Subject Student data Date

Tactile, Motor, Laterality Last Name: EDNA JOHANA

04/02/2020
and Handwriting Levels Name: GUTIÉRREZ CORTÉS

Subject: TACTILE LEVELS, MOTOR SKILLS, LATERALITY AND WRITING

Job 1. Identification of children with writing

difficulties

Presented by: Edna Johana Gutiérrez Cortés

Subject teacher: Clara Aurora

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Topic 5. Activities
 Subject Student data Date
Tactile, Motor, Laterality Last Name: EDNA JOHANA
04/02/2020
and Handwriting Levels Name: GUTIÉRREZ CORTÉS

Characteristics and background of children with writing

difficulties.
Writing is an extremely complex activity, composed of several simultaneous motor
and visual-auditory memory tasks, in which complex cognitive processes are
involved, which is why it is of vital importance to know the possible aspects that
contribute to poor acquisition.

In order to observe and analyze these aspects, first of all, a dialogue is held with the
third grade teacher of the Jacinto Vega Technical Educational Institution in the
municipality of Santa María in the department of Boyacá, Colombia, who has 33
children enrolled in the course, aged approximately 8 and 9 years old, in order to
request permission to apply an observation activity, which consists of choosing a
text appropriate to the age of the child of 10 lines that will be dictated with a
maximum duration of 6 minutes, with the purpose of choosing a text appropriate to
the age of the child.In order to request permission to apply an observation activity,
which consists of choosing a text appropriate to the age of the child of 10 lines that
will be dictated with a maximum duration of 6 minutes, with the purpose of
observing the behavior in front of the writing and the final result of this.

After the consent is approved, the teacher is asked if she has any child with poor
handwriting, stating that she has 5 children with poorly legible handwriting, and
then the activity is applied in a space in the classroom designated by the teacher.
During the application of the exercise I noticed an 8 year old girl who was falling
behind, when I approached her I could see that in her writing, the letters had
different aspects of shape, the sticks of the letters were not straight, the graphemes
that are long as the t, l, f, g, p etc., were the same size as the vowels and were in the
same line, she did not make the strokes of the letters correctly, she did not take into
account the directionality of the letters when writing them, she made the letters in

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Topic 5. Activities
 Subject Student data Date
Tactile, Motor, Laterality Last Name: EDNA JOHANA
04/02/2020
and Handwriting Levels Name: GUTIÉRREZ CORTÉS

the same line, she did not make the strokes of the letters correctly.She did not take
into account the directionality of the letters when writing them, she wrote the
letters from bottom to top and from right to left, being a child whose manual
laterality is on the right. He also committed many spelling mistakes and omitted
some letters, he did not use capital letters in his writings, it was evident his
intention to make the letter beautiful, but it was difficult, he took the pencil with
force and very close to the tip, leaving the words very marked when writing, and he
also got very close to the notebook.

At the end of the activity, a dialogue is held with the teacher about the academic
performance of the student, who states that her only difficulty is writing letters and
numbers, since, when evaluated orally in the different subjects she presents a good
level of knowledge, but that her bad handwriting interferes in her academic
performance, since in written activities it is very complex to understand what she
wrote and sometimes she does not even understand her notes, which makes it
difficult for her to prepare for the end-of-term exams.In written activities it is very
difficult to understand what she wrote and sometimes she does not even
understand her notes, which makes it difficult for her to prepare for end-of-term
exams.

Assuming that the child has no intellectual problems or that she has suffered some
kind of brain injury, I would dare to say that her problem lies mainly in the lack of
good fine motor skills stimulation, since her hand movements when writing are not
fluid or precise, but rigid. Based on the definition of Cabrera and Dupeyrón (2019),
who define fine motor skills as "the movements of the hand and fingers in a precise
manner, for the execution of an action with a useful sense, where sight or touch
facilitate the location of objects and / or instruments, and is given in almost all
actions performed by human beings".This is the reason why, if fine motor skills are
not well stimulated in the first years of life, this will result in the development of

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Topic 5. Activities
 Subject Student data Date
Tactile, Motor, Laterality Last Name: EDNA JOHANA
04/02/2020
and Handwriting Levels Name: GUTIÉRREZ CORTÉS

fine motor skills.This is why it is of vital importance to provide the necessary tools to
the child to acquire agility in the fine motor skills in the first years of life, which will
result in clumsy movements and delay in the process of elaboration of
graphemes.Some of these activities may be modeling plasticine, painting with a
brush, cutting out silhouettes, threading, paper tearing, among others, it is also
important to teach the correct grip of the pencil.

