A Kazakh experiment in handwriting

Young girl learning to write © 2021 EPFL - New EPFL research on whether handwriting skills transfer when a child writes in two different alphabetic scripts may pave the way for cross-lingual digital tools for the detection of handwriting difficulties. Despite the increasing digitization of education and the use of use of tablets and laptops in schools, handwriting has maintained its central position in learning as the basis of many core educational activities such as taking notes, composing stories and self-expression. It is also a complex, involving attention, perceptual, linguistic, and fine motor skills. Yet, around one in four children experience handwriting difficulties and this can have ongoing developmental impacts, including trouble learning other skills, increased fatigue and behavioural problems, and low self-esteem, making early detection key to successful intervention. Tablets and AI to collect better information Now, a new EPFL spin-off, School Rebound, has developed Dynamico , a handwriting analysis tool that can provide a fast, accurate and reliable analysis of handwriting, assessing multiple dimensions, providing adapted remediation through different activities that target specific handwriting skills. EPFL researcher and School Rebound CEO, Dr Thibault Asselborn, says that by analysing a child's handwriting done on a tablet, Dynamico can collect four times more information than in traditionally used, analogue tests. "Our research has shown that all speed and pressure data, as well as the angle of the writing tool, although imperceptible to the naked eye, are more important than static information.