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The Use of Lined Paper in Child Education: Impact of Line Presence on Handwriting Quality

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Title: The Use of Lined Paper in Child Education: Impact of Line Presence on Handwriting Quality
Language: English
Authors: Jessica Guilbert (ORCID 0000-0002-1775-4269), Jonathan Fernandez
Source: Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal. 2025 38(9):2543-2561.
Availability: Springer. Available from: Springer Nature. One New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, NY 10004. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-460-1700; e-mail: customerservice@springernature.com; Web site: https://link.springer.com/
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 19
Publication Date: 2025
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Education Level: Early Childhood Education
Elementary Education
Grade 3
Primary Education
Descriptors: Handwriting, Writing Skills, Instructional Materials, Paper (Material), Writing Instruction, Grade 3, Psychomotor Skills
DOI: 10.1007/s11145-024-10612-w
ISSN: 0922-4777
1573-0905
Abstract: Several surveys have shown that the type of paper used in classroom writing activities varies considerably between schoolteachers, school grades, and also countries. The present study aims to (1) evaluate if handwriting quality (both legibility and fluency) of school age children is better when they write on lined than on unlined paper and (2) explore whether fine motor and visuomotor skills of children could moderate the potential effects of lined paper. To this end, 34 third-grade students copied a text on blank and lined paper. All children were exposed to the two paper conditions (within-subject design). Handwriting legibility and fluency were evaluated using the Concise Assessment Scale for Children's Handwriting. The students' fine motor and hand--eye coordination skills were also assessed to determine whether these factors moderate the effect of line presence. The results revealed that handwriting legibility was better on lined paper than on unlined paper. However, fluency was not impacted by the presence of lines on the paper. Moderation analyses revealed that for third-grade students, lined paper similarly impacts handwriting performance regardless of their fine motor and visuomotor skills. The implications of these findings for guiding teachers in choosing a type of paper for classroom handwriting activities are discussed.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2026
Accession Number: EJ1492473
Database: ERIC
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  Value: <anid>AN0189054368;2ap01nov.25;2025Nov05.03:49;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0189054368-1">The use of lined paper in child education: impact of line presence on handwriting quality </title> <p>Several surveys have shown that the type of paper used in classroom writing activities varies considerably between schoolteachers, school grades, and also countries. The present study aims to (<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref1">1</reflink>) evaluate if handwriting quality (both legibility and fluency) of school age children is better when they write on lined than on unlined paper and (<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref2">2</reflink>) explore whether fine motor and visuomotor skills of children could moderate the potential effects of lined paper. To this end, 34 third-grade students copied a text on blank and lined paper. All children were exposed to the two paper conditions (within-subject design). Handwriting legibility and fluency were evaluated using the Concise Assessment Scale for Children's Handwriting. The students' fine motor and hand–eye coordination skills were also assessed to determine whether these factors moderate the effect of line presence. The results revealed that handwriting legibility was better on lined paper than on unlined paper. However, fluency was not impacted by the presence of lines on the paper. Moderation analyses revealed that for third-grade students, lined paper similarly impacts handwriting performance regardless of their fine motor and visuomotor skills. The implications of these findings for guiding teachers in choosing a type of paper for classroom handwriting activities are discussed.</p> <p>Keywords: Handwriting; Lined paper; Legibility; Fluency; School-age children; Education Specialist Studies In Education</p> <hd id="AN0189054368-2">Introduction</hd> <p>Alongside reading and mathematical skills, writing is a core skill that pupils must acquire during their school careers. However, the development of writing abilities is long, complex, and involves the management of both low- and high-level processes (e.g., Salas & Silvente, [<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref3">38</reflink>]). Among the low-level processes, the acquisition of both <emph>fluent</emph> and <emph>legible</emph> handwriting is a major challenge for children for at least two reasons (Santangelo & Graham, [<reflink idref="bib39" id="ref4">39</reflink>]). First, there is a large body of research showing that handwriting <emph>fluency</emph> (i.e., the number of letters/words written or copied in a limited time) has an influence on higher-level processes, such as