According to Cepeda and Guevara (2011), writing involves "also ideational and
motor areas, although in this case the motor areas involved are those related to the
circuits that control hand movements", which is why motor skills play an important
role in children's learning and through this, the development of graphomotor skills
is acquired, which will eventually lead to the evolution of writing.It is through this
that the development of graphomotor skills is acquired, which will eventually lead
to the evolution of writing.

Other factors that intervene and influence writing according to some pedagogues
are: Body Schema, Laterality, Spatial orientation and structuring, Temporal
organization and structuring, and Perceptual maturity. It is important to observe if
the child's handwriting problems are not due to the fact that the hand used for
writing is not the dominant hand, since sometimes, due to social aspects, children
are forced to use the hand opposite to their laterality. Cepeda et al. (2011)
proposes that laterality be examined at the eye-hand and foot level, through
gestures and activities of daily living, since these two types of assessment are
justified because gestures are more independent of influence than daily activities,
thus allowing for a more reliable diagnosis.

Another aspect that may interfere in the correct writing of graphemes is

directionality, since in many cases, due to the lack of a clear left-right laterality, it is
difficult for them to understand and correctly elaborate the graphemes, considering

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Topic 5. Activities
 Subject Student data Date
Tactile, Motor, Laterality Last Name: EDNA JOHANA
04/02/2020
and Handwriting Levels Name: GUTIÉRREZ CORTÉS

that reading and writing are processes that are carried out from left to right and
from top to bottom. Many times in our eagerness as teachers, to show results to
parents, we force children to write without having internalized the whole
maturation protocol regarding spatial sequencing, we leave aside sufficient
temporality exercises to know the before and after relationships, as well as non-
alphabetic writing exercises, nor do we take the time to observe that when the child
makes his first vowel strokes, they are made in the correct directionality, depending
on his dominant laterality.We also do not take the time to observe that when
children make their first vowel strokes, they do them in the correct directionality,
depending on their dominant laterality.

Based on the child's need to improve her writing skills, I consider it necessary to
work on activities that allow her to improve the fluid movements of her hand and a
better grip of the pencil, with exercises that strengthen her fine motor skills, such as
origammy, threading, dactyl painting, plasticine modeling, and the use of writing or
coloring objects that can be used for writing or coloring.I consider it necessary for
the child to work on activities that strengthen her fine motor skills, such as
origammy, threading, dactyl painting, plasticine modeling, and the use of thick
writing or coloring objects such as markers and crayons, so that she can acquire a
better grip on the pencil.

Other activities that can be performed are directionality exercises, right, left, up,
down, inside, outside, before and after with playful activities or recreational games,
as well as training exercises, teaching the correct stroke of graphemes (Figure 1)
using sandboxes, copying short texts by writing with another color the letters that
are long both upwards and downwards.

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Topic 5. Activities
 Subject Student data Date
Tactile, Motor, Laterality Last Name: EDNA JOHANA
04/02/2020
and Handwriting Levels Name: GUTIÉRREZ CORTÉS

Figure 1. Directionality of letters

(source: https://webdelmaestrocmf.com/portal/16-recursos-mejorar-la-caligrafia-
infantil-primaria/ )
Bibliography
Cabrera, B., Dupeyron, M. (2019). The development of fine motor skills in preschool
children. Mendive. Journal of Education, 17(2). Recuperado de
http://scielo.sld.cu/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1815-
76962019000200222#B21
Cepeda, C., Guevara, P. (2011). Laterality and directionality exercise as a means to
treat the confusion of letters of the same symmetrical orientation, present
in the writing process, in children from 3rd to 5th grade of general basic
education. Final report of the Academic Degree Work, prior to obtaining the
degree of Child and Psychorehabilitation Psychologist. Child Psychology and
Psychorehabilitation. Quito: UCE. 142 p. Retrieved from
http://www.dspace.uce.edu.ec/handle/25000/1358

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Topic 5. Activities