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PloS One 2020Handwriting is a complex skill to acquire and it requires years of training to be mastered. Children presenting dysgraphia exhibit difficulties automatizing their...
Handwriting is a complex skill to acquire and it requires years of training to be mastered. Children presenting dysgraphia exhibit difficulties automatizing their handwriting. This can bring anxiety and can negatively impact education. 280 children were recruited in schools and specialized clinics to perform the Concise Evaluation Scale for Children's Handwriting (BHK) on digital tablets. Within this dataset, we identified children with dysgraphia. Twelve digital features describing handwriting through different aspects (static, kinematic, pressure and tilt) were extracted and used to create linear models to investigate handwriting acquisition throughout education. K-means clustering was performed to define a new classification of dysgraphia. Linear models show that three features only (two kinematic and one static) showed a significant association to predict change of handwriting quality in control children. Most kinematic and statics features interacted with age. Results suggest that children with dysgraphia do not simply differ from ones without dysgraphia by quantitative differences on the BHK scale but present a different development in terms of static, kinematic, pressure and tilt features. The K-means clustering yielded 3 clusters (Ci). Children in C1 presented mild dysgraphia usually not detected in schools whereas children in C2 and C3 exhibited severe dysgraphia. Notably, C2 contained individuals displaying abnormalities in term of kinematics and pressure whilst C3 regrouped children showing mainly tilt problems. The current results open new opportunities for automatic detection of children with dysgraphia in classroom. We also believe that the training of pressure and tilt may open new therapeutic opportunities through serious games.
Topics: Agraphia; Biomechanical Phenomena; Child; Female; Handwriting; Humans; Male; Motor Skills
PubMed: 32915793
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0237575 -
Children (Basel, Switzerland) Sep 2022Knowledge is limited about dysgraphia in adolescence and its association with daily motor-related daily performance and health-related quality of life (HRQOL). This...
Knowledge is limited about dysgraphia in adolescence and its association with daily motor-related daily performance and health-related quality of life (HRQOL). This study aimed to (1) compare and (2) examine correlations between handwriting measures, motor-related daily performance, and HRQOL of adolescents with and without dysgraphia and (3) examine the contribution of motor-related daily performance and handwriting measures to predict their physical HRQOL. There were eighty adolescents (13-18 yr): half with dysgraphia and half matched controls without dysgraphia per the Handwriting Proficiency Screening Questionnaire and Handwriting Legibility Scale participated. They copied a paragraph script onto a paper attached to the Computerized Penmanship Evaluation Tool digitizer and completed the World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire-brief version and the Adult Developmental Coordination Disorder Checklist (ADC). We found significant between-group differences in motor-related daily performance, handwriting measures, and HRQOL and significant correlations between HRQOL and handwriting process measures and motor-coordination ability. Handwriting measures predicted 25%, and the ADC A and C subscales 45.6%, of the research group's physical QOL domain score variability. Notably, the control group's current perceptions of their motor-coordination performance (ADC-C) predicted 36.5% of the variance in physical QOL. Dysgraphia's negative effects during childhood and adolescence may reduce adolescents' HRQOL now and into adulthood.
