PEDAGOGICAL NOTES 3

21/11/2018

- BEGINNING OF SCRIPTURE
Prior to the act of writing itself, there are a series of very important plots in which both family and school work should be done. The most important is to obtain a good development of psychomotricity, working on the corporal scheme so that the child goes, day by day, acquiring harmony, balance and coordination of movements.
Undoubtedly, at this stage, the child is already demonstrating a lateral dominance that at no time should be manipulated by parents or teachers. It is the child himself who is experiencing his skills and who will define his own choice, so it is very important that no one intervenes in this field to not condition the choice by the child.
The next step will be to establish the lateral dominance of the child, which generally will not be definitive before 6-7 years, because until then total lateralization is quite imprecise, which will consist in establishing the functional predominance of one side of the body (dominant) over the other (dominated). Several authors state that there are no marked preferences before 2 years and that, between 2-3 years, a period of variable oscillations is established, due mainly to two causes: fatigue and imitation.
During this period, the child is already immersed in the school environment and will have been showing their preferences, therefore there must be a systematic follow-up of their evolution, accompanied by appropriate techniques that allow their encounter with the graphomotor skills to be correct and simple for them. Do not adopt incorrect postures or acquire inappropriate habits that will later affect your writing. The postural aspects will be monitored: back, arm, hand and head, as well as the instrumental ones.
The left-handed child's progression movement is from right to left; but when adapting to the scriptural rules must do it from left to right, so we will work especially the eye-hand coordination, for which, once made the relevant tests of laterality, we will classify the child according to its lateral dominance:
Techniques for determining lateral dominance. (Dr. Alzemas) Table of reading of the tests.
Hand Eye Foot
D D D Homogeneous right
I I I Homogeneous Lefty
D D I Diverse heterogeneous
D I D Diverse heterogeneous
I D D Diverse heterogeneous
I I D Heterogeneous Lefty
I D I Heterogeneous Lefty
D I I Heterogeneous Lefty

Once this dominance is established, we will coordinate the eye and the hand so that the child does not make investments or present later problems such as mirror writing-realization of the writing from the right side to the left, with the features inverted, so that, reflecting it in a mirror, read correctly.

Writing in a mirror. You can read the writing, correctly, placing it in front of a mirror or in the light.

Occasionally we may meet ambidextrous children; are those who have the same ability in both hands. Another case will be those children who, being left-handed, have come to write with the right hand because of family or school pressure but for everyday activities, such as brushing teeth, cutting or combing, are more skilled with the left hand, using it forever.
Regarding the type of writing, we must bear in mind that, during the first years, it will be convenient, especially in children with greater difficulty, the use of script writing -tipográfica-, since it has simpler features that will allow it acquire security and regularity in the layout. Subsequently will be introduced cursive script, or linked, which will favor the speed. The problem of union ceases to be so when the child has good techniques and a good progression.
As graphologists and child therapists, our advice to parents and teachers will be that at all times they remain vigilant, being inducers of good techniques and refraining from opposing attempts to the lateral dominance of the child.