Motor coordination dynamics underlying graphic motion in 7- to 11-year-old children

• Published in: Journal of experimental child psychology Vol. 111; no. 1; pp. 37 - 51
• Main Authors: Danna, Jérémy, Enderli, Fabienne, Athènes, Sylvie, Zanone, Pier-Giorgio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier Inc 2012; Elsevier; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Adult; Adults; Age Differences; Age Factors; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child development; Child Psychology; Children; Cognitive science; Comparative Analysis; Coordination; Coupled oscillators; Developmental psychology; Dynamic patterns theory; Elementary Education; Elementary Schools; Experimental Psychology; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Graphonomics; Handwriting; Humans; Male; Models, Psychological; Motion; Motor ability; Motor development; Motor Skills; Neuropsychological Tests; Orientation; Psychological tests; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychomotor Performance; Psychomotor Skills; Self-organization; Visual Stimuli; Dynamic patterns theory; Coupled oscillators; Coordination; Motor development; Graphonomics; Self-organization; Human; Theory; Cognition; Dynamical system; Experimental study; Muscular coordination; Pictural drawing; Preadolescent; Hand writing; School age; Self organization; Language; Young adult; Cognitive development; Child; Motricity
• ISSN: 0022-0965; 1096-0457
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2011.07.005

► We study coordination dynamics underlying elliptic trajectory formation. ► Children prefer to copy less eccentric ellipsoid shapes than adults. ► We resort to a generic dynamic model of learning to explain this difference. ► We also interpret this change as a switch from a feedback to a feedforward control. Using concepts and tools of a dynamical system approach in order to understand motor coordination underlying graphomotor skills, the aim of the current study was to establish whether the basic coordination dynamics found in adults is already established in children at elementary school, when handwriting is trained and eventually acquired. In the study, 45 children and 9 adults volunteered to copy two series of 13 ellipsoid shapes. These shapes were generated by manipulating the relative phase between 0° and 180° of two orthogonal oscillators in two orientations. Findings showed that although children from an early age onward and adults reproduced straight lines precisely (i.e., 0° and 180°), the former drew ellipsoid shapes in a less eccentric fashion than the latter (i.e., ∼90° in all children rather than ∼60° and 120° in adults). This tendency to write in a rounder fashion persists until 11 years of age, suggesting that the coordination dynamics underlying graphomotor skills and tentatively shaping the coordinated activity involved in adult handwriting appears only later, probably due to increasing constraints on speed.