PubMed: 36291371
DOI: 10.3390/children9101437 -
Zhurnal Nevrologii I Psikhiatrii Imeni... 2022FTD is a group of neurodegenerative diseases with progressive deterioration of behavioral and speech disorders, morphologically associated with pathology of the frontal... (Review)
Review
FTD is a group of neurodegenerative diseases with progressive deterioration of behavioral and speech disorders, morphologically associated with pathology of the frontal or temporal lobes. International clinical trials have made it possible to define modern diagnostic criteria for various subtypes of clinically «possible/probable» FTD. Our article is devoted to one of the rare subtypes of frontotemporal dementia (FTD), corticobasal syndrome (CBD), in which we presented a review of current data with a demonstration of clinical observation. A clinical case of a patient with a patient with speech disorders and memory impairment is presented. A 60-year-old man at the time of the outpatient visit had been complaining of speech impairment for two years, a slight decrease in memory for current events. Neurological and neuropsychological studies revealed two leading clinical syndromes in the patient: «frontal» syndrome with impaired higher cortical functions in the form of efferent motor aphasia, impaired writing and reading with visual-spatial agnosia and dysgraphia, «frontal» signs (positive «palm-mouth «and» grasping «reflexes); «Corticobasal syndrome» with pronounced dynamic, optic-kinesthetic dyspraxia, dermolexia, apraxia of closing the eyes, «alien» hand syndrome with symptoms of levitation and intermanual conflict. MRI diagnostics revealed changes characteristic of neurodegeneration of the frontotemporal type (atrophy of the frontal and temporal lobes prevails). Taking into account complaints, anamnesis of the disease, identified clinical syndromes and structural changes according to MRI data, the patient was diagnosed with a clinically «probable» FTD. Determination and accurate diagnosis of FTD subtypes will help the neurologist in managing these patients with the appointment of the correct pharmacologic treatment. In FTD, in contrast to AD patients, the administration of cholinesterase inhibitors does not lead to a positive therapeutic effect a positive therapeutic effect and, therefore, is not advisable. The standards of patient therapy should include recommendations for antipsychotic therapy, the use of antidepressants (SSRIs) and anxiolytics with nootropic effects for the correction of affective and behavioral disorders.
Topics: Frontotemporal Dementia; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Middle Aged; Neurodegenerative Diseases; Syndrome; Temporal Lobe
PubMed: 35271245
DOI: 10.17116/jnevro2022122021107 -
Children (Basel, Switzerland) Dec 2023Handwriting is a complex perceptual motor task that requires years of training and practice before complete mastery. Its acquisition is crucial, since handwriting is the... (Review)
Review
Handwriting is a complex perceptual motor task that requires years of training and practice before complete mastery. Its acquisition is crucial, since handwriting is the basis, together with reading, of the acquisition of higher-level skills such as spelling, grammar, syntax, and text composition. Despite the correct learning and practice of handwriting, some children never master this skill to a sufficient level. These handwriting deficits, referred to as developmental dysgraphia, can seriously impact the acquisition of other skills and thus the academic success of the child if they are not diagnosed and handled early. In this review, we present a non-exhaustive listing of the tools that are the most reported in the literature for the analysis of handwriting and the diagnosis of dysgraphia. A variety of tools focusing on either the final handwriting product or the handwriting process are described here. On one hand, paper-and-pen tools are widely used throughout the world to assess handwriting quality and/or speed, but no universal gold-standard diagnostic test exists. On the other hand, several very promising computerized tools for the diagnosis of dysgraphia have been developed in the last decade, but some improvements are required before they can be available to clinicians. Based on these observations, we will discuss the pros and cons of the existing tools and the perspectives related to the development of a universal, standardized test of dysgraphia combining both paper-and-pen and computerized approaches and including different graphomotor and writing tasks.
PubMed: 38136127
DOI: 10.3390/children10121925 -
Minerva Pediatrica Apr 2018Writing ability requires to use and control several processes of visual and phonological information processing and an adequate programming and coordination of motor...
BACKGROUND
Writing ability requires to use and control several processes of visual and phonological information processing and an adequate programming and coordination of motor sequences. We studied a writing precursor gesture in children with developmental dysorthography and/or developmental dysgraphia in order to point out anomalies to be treated with specific rehabilitative interventions.
METHODS
Twenty-five children affected by developmental dysortography (ICD 9 CM: 315.09; ICD 10: F81.1) and/or developmental dysgraphia (ICD 9 CM: 315.2; ICD 10: F81.8) (mean age 9.1 years [range: 6.3-11.4 years]) ran a maze, project in front of them, using a wireless mouse. Data regarding angular excursions, execution times and gesture accuracy were collected and elaborated using Dartfish 6.0 software and the labyrinth generating program (PRINC), and compared with normative data previously obtained from a sample of 226 healthy children of the same age and grade.
RESULTS
The comparison did not evidence significant differences regarding gesture structure (trajectories of arm segments and angular excursions of interested joints). Angular and temporal execution patterns were reached in delay in these children. No correlation was found with general cognitive and visuomotor integration skills; a deficit of visual attention was associated with an abnormal elbow range of motion.
