Development of handwriting in primary school: a longitudinal study

To investigate the development of handwriting in primary school children a study was conducted in which the scripts of 127 pupils were rated yearly, starting in Grade 2. Children were followed-up on for 3, 4, or 5 yr. The BHK-scale for children's handwriting was used for rating the scripts on 13 characteristics and for measuring the speed of writing. The shifts in frequency of occurrence of the various characteristics over time were analyzed using Correspondence Analysis. A one-dimensional solution was chosen, yielding a time dimension. Results were interpreted in terms of (a) children's growing motor ability, (b) a deterioration of the form aspects of the script as they had initially learned those, and (c) the development of a personal writing style with regard to esthetic aspects. A strong relation was found between the speed of writing and grade.