composition (e.g., Limpo et al., [<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref5">30</reflink>]; Skar et al., [<reflink idref="bib41" id="ref6">41</reflink>]). This influence can be interpreted as the result of the gradual automatization of handwriting during the course of schooling. Indeed, as long as handwriting is not automated and fluent, it requires considerable attentional resources that, in turn, cannot be allocated to other writing processes. Second, it has been shown that handwriting <emph>legibility</emph> influences the reader's evaluation about the quality of ideas in a written text (for a meta-analysis, see Graham et al., [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref7">17</reflink>]). For instance, when raters are asked to evaluate several versions of a paper differing only in legibility, lower scores for content are given to versions with less legible text. In light of all these results, an investigation of the different factors that may facilitate or hinder handwriting quality (i.e., both fluency and legibility) in school-aged children is of particular interest.</p> <p>Various factors, both intrinsic (i.e., specific to the child's capabilities) and extrinsic (i.e., relating to the learner's environment) have been found to be related to handwriting quality (for a review, see Feder & Majnemer, [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref8">12</reflink>]; Fitzpatrick et al., [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref9">13</reflink>]). For instance, concerning intrinsic factors, several studies have shown that fine motor and visuomotor skills play a crucial role in the development of handwriting (e.g., Lu et al., [<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref10">32</reflink>]; Seo, [<reflink idref="bib40" id="ref11">40</reflink>]; Volman et al., [<reflink idref="bib43" id="ref12">43</reflink>]). Among the extrinsic factors that could influence handwriting performance is the writing support used by students. Different surveys have revealed that the type of paper used for writing exercises considerably varies between schoolteachers, school grades, and countries (Asher, [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref13">1</reflink>]; Bara et al., [<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref14">2</reflink>]; Baraud et al., [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref15">3</reflink>]; Gerde et al., [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref16">15</reflink>]; Graham et al., [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref17">18</reflink>]). For instance, Gerde et al. ([<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref18">15</reflink>]) found that preschool teachers provide children with a variety of supports for writing: lined paper (provided in 60% of classrooms), unlined paper (70%), colored paper (78%), envelopes (28%), notebooks (30%), postcards (3%), and graph paper (5%). In a survey conducted among French kindergarten and first-grade teachers, Baraud et al. ([<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref19">3</reflink>]) found that exercise books and lined sheets were considered important for writing exercises by 50% and 58% of teachers, respectively, while blank and checked sheets were seen as important by only around 30% of teachers. In another study, Graham et al. ([<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref20">18</reflink>]) reported that 64% of primary grade teachers used wide-lined paper. They also indicated that the use of this sort of paper declines with school grades (82% grade 1, 65% grade 2, and 45% grade 3). Similarly, Asher ([<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref21">1</reflink>]) found that the number of paper types used for writing exercises greatly differed from one teacher to another and from one school grade to another. Finally, in another survey, French teachers reported more variety in handwriting supports (lined paper, but also white paper and slates) than in Quebec (mainly lined paper; Bara et al., [<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref22">2</reflink>]).</p> <p>Given these major divergences in teaching practices, it is essential to determine whether the use of some types of paper would be more appropriate to improve handwriting quality in children than others. Consequently, the present study has two main objectives: (<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref23">1</reflink>) to test if handwriting quality (both legibility and fluency) of school age children is better when they write on lined than on unlined paper and (<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref24">2</reflink>) to explore whether fine motor and visuomotor skills of children could moderate the potential effect of lined paper.