CONCLUSIONS
Although these findings need to be confirmed in larger studies, data obtained evidence that children with developmental writing disorders have a time delay in the acquisition of writing motor patterns and not an alteration of gesture structure itself. This has relevant implications for the rehabilitative approach.
Topics: Agraphia; Child; Cognition; Developmental Disabilities; Elbow Joint; Female; Humans; Male; Neuropsychological Tests; Range of Motion, Articular; Software; Time Factors; Writing
PubMed: 26899671
DOI: 10.23736/S0026-4946.16.04364-4 -
Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) May 2023Handwriting learning disabilities, such as dysgraphia, have a serious negative impact on children's academic results, daily life and overall well-being. Early detection...
Handwriting learning disabilities, such as dysgraphia, have a serious negative impact on children's academic results, daily life and overall well-being. Early detection of dysgraphia facilitates an early start of targeted intervention. Several studies have investigated dysgraphia detection using machine learning algorithms with a digital tablet. However, these studies deployed classical machine learning algorithms with manual feature extraction and selection as well as binary classification: either dysgraphia or no dysgraphia. In this work, we investigated the fine grading of handwriting capabilities by predicting the SEMS score (between 0 and 12) with deep learning. Our approach provided a root-mean-square error of less than 1 with automatic instead of manual feature extraction and selection. Furthermore, the SensoGrip smart pen SensoGrip was used, i.e., a pen equipped with sensors to capture handwriting dynamics, instead of a tablet, enabling writing evaluation in more realistic scenarios.
Topics: Child; Humans; Deep Learning; Handwriting; Agraphia; Algorithms; Machine Learning
PubMed: 37299942
DOI: 10.3390/s23115215 -
Frontiers in Neurology 2022Currently, little is known about Chinese-speaking primary progressive aphasia (PPA) patients compared to patients who speak Indo-European languages. We examined the...
INTRODUCTION
Currently, little is known about Chinese-speaking primary progressive aphasia (PPA) patients compared to patients who speak Indo-European languages. We examined the demographics and clinical manifestations, particularly reading and writing characteristics, of Chinese patients with PPA over the last two decades to establish a comprehensive profile and improve diagnosis and care.
METHODS
We reviewed the demographic features, clinical manifestations, and radiological features of Chinese-speaking PPA patients from 56 articles published since 1994. We then summarized the specific reading and writing errors of Chinese-speaking patients.
RESULTS
The average age of onset for Chinese-speaking patients was in their early 60's, and there were slightly more male patients than female patients. The core symptoms and images of Chinese-speaking patients were similar to those of patients who speak Indo-European languages. Reading and writing error patterns differed due to Chinese's distinct tone and orthography. The types of reading errors reported in Chinese-speaking patients with PPA included tonal errors, regularization errors, visually related errors, semantic errors, phonological errors, unrelated errors, and non-response. Among these errors, regularization errors were the most common in semantic variant PPA, and tonal errors were specific to Chinese. Writing errors mainly consisted of non-character errors (stroke, radical/component, visual, pictograph, dyskinetic errors, and spatial errors), phonologically plausible errors, orthographically similar errors, semantic errors, compound word errors, sequence errors, unrelated errors, and non-response.
CONCLUSION
This paper provides the latest comprehensive demographic information and unique presentations on the reading and writing of Chinese-speaking patients with PPA. More detailed studies are needed to address the frequency of errors in reading and writing and their anatomical substrates.
PubMed: 36561305
DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2022.1025660 -
Frontiers in Psychology 2018Developmental dysgraphia is a disorder of writing/spelling skills, closely related to developmental dyslexia. For developmental dyslexia, profiles with a focus on...
