Mirror Writing in Children
Anderson Eilidh Dissertation 2012.pdf (842.2Kb)
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A recent study by Fischer (2011) found that children independently choose the direction that letters and digits face during literacy development when lacking explicit knowledge of directionality. In explanation of this finding, Fischer proposes an implicit right writing rule claims that the direction children choose is mainly biased rightward (drawing from left to right) because the majority of letters in the English language face this way. The purpose of this study was to test for the prevalence of the implicit right writing rule by looking at the unintentional reversal of left-facing characters (LFCs) and right-facing characters (RFCs) with artificially controlled novel characters. 56 typically developing nursery and primary school children between the ages of 2 and 5 were recruited, taught these characters and required to draw them under dictation from memory. Results showed that significantly more LFCs are mirrored than RFCs. Subsidiary hypotheses also suggested that age, experience with language and sequential positioning had an effect on the frequency of mirror-writing and direction of the characters produced. The frequency of mirror-writing decreased with experience with language (and age). A marginal numerical trend was also found whereby LFCs appeared more likely to be mirrored in the second position of an adjacently drawn pair of characters, regardless of the direction of the preceding character. It was concluded that an implicit right writing rule and a motor priming effect were present during literacy development, but not in full support of Fischer’s (2011) theory. Situational and culture-specific factors, such as handedness and left writing scripts, were areas highlighted as possible factors requiring further study.