An examination of writing pauses in the handwriting of children with developmental coordination disorder.
Kids with DCD pause handwriting >10 s and mid-word far more than peers—target automaticity, not just speed, in interventions.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers watched kids with developmental coordination disorder write. They timed every pause longer than ten seconds. They also counted stops that happened inside a word.
The team compared these numbers to kids who write normally. All children copied the same short sentences. Special pens and paper tracked the exact millisecond the tip lifted.
What they found
Kids with DCD froze mid-sentence far more often. They also stopped right in the middle of words. These long breaks show their handwriting is not automatic.
Typical kids rarely paused longer than ten seconds. When they did stop, it was between words, not inside them.
How this fits with other research
Khalid et al. (2010) already showed that quick drawing tests can flag handwriting risk in regular classrooms. The new lab data backs up that screening idea and tells us exactly what to watch: long pauses.
Vos et al. (2013) found that children with autism make big, wobbly letters because of motor noise. Whitehouse et al. (2014) now show that children with DCD make normal-size letters but interrupt themselves. Both groups look messy on paper, yet the fix for each is different.
Nobusako et al. (2020) report that kids with DCD feel ownership of their actions across a wider time window. The extra handwriting pauses fit that same timing problem: the brain needs longer to plan each stroke.
Why it matters
When you see a child stop and stare at the page, do not just urge them to go faster. The pause is a red flag for poor motor automaticity. Add brief daily copy drills that reward smooth, nonstop writing instead of neatness only. Start with two-minute bursts and chart pause frequency; you should see the long stops shrink before speed rises.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Difficulties with handwriting are reported as one of the main reasons for the referral of children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) to healthcare professionals. In a recent study we found that children with DCD produced less text than their typically developing (TD) peers and paused for 60% of a free-writing task. However, little is known about the nature of the pausing; whether they are long pauses possibly due to higher level processes of text generation or fatigue, or shorter pauses related to the movements between letters. This gap in the knowledge-base creates barriers to understanding the handwriting difficulties in children with DCD. The aim of this study was to characterise the pauses observed in the handwriting of English children with and without DCD. Twenty-eight 8-14 year-old children with a diagnosis of DCD participated in the study, with 28 TD age and gender matched controls. Participants completed the 10 min free-writing task from the Detailed Assessment of Speed of Handwriting (DASH) on a digitising writing tablet. The total overall percentage of pausing during the task was categorised into four pause time-frames, each derived from the literature on writing (250 ms to 2 s; 2-4 s; 4-10 s and >10 s). In addition, the location of the pauses was coded (within word/between word) to examine where the breakdown in the writing process occurred. The results indicated that the main group difference was driven by more pauses above 10 s in the DCD group. In addition, the DCD group paused more within words compared to TD peers, indicating a lack of automaticity in their handwriting. These findings may support the provision of additional time for children with DCD in written examinations. More importantly, they emphasise the need for intervention in children with DCD to promote the acquisition of efficient handwriting skill.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2014 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2014.07.033