</p> <hd id="AN0189054368-3">The impact of lined versus blank paper on handwriting performance</hd> <p>To our knowledge, only three studies have explored how handwriting performance is modified when lines are present or not on the paper (Daly et al., [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref25">10</reflink>]; Fitzpatrick et al., [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref26">13</reflink>]; Lindsay & McLennan, [<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref27">31</reflink>]). Two of these studies were conducted with kindergarten children and showed that handwriting legibility was not impacted on double-lined paper compared to unlined paper in young children (Daly et al., [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref28">10</reflink>]; Fitzpatrick et al., [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref29">13</reflink>]). Concerning fluency, Fitzpatrick et al. ([<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref30">13</reflink>]) found that the effect of lined paper on fluency approached significance in kindergarten children, such that young writers tended to write more letters on double-lined than blank paper. In this study, the authors also examined if some aspects of handwriting processes (e.g., velocity, number of velocity inversions) were modified according to the type of paper on which the children had to write. The results showed that velocity of descending strokes was slower, and the number of velocity inversions was lower on double-lined than blank paper. According to Fitzpatrick et al. ([<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref31">13</reflink>]), these results suggest that using double-lined paper could be a useful teaching strategy to foster writing movements with a less jagged velocity profile in young children starting to learn handwriting. Although not comparing lined versus blank paper, Chartrel and Vinter ([<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref32">7</reflink>]) also showed that, in young children, paper with line spacing allowed more precise programming of movement in comparison to single-lined paper.</p> <p>We found only one study that explored the effect of line presence on handwriting legibility in older children (Lindsay & McLennan, [<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref33">31</reflink>]). In this study, second-, third-, and fourth-grade children were instructed to write two stories, one on lined paper (paper with lines 1 cm apart) and the other on unlined paper. Five judges were asked to assess each child's pair of essays and to decide which of the two samples of writing was more legible. The results showed that the presence of lines on the paper impacted the legibility differently depending on the age of the children. More precisely, 6-year-old children produced more legible writing on unlined paper, there was no effect of the type of paper with 7- and 8-year-old children, but that by 9 years more legible writing was produced on lined paper. According to the authors, these results suggest that a certain level of mastery in handwriting skills must be achieved before the presence of lines on paper can have a beneficial effect on legibility. Although this study provides information on the effect of lined paper on handwriting legibility in students of second grade and above, it did not examine whether fluency was modified by the presence of lines on the paper. Furthermore, Lindsay and McLennan used a global-holistic evaluation of the legibility and did not identify which specific aspects of the written trace differed on lined versus unlined paper. Handwriting requires the control of two types of movement, namely morphokinetics involved in the production of letter shapes, and topokinetics responsible for the spatial layout of the letters and characters in the graphic space. Before the age of 10 years, children use a retroactive mode of motor control during which they predominantly rely on the use of visual feedback to control these two types of movement (e.g., Danna & Velay, [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref34">11</reflink>]; Palmis et al., [<reflink idref="bib36" id="ref35">36</reflink>]). An analytic handwriting evaluation with predetermined criteria could be used to examine in greater detail how morphokinetic and topokinetic aspects of handwriting are impacted by the presence of lines on paper. However, to the best of our knowledge, no study has so far explored this issue.</p> <hd id="AN0189054368-4">Do the fine motor and visuomotor skills of children moderate the potential effect of lined pa...</hd> <p>Beyond the changes that the type of paper may have on legibility and fluency, other fine motor and visuomotor factors are related to handwriting quality and could moderate the potential effect of lined paper. First, it is currently recognized that fine motor skills, which refer to the control and the coordination of the distal musculature of the hands and fingers enabling object manipulation, are critical to the development of handwriting. Several studies have revealed that they are significantly related to handwriting legibility, in both preschool (Seo, [<reflink idref="bib40" id="ref36">40</reflink>]) and school-age children (Cornhill & Case-Smith, [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref37">9</reflink>]; Volman et al., [<reflink idref="bib43" id="ref38">43</reflink>]). For instance, Volman et al. ([<reflink idref="bib43" id="ref39">43</reflink>]) found that manual dexterity was a predictor of handwriting legibility in typical second- and third-grade children. Beyond the effect on legibility, the results of a recent study showed that fine motor skills also contributed to handwriting fluency in third graders (Lê et al., [<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref40">27</reflink>]). On lined paper, as the spacing between lines is often equal to or less than 2–3 mm, this requires students to produce precise movements of small amplitude, which can be a major challenge for dexterity and fine motor coordination. Consequently, it is possible that students with low fine motor skills could have more difficulty in writing on this type of support.