New software helps analyze writing disabilities

Nearly 10% of elementary school students have trouble learning to write, with potentially lasting consequences on their education. EPFL researchers have developed a software program that can analyze these children's writing disabilities and their causes with unparalleled precision. Trouble learning how to write, called dysgraphia, affects some 10% of schoolchildren. This learning disability is often associated with dyslexia and can appear in children to varying degrees, with causes that can differ from one child to the next. A team of researchers at EPFL's Computer-Human Interaction in Learning and Instruction Laboratory (CHILI) has developed software that enables doctors to make highly detailed, personalized assessments of this disability and to accurately identify the letters and numbers that are most difficult and are thus the most discriminative. Writing is an essential skill for schoolchildren, but it requires an adroit combination of careful concentration, well-developed motor skills and good language comprehension - something that not all children possess. And although writing problems may appear trivial at first, if they are not treated early on, they could quickly snowball into more serious conditions like a lack of confidence, low self-esteem, trouble learning other skills, a high level of fatigue and even behavioral problems.