A pre-experiment cluster analysis identified b, f, g and p as the most graphomotor-difficult cursive consonants for 1st graders¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r1 · q2
Currency · newest study 2021 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? K-means clustering of duration, velocity, stops and size separated eleven consonants into an easy cluster and a difficult cluster containing b, f, g and p. → Danna 2021

Evidence¶

Danna 2021¶

Danna, J., Longcamp, M., Nalborczyk, L., Velay, J.-L., Commengé, C., & Jover, M. (2021). Interaction between orthographic and graphomotor constraints in learning to write. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3596-880X

q2 · i? · causal · r1

Pre-experiment in which 19 Grade 1 students copied eleven consonant-vowel bigrams in cursive on a digitizing tablet; z-scored duration, velocity, stops and size were entered in a K-means cluster analysis with inter-cluster Euclidian distance of 0.74. The article states "b, f, g, and p are more difficult to trace than the other tested consonants".

"This pre-experiment confirmed that b, f, g, and p are more difficult to trace than the other tested consonants for 1st grade students."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• The graphomotor difficulty of the first letter affects handwriting duration, velocity, stops and size in all grades — related
• The lexical frequency effect on writing a difficult first letter is present only in 1st graders, indicating spelling-motor interference before handwriting automation — related
• Graphemic complexity of the final letters has only marginal effects, limited to letter size — related
• Handwriting duration of the first letter improves massively between Grade 1 and Grade 3, then plateaus — related