</p> <p>Second, research has shown that handwriting legibility is significantly related to students' visuomotor coordination skills (for a recent meta-analysis, see Lu et al., [<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref41">32</reflink>]). Indeed, when writing, children must be able to coordinate the visual information they receive, with an appropriate motor response that enables them to produce the correct shape in the right place on the sheet. Several studies have found a significant positive correlation between handwriting legibility of first- to third-grade students and their hand–eye coordination skills, assessed here in a task during which they had to draw straight and curved lines between defined visual limits (Kaiser et al., [<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref42">22</reflink>]; Lee, [<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref43">28</reflink>]). Lined paper offers additional visual and spatial information (e.g., baseline, interlines, margin line) that could facilitate the adjustment of both topokinetic and morphokinetic movements. Therefore, it is possible that children who have low visuomotor coordination abilities could benefit more from lined than unlined paper.</p> <hd id="AN0189054368-5">The present study</hd> <p>Both handwriting fluency and legibility influence the higher-order processes required for spelling and text composition and the evaluation of writing content by teachers (Graham et al., [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref44">17</reflink>]; Skar et al., [<reflink idref="bib41" id="ref45">41</reflink>]). Therefore, it is important for teachers to have a good understanding of the factors that can influence handwriting quality. Among these factors, lined paper could modify handwriting performance. However, to date, only three studies have compared the effect of lined versus unlined paper on handwriting performance, two of which were conducted with kindergarten students (Daly et al., [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref46">10</reflink>]; Fitzpatrick et al., [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref47">13</reflink>]) and only one with students of second grade and above (Lindsay & McLennan, [<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref48">31</reflink>]). For this last, only a global-holistic evaluation of the legibility was evaluated, leaving the effects of lined paper on both fluency and the morphokinetic and topokinetic aspects of handwriting of older students unknown. Consequently, the first aim of the present study is to determine whether or not the presence of lines on paper improves handwriting legibility (both morphokinetic and topokinetic aspects of the written trace) and fluency in third-grade children.</p> <p>Several studies have revealed that fine motor and visuomotor skills are related to handwriting quality (e.g., Lê et al., [<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref49">27</reflink>]; Lee, [<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref50">28</reflink>]; Volman et al., [<reflink idref="bib43" id="ref51">43</reflink>]). To our knowledge, no study has examined whether the effect of lined paper is modulated by these factors. Having a better insight into the intrinsic factors that might facilitate or hinder the effect of line presence on paper could help teachers to choose the type of paper best suited to their students' characteristics. Thus, the second aim of this study is to explore whether fine motor and visuomotor skills of children moderate the potential effect of lined paper.</p> <p>To reach these goals, we compare handwriting quality of third graders who were asked to copy a text either on blank paper or on lined paper. A within-subject design, in which all children were exposed to the two paper conditions (lined and unlined paper), was used. Handwriting legibility and fluency were evaluated with the French version of the Concise Assessment Scale for Children's Handwriting (BHK test, Charles et al., [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref52">6</reflink>]). The BHK test is an analytic handwriting scale that enables us to evaluate both morphokinetic and topokinetic aspects of handwriting on the basis of 13 predetermined criteria. Finally, students' fine motor and hand–eye coordination skills were also assessed to determine whether these factors moderate the effect of line presence.</p> <hd id="AN0189054368-6">Research questions and hypotheses</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0189054368-7">Research Question 1: Does Lined Paper Impact the Handwriting Legibility and Fluency of Third-...