Kinaesthetic Sensitivity and Handwriting Ability in Grade One Children

Recent literature has indicated the importance of kinaesthesis in the acquisition of perceptual motor skills such as handwriting, and has suggested that handwriting difficulties prevalent among school children can, in part, be attributed to kinaesthetic immaturity. This study examined the extent to which kinaesthesis was implicated in the handwriting ability of 60 Grade 1 children. Kinaesthetic sensitivity was measured using the Kinaesthesia Test (Ayres, 1972) and the Test of Kinaesthetic Sensitivity (Laszlo and Bairstow, 1985). A highly significant positive relationship was found between handwriting quality and performance on the Kinaesthesia Test (F(1, 56) = 18.89, P<.001). As measured by the Test of Kinaesthetic Sensitivity, neither kinaesthetic acuity (F(1, 56) = 3.39, P>.05) nor perception and memory (F(1, 56) = 3.77, P>.05) were significantly related to handwriting quality. These findings are discussed in terms of the proposed impact of kinaesthesis on handwriting performance.