5 March 2016

Speech held by Dr. Christian Marquardt at the annual meeting of the National Handwriting Association in London

At the invitation of the chair of the National Handwriting Association (NHA), Dr. Angela Webb, Dr. Christian Marquardt gave a speech on “Handwriting and Movement” at the general meeting.

School children generally learn to write by repeatedly copying the correct shape of letters. The necessary speed develops on its own through constant practice, until the movement patterns have become automatic. That is the widely accepted theory. However, this neglects the important aspects of learning to move that are required for writing.

Learning to write is learning to move: motor skills are decisive for writing successfully

Dr. Christian Marquardt informed the members of the National Handwriting Association about how the origins of writing problems can be correctly assessed by observing these kinematic aspects. Children require support in the development of writing motor skills, just as they do when transitioning from shapes to fluid movements.

The SchreibCoach, which Dr. Christian Marquardt demonstrated to the participants, can be used to record individual sequences of movements when writing. This analytic software generates a report showing the subject’s writing performance in the criteria writing frequency, fluidity, pressure and basic hand and finger movements, and provides targeted recommendations. Dr. Christian Marquardt also presented exercise materials that enrich the process of learning to write, by taking including all of the necessary aspects such as speed, pressure, legibility and fluidity.