</hd> <p>Research suggests that the use of lined paper may improve handwriting legibility only when children achieve a certain level of mastery in handwriting skills (Lindsay & McLennan, [<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref53">31</reflink>]). By third grade, students already have some handwriting experience (in France, two years of formal instruction in cursive writing on lined paper). It is also recognized that third-grade children have not yet fully memorized motor programs dedicated to the formation of each letter and predominantly use visual feedback for controlling both morphokinetic and topokinetic movements (Danna & Velay, [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref54">11</reflink>]; Palmis et al., [<reflink idref="bib36" id="ref55">36</reflink>]). Thus, providing children with lined paper containing visual markers to guide them in letter formation and in the spatial organization of the written trace should help them improve legibility. Consequently, we expected that both morphokinetic and topokinetic aspects of handwriting of third graders should be improved on lined paper compared to unlined paper (H1).</p> <p>The only previous study to have examined the effect of line presence on handwriting fluency revealed that kindergarten children tended to write more letters on lined than blank paper (Fitzpatrick et al., [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref56">13</reflink>]). The results of this study also showed that lined paper may favor motor programming by reducing the number of velocity peaks in kindergarten children (Fitzpatrick et al., [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref57">13</reflink>]). Also, as suggested by Chartrel and Vinter ([<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref58">7</reflink>]), lined paper may define spatial references that help children to better program their movement. As a relationship exists between the number of velocity peaks and fluency (Fitzpatrick et al., [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref59">13</reflink>]), we expect that fluency should improve on lined paper in comparison to unlined paper in third-grade children (H2).</p> <hd id="AN0189054368-8">Research Question 2: Do the Fine Motor and Visuomotor Skills of Children Moderate the Potenti...</hd> <p>Fine motor and visuomotor skills have been found to be associated with handwriting quality (e.g., Lê et al., [<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref60">27</reflink>], Lee, [<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref61">28</reflink>]; Volman et al., [<reflink idref="bib43" id="ref62">43</reflink>]). The presence of lines and interlines on paper provides additional visual information that should facilitate the control of both topokinetic and morphokinetic movements. Also, lined paper can lead children to produce movements of smaller amplitude than they would spontaneously do, which can be challenging for dexterity and fine motor control. Therefore, we expected the beneficial effect of line presence to be moderated by fine motor and visuomotor coordination skills of children (H3).</p> <hd id="AN0189054368-9">Method</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0189054368-10">Participants</hd> <p>All participants of this study were recruited from an elementary school in the north-eastern suburbs of Paris, France. Students from two third-grade classrooms were all given the opportunity to participate in the present study. A total of 34 participants (21 girls and 13 boys, <emph>M</emph><subs><emph>age</emph></subs> = 8 years and 11 months, <emph>SD</emph><subs><emph>age</emph></subs> = 5 months<emph>)</emph> took part in the experiment. Written informed consent was obtained from parents prior to the study. Participation was completely voluntary for children. In line with the French school program (Ministry of National Education & Youth, [<reflink idref="bib34" id="ref63">34</reflink>]), children were only taught cursive handwriting and were never trained to practice and use manuscript letters when they write.</p> <hd id="AN0189054368-11">Experimental conditions and materials</hd> <p>The handwriting productions were collected on two sheets of paper (A4 format: 210 mm × 297 mm)—one blank (unlined) and one lined. In the present experiment, we used a lined paper called "Réglure Seyès," specific to the French school context. Seyès paper is used in writing exercises to teach the proportions of the letters and the spatial organization within the page (Baraud et al., [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref64">3</reflink>]). The standard "Réglure Seyès" paper used in notebooks and writing exercises consists of horizontal lines spaced 2 mm apart and vertical lines every 8 mm apart. A red vertical line, on the left, separates the margin (often reserved for the teacher's annotations) from the rest of the page (see Fig. 1). This red line is often used by students as a cue to start their sentences. The horizontal base line shown in purple, and three interlines in blue, are designed to help students respect the height and proportions of letters, and to maintain the horizontality of writing. For example, in cursive, which is the writing style taught in France, truncated letters (e.g., a, e, c, m) stay within the first interline, straight ascending letters (t and d) stop at the second, looped ascending letters (e.g., l, b, h) go up to the third, and jambs of the descending letters (e.g. p, q, y) go down two interlines below the base line. The vertical lines, for their part, are designed to help students maintain the verticality of ascending and descending letters. Finally, the squares can be used as spacing markers between words. The two teachers of the participants in this study confirmed that all children were accustomed to writing on this type of paper on a daily basis during classroom activities.