Poster #26 - Assessing Graphomotor Skills in the School Context: Extension and Validation of the Graphomotor Screening GRAFOS

• In Event: Poster Session 08

Abstract

Despite digital devices becoming increasingly important also in classrooms, handwriting remains a fundamental technique, which allows participation in culture, education, and leisure (Vetter et al., 2021). Learning to handwrite is a complex perceptual-motor multi-component task involving remembering letter shapes, precise planning and control of finger and hand movements, and flexible adjustment of pen pressure and speed to attain a certain handwriting accuracy (i.e., legibility). Copying shapes or letters typically represents the opening of handwriting instruction and requires well-developed fine motor skills of fingers and hand as well as visuomotor integration skills, which refer to the coordination and integration of visual perception and motor skills (Beery et al., 2010).
Accurately copying shapes is associated with handwriting legibility (Daly et al., 2003) and it is also a substantial school readiness skill associated with subsequent academic achievement (e.g., McClelland & Cameron, 2019). Study findings show that early handwriting difficulties can negatively influence motivation, self-efficacy, and school learning (Berninger et al., 1991; Connelly et al., 2005). This is even more problematic if the teacher is not aware of the graphomotor difficulties of the student and consequently the child does not receive adequate support (Sägesser & Eckhart, 2016).
With the graphomotor Screening GRAFOS (authors blinded) shown in Figure 1, kindergarten children’s visuomotor integration and fine motor skills – the central predictors of graphomotor skills – can be measured. The GRAFOS Screening is embedded in a cover story, in which children copy as accurately as possible 13 different geometric shapes, each shape six times, in predefined fields of 1 cm2. Each shape (78 in total) is scored 0 (low), 1 (medium), or 2 (high accuracy) based on specific criteria. A child’s performance level and the potential need for graphomotor support can be derived by comparing a child’s performance with a standardized age-adjusted score.
As the GRAFOS Screening was developed to identify children with graphomotor difficulties, it differentiates well at lower, but not at higher performance levels. However, the aim of this study is to make the Screening useful for follow-up diagnostics and to assess interindividual differences reliably at all performance levels. Consequently, the difficulty of the GRAFOS Screening needs to be increased. Therefore, we aim to extend the GRAFOS Screening with five more complex (i.e., difficult) shapes. We investigated test statistics (objectivity, reliability, and validity) and item statistics of the extended GRAFOS Screening in a sample of n = 1200 children aged 5 – 9. The results shown in Figure 2 confirm the intended increase in the difficulty of the Screening. Furthermore, results indicate promising item and test statistics of the extended GRAFOS Screening in 5- to 9-year-old children.
Taken together, the GRAFOS screening is a valid instrument for practitioners to evaluate young children’s graphomotor skills. With the extended GRAFOS Screening, interindividual differences in graphomotor skills can be measured reliably at all performance levels, which makes the Screening useful for follow-up diagnostic of older children and for investigating graphomotor skills in a scientific context.

Authors

• Michelle N. Maurer, University of Oslo
  Presenting Author

• Judith Sägesser Wyss

• Lidia Truxius

• Michael Eckhart