Developmental dysgraphia is a disorder of writing/spelling skills, closely related to developmental dyslexia. For developmental dyslexia, profiles with a focus on phonological, attentional, visual or auditory deficits have recently been established. Unlike for developmental dyslexia, however, there are only few studies about dysgraphia, in particular about the variability of its causes. Research has demonstrated high similarity between developmental dyslexia and dysgraphia. Thus, the aim of the study was to investigate cognitive deficits as potential predictors of dysgraphia, analogously to those for dyslexia, in order to identify dysgraphia profiles, depending on the particular underlying disorder. Different tests were carried out with 3rd and 4th grade school children to assess their spelling abilities, tapping into phonological processing, auditory sound discrimination, visual attention and visual magnocellular functions as well as reading. A group of 45 children with developmental dysgraphia was compared to a control group. The results showed that besides phonological processing abilities, auditory skills and visual magnocellular functions affected spelling ability, too. Consequently, by means of a two-step cluster analysis, the group of dysgraphic children could be split into two distinct clusters, one with auditory deficits and the other with deficits in visual magnocellular functions. Visual attention was also related to spelling disabilities, but had no characteristic distinguishing effect for the two clusters. Together, these findings demonstrate that a more fine-grained diagnostic view on developmental dysgraphia, which takes the underlying cognitive profiles into account, might be advantageous for optimizing the outcome of individuum-centered intervention programs.
PubMed: 30524324
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02006 -
Journal of Oncology Pharmacy Practice :... Apr 2023Capecitabine is a pre-metabolite of 5-fluorouracil and is used as a chemotherapeutic agent. Among the common side effects of capecitabine, there are gastrointestinal...
INTRODUCTION
Capecitabine is a pre-metabolite of 5-fluorouracil and is used as a chemotherapeutic agent. Among the common side effects of capecitabine, there are gastrointestinal side effects including nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, and dermatological side effects including hand-foot syndrome and skin pigmentation change. However, neurological side effects of capecitabine are very rare. We describe herein a patient who developed neurological side effects in the form of agraphia and dysarthria on the 7th day of capecitabine treatment.
CASE REPORT
A 34-year-old male patient, who was being followed up with the diagnosis of colon cancer, presented with speech and writing disorder that developed while under capecitabine treatment. Dysarthria and agraphia were detected in his neurological examination. Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed acute diffusion restriction in the splenium of the corpus callosum and at the level of the bilateral centrum semiovale. Brain MRI revealed symmetrical T2-weighted fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (T2-FLAIR) signal increases at the right temporoparietal medial, corpus callosum level, and bilateral white matter level.
MANAGEMENT & OUTCOME
The capecitabine treatment was terminated, and methylprednisolone treatment was administered and plasmapheresis procedure was carried out. Subsequently, significant improvement was observed in the clinical findings and neuroimaging.
DISCUSSION
Capecitabine is used as an oral agent; thus, it provides ease of use. Neurological side effects associated with the use of capecitabine reportedly occur very rarely. The findings of this case demonstrated that leukoencephalopathy can be seen during the use of capecitabine, imaging results are very important in the diagnosis of leukoencephalopathy, and improvement can be achieved with the termination of the capecitabine treatment.
Topics: Male; Humans; Adult; Capecitabine; Agraphia; Dysarthria; Fluorouracil; Leukoencephalopathies
PubMed: 35903929
DOI: 10.1177/10781552221116329 -
Zhurnal Nevrologii I Psikhiatrii Imeni... 2021The function of the formation of speech skills is decisive in the development of a child in communication and assimilation of information. Early pediatric diagnosis...
The function of the formation of speech skills is decisive in the development of a child in communication and assimilation of information. Early pediatric diagnosis should become a routine practice of monitoring children from infancy to school age for the timely correction of speech disorders and associated dysgraphia and dyslexia. According to the ICD-10 classification, speech developmental disorders are divided into the following options: articulation impairment, delay in expressive and impressive speech. Articulation disorders, stuttering, impaired expressive speech are the most common and most favorable prognosis for speech therapy interventions. The data on the effectiveness of disorders of the receptive (impressive) language are ambiguous, since there is a high likelihood of a combination with neurogenetic diseases and autism. The development of speech therapy programs will make it possible to broader coverage of those in need of treatment, including complex course therapy with neuropeptides (cortexin).
Topics: Child; Humans; Language; Language Development Disorders; Speech; Speech Disorders; Speech Therapy
PubMed: 34932295
DOI: 10.17116/jnevro2021121111106