</p> <p>Graph: Fig. 1 Standard "Réglure Seyès" Lined Paper</p> <hd id="AN0189054368-12">Measures</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0189054368-13">Assessment of handwriting skills</hd> <p>We used the French version of the BHK test (Charles et al., [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref65">6</reflink>]) to evaluate both the legibility and the fluency of handwriting. This test requires children to copy a text within five minutes with their usual pens. The text begins with simple monosyllabic words. Then, the complexity of the words gradually increases. In this study, in order to assess the effect of lined paper on handwriting skills, all participants copied the BHK text on both blank paper and lined paper.</p> <p>Following the experimental runs, all the productions obtained were scanned and all lines on the lined paper were erased with graphic editing software, giving the impression that all texts produced on lined paper were written on unlined paper. Handwriting quality was double-scored by the two authors according to 13 criteria covering both morphokinetic and topokinetic aspects of handwriting. For each criterion, using the R package irr (Gamer et al., [<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref66">14</reflink>]), we computed an Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) to estimate the quality of the inter-rater agreement (ICC<subs>poor</subs> < <emph>0.5</emph>0, 0.50 < ICC<subs>moderate</subs> < 0.75, <emph>0.7</emph>5 < ICC<subs>good</subs> < 0.90 and <emph>0.9</emph>0 < ICC<subs>excellent</subs>; Koo & Li, [<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref67">24</reflink>]): letter size (criterion 1, ICC = 0.83), left margin widening (criterion 2, ICC = 0.81), poor word alignment (criterion 3, ICC = 0.81), insufficient space between words (criterion 4, ICC: 0.95), chaotic writing (criterion 5, ICC = 0.80), irregularities in joining strokes (criterion 6, ICC = 0.89), collision of letters (criterion 7, ICC = 0.84), inconsistent letter size (criterion 8, ICC = 0.83), incorrect relative height of letters (criterion 9, ICC = 0.86), letter distortion (criterion 10, ICC = 0.73), ambiguous letter forms (criterion 11, ICC = 0.86), correction of the letter forms (criterion 12, ICC = 0.86), and unsteady writing trace, hesitations, and trembling (criterion 13, ICC = 0.83). A score was assigned by the two authors to each of these thirteen criteria. Conflicts were resolved through discussions.</p> <p>For criteria 1 and 2, scoring was made on all the text copied by using transparent sheets. For criterion 1, letter size was first determined in millimeters with the transparent sheet and then converted into a score ranging from 0 (appropriate letter size given the child's age) to 5 (size of letters too large given the child's age). For left margin widening (criterion 2), the score was determined by using a transparent sheet showing five different slopes each associated with a rating ranging from 0 (no deviation from the straight line) to 5 (strong deviation from the straight line). For criteria 3 to 13, each of the first five sentences of the copied text was rated to determine whether or not a particular feature was present in that sentence. A score of 1 was given if the feature was present at least once in the sentence, while a score of 0 was given if it was not present. Thus, for each criterion, as all five sentences were evaluated, possible scores ranged from 0 to 5. Higher scores reflect more errors and a poorer quality. The sum of the 13 scores gave a total handwriting quality score (total score) for each child's production that could range from 0 (best) to 65 (worst). Finally, handwriting fluency was determined by counting the number of characters written by the child during the five-minute period. We obtained an ICC of 1 for this measure.</p> <hd id="AN0189054368-14">Assessment of fine motor and visuomotor skills</hd> <p>Fine motor and visuomotor skills were both assessed using two subtests from the French adaptation of the Neuropsychological Assessment, 2nd edition: the fingertip tapping subtests and the visuomotor precision subtests (NEPSY-II; Korkman et al., [<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref68">25</reflink>]). The <emph>fingertip tapping</emph> subtest comprises two tasks (repetitive and sequential fingertip tapping) during which the participant must imitate, as fast as possible, a series of finger movements performed by the experimenter. These two tasks assess motor dexterity, the control and coordination of fine motor control, and motor planning on sequences of finger movements. Each task was performed with both hands (dominant and non-dominant). In the first task, called <emph>repetitive fingertip tapping, </emph>the participants were asked to touch, rapidly and repeatedly (20 times in succession), the thumb with the index finger, making a circular shape. The time required to perform the 20 correct repetitions was measured for each hand. Then, for each participant, we calculated the total duration of repetitive fingertip tapping by adding the times obtained for the dominant and non-dominant hands (repetitive fingertip tapping total time). In the second task, called <emph>sequential fingertip tapping,</emph> the participants were asked to repeat a motor sequence consisting of sequentially touching the thumb with each of his/her other fingers (from index to the little finger). This sequence was repeated five times, as fast as possible. The time required to perform the five correct sequences was measured for each hand. Then, for each participant, we calculated the total duration of sequential fingertip tapping by adding the times obtained for the dominant and non-dominant hands (sequential fingertip tapping total time).</p> <p>The <emph>visuomotor precision</emph> subtest assesses hand–eye coordination in a graphomotor task that combines both speed and precision. In this subtest, the participants were asked to draw a line inside a track, as quickly and as accurately (without touching the edges) as possible. Two tracks (car and motorbike) were proposed to children. The time required to complete each of the two tracks was measured. The number of errors on each of the two tracks was double-scored by the two authors. ICC was 0.99 for each of the two tracks. With reference to the population-based age-related calibration data provided with the NEPSY-II test, we obtained a combined scaled score for each participant, which was based on both the two previous measures (accuracy and time) and reflects how successfully participants combined both speed and precision. In this subtest, lower visuomotor precision scores indicate difficulties in hand–eye coordination skills.</p> <hd id="AN0189054368-15">Procedure</hd> <p>We employed a within-subject design—that is, all participants completed the two paper conditions: the blank paper condition and the lined paper condition. Participants were encountered on three separate days. During the first encounter, children performed the fine motor and visuomotor tasks individually, in a predetermined order (fingertip tapping followed by visuomotor precision). During the second visit, children completed the handwriting task (BHK test) collectively in their classroom. In each classroom, half the participants copied the text with their usual pens on the blank paper, while the other half copied the text on the lined paper. Finally, during the third visit (three days later), the children again completed the BHK test but in the other paper condition. Consequently, the order of presentation of the two paper conditions was counterbalanced among participants.</p> <hd id="AN0189054368-16">Data analysis</hd> <p>We calculated generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) to estimate differences between the two groups (<emph>lined vs. blank paper</emph>). These models included fixed effects for the predictor factors condition. Random effects were added to the model, allowing random intercepts for participants to account for the repeated nature of the data. We used a cumulative link mixed model to contend with the ordinal nature of the BHK measures. The conditional distribution of the total score and fluency were best modeled by negative binomial distribution and a normal distribution, respectively, according to the Akaike information criterion (AIC) and Bayesian information criterion (BIC) fit indices. We calculated Wilcoxon test effect size, as this measure is more appropriate for data that does not normally distribute, which was the case for all our measures except fluency (<emph>r</emph> ≥ <emph>0.10, r</emph> ≥ <emph>0.30, and r</emph> ≥ <emph>0.50 represent small, medium, and large effect sizes, respectively</emph>). All GLMM analyses were run in Rstudio 2023.06.01 using the ordinal package (Christensen, [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref69">8</reflink>]) except for the BHK total score, which was run using the glmmTMB package (Brooks et al., [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref70">5</reflink>]), and the fluency score, which was run using the lmer package (Bates et al., [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref71">4</reflink>]). Effect sizes were calculated using the rstatix package (Kassambara, [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref72">23</reflink>]). To estimate whether fine motor and visuomotor skills moderate the effect of paper type, we ran moderation analyses using Model 1 of the R PROCESS macro (see Hayes, [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref73">20</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref74">21</reflink>]). As we ran multiple comparisons, p-values were adjusted using the Holm–Bonferroni method to limit the probability of observing false positives. Data, interrater reliability agreements, and analyses codes are available on the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/y5hw4/?view_only=e4df915e4e9e4442bc34984cd3c93974).</p> <hd id="AN0189054368-17">Results</hd> <p>We predicted that both legibility (H1) and fluency (H2) should be better on lined paper compared to unlined paper. The statistical analysis did not reveal an effect of lined paper on students' handwriting fluency. However, the statistical analysis revealed a significant large positive effect of lined paper on the total BHK score (<emph>χ</emph><sups><emph>2</emph></sups> = 41.58, <emph>p</emph> < 0.001,<emph> r</emph> = 0.50; see Fig. 2), such that global legibility was better on lined paper than unlined paper. More precisely, the analysis revealed that lined paper had a significant moderate effect on letter size (<emph>χ</emph><sups><emph>2</emph></sups> = 28.89,<emph> p</emph> < 0.001,<emph> r</emph> = 0.41), such that children produced smaller letters on lined paper than unlined paper. A large positive effect on word alignment was also found (<emph>χ</emph><sups><emph>2</emph></sups> = 34.60, <emph>p</emph> < 0.001,<emph> r</emph> = 0.61), such that words were better aligned in the lined paper condition than in the blank paper condition. The results also revealed that lined paper had a significant moderate positive effect of lined paper on inconsistent letter size (<emph>χ</emph><sups><emph>2</emph></sups> = 20.17, <emph>p</emph> < 0.001,<emph> r</emph> = 0.45), such that there was more inconsistency in letter size on blank paper than on lined paper. The difference did not reach significance for the other legibility features. We also predicted that the quality of handwriting should be impacted differently depending on students' fine motor and visuomotor skills (H3). Therefore, we tested if visuomotor precision score and repetitive and sequential fingertip tapping times moderated the effect of lined paper on fluency and legibility measures. No moderation effect was obtained, revealing that the lined paper helped students similarly regardless of their fine motor and visuomotor skills. The results of all the moderation analyses are available on the Open Science Framework.</p> <p>Graph: Fig. 2 Letter size (a), poor wording alignment (b), inconsistent letter size (c), and legibility total score (d) according to condition (lined paper vs. unlined paper)</p> <hd id="AN0189054368-18">Discussion</hd> <p>The present study had two main goals. The first was to examine the effect of line presence on handwriting quality in third-grade students. To this end, we compared handwriting legibility and fluency when participants copied a text either on lined or unlined paper. We expected that legibility (both morphokinetic and topokinetic aspects) and fluency should be better on lined than unlined paper (H1 and H2, respectively). The second goal was to determine whether fine motor and visuomotor skills of children might moderate the potential beneficial effect of line presence. We expected that these skills should moderate the effect of line presence (H3).</p> <hd id="AN0189054368-19">Effect of line presence on handwriting legibility</hd> <p>The results supported our first hypothesis (H1) as they revealed, with a large effect size (<emph>r</emph> = 0.50), that the total score for legibility was significantly better when children wrote on lined paper in comparison to unlined paper. Both topokinetic (especially alignment) and morphokinetic (especially aspects relating to letter size) components of handwriting were improved on lined paper in third-grade children. It is recognized that before the age of 10 years, children rely on the use of visual information for controlling both the spatial layout of the written trace in the graphic space (topokinetic component) and the ongoing movements involved in the production of letters (morphokinetics component; Danna & Velay, [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref75">11</reflink>]; Palmis et al., [<reflink idref="bib36" id="ref76">36</reflink>]). Lined paper could, therefore, provide children with additional visual cues (base line, interlines) that can be used to (<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref77">1</reflink>) maintain the horizontal alignment of words in the sheet and (<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref78">2</reflink>) better control the size of letters. In other words, our results suggest that lines on the sheet define visual spatial references that enable third graders to better control both movements involved in the production of letters (morphokinesis) and those enabling the spatial layout of the text on graphic space (topokinesis).</p> <p>In their study, Lindsay and McLennan ([<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref79">31</reflink>]) found a positive effect of lined paper on overall legibility in fourth- but not in third-grade children. Two possible reasons can be put forward to explain these divergent results. First, in the study of Lindsay and McLennan, none of the children had used lined paper before in school. In contrast, the participants in our study were familiar with lined paper as it was used in most of their writing activities. Thus, it is possible that early experience with lined paper reduces the age at which the positive effects of line presence are visible. Second, the type of lined paper differed between our study and that of Lindsay and McLennan. Indeed, Lindsay and McLennan used a paper with single lines spaced 1 cm apart, which does not really provide any visual help in guiding letter formation. Conversely, our lined paper contains much more visual information (base line, interlines, vertical lines, and a margin line) that can be used by children to help them both form letters and organize the written trace in the space of the page. Therefore, the use of this type of paper could provide earlier benefits in legibility than papers containing fewer visual indications.</p> <p>Furthermore, our results extend those of