using a convolutional recurrent neural network (CRNN) to infer temporal stroke information from long lines of offline handwritten text with many characters. TRACE is perhaps the first system to be trained end-to-end on entire lines of text of arbitrary width and does not require the use of dynamic exemplars. Moreover, the system does not require images to undergo any pre-processing, nor do the predictions require any post-processing. Consequently, the recovered trajectory is differentiable and can be used as a loss function for other tasks, including synthesizing offline handwritten text. We demonstrate that temporal stroke information recovered by TRACE from offline data can be used for handwriting synthesis and establish the first benchmarks for a stroke trajectory recovery system trained on the IAM online database.

In this thesis, we deal with online recognition of handwritten mathematical formulas. We provide an introduction to the field of study, discuss the current state of the art and survey several existing implementations in detail. Then we present our own solution comprehending two steps. In the first step, individual symbols are detected utilizing temporal and spatial relations of the handwritten strokes. Then we recognize the symbols by combining results provided by an existing third party library with our rule based methods and template symbols matching. In the second step, a structure of the formula is examined. We introduce a novel approach incorporating a grammar based description of the formula with a statistical evaluation of the subexpressions. We also discuss related problems comprehending implementation of the recognizer as a web application and acquisition of the sample data.

Handwriting difficulties affect 10% to 30% of children in elementary school often hindering their successful participation in a number of occupations, including academic participation. Occupational therapists provide treatments for handwriting difficulties; however, many of these interventions have limited to no evidence to support their effectiveness. One of these interventions is the use of a slant board, a treatment strategy often combined with handwriting practice. Clinicians commonly combine the use of slant boards and handwriting practice to facilitate the development of handwriting skills in young children. However, the effectiveness of this combination of interventions in improving the quality of handwriting remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the difference in the change of letter formation scores in children who have practiced handwriting on slant boards compared with those who have practiced on a horizontal surface. A randomized block design was employed. Children entering the second through third grades who participated in a 19-day summer enrichment program were recruited via mailed recruitment letters and/or email. Twenty-one children were enrolled. Children were blocked by classroom and randomly assigned to a group that practiced handwriting on a slant board or a group that practiced on a horizontal surface. Children completed a total of 15 group sessions lasting 15 minutes each. These sessions occurred 3 to 5 days a week over the course of 4 weeks. During these sessions, they practiced writing letters and words utilizing the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum. There was no significant difference in average group change in letter formation performance as determined by independent samples t test. Children with below average handwriting at baseline made statistically significant changes in their handwriting, regardless of writing surface, when compared with their peers that was identified by secondary analyses.

Abstract  There is increasing use of technology in the education system, such as computers, and different programs learners can use to study vocabulary. In this study, the goal was to find out if pupils in secondary education learn new vocabulary more efficiently when handwriting or typing on a computer. To study the matter, firstly, a recall and recognition test was conducted followed by a word acquisition test. Finally, two group interviews were performed to find out if there was an agreement between pupils’ understanding of how they learn most efficiently, by typing or by handwriting, and the results of this study.  The study departs from the theory that learners acquire new vocabulary more efficiently when writing by hand since the motor process of handwriting increases activity in the brain, which possibly makes learners remember better what they have written. In addition, we have considered the theory that young people who have lived their whole life with technology are more proficient in typing, rather than writing by hand and if that is the case, will it affect their motor memory? Finally, the theory that computer-assisted language learning makes vocabulary acquisition more efficient will be discussed through pupils’ own opinions from the interviews.  The result from this study shows that pupils in secondary education in Sweden, learn vocabulary in a foreign language more efficiently when typing on a computer rather than writing by hand. This is not in agreement with pupils’ thoughts, nevertheless, it is in accordance with their preferences.

The intent of this thesis is to explore the current views and opinions that elementary school teachers, particularly Kindergarten through third grade teachers, have on the topic of handwriting instruction in their classrooms. Apart from the teachers, the views and opinions of selected Kindergarten through third grade students are also taken into consideration. Due to the advancement of technology and its prevalence in modern day classrooms, many consider handwriting, particularly cursive, a dying art, with keyboarding taking its place. However, research has proven that handwriting provides students with developmental benefits and helps to refine certain motor skills that keyboarding does not. To better understand the views of both teachers and students alike, the research design consists of teacher surveys and student focus groups to provide a better scope of understanding as to how teachers and students view this change in writing. The data is presented in the form of graphs and charts, which are then examined in detail.

The aim of this study is to find out how various tools, digital as well as analogue, affect pupils spelling. Through a systematic literature study, this paper contributes with a research overview of what existing research shows for this subject. The results show, even though all research is not united, that pupils spelling is positively affected when the student is allowed to use their body and write by hand with the pencil. The digital tools can also contribute to the pupil's spelling developing despite the concerns over the word processing programs that exist. For students with learning disabilities, and who for various reasons have problems with the pen grip or to form letters, the digital tools can open up to a more equal school where all pupils can be equally active. The conclusion in this study shows that the choice of writing tools for the student needs to be individual as all students do not master the pen. The results in this study however points to, for pupil´s spelling, that the pen as a writing tool can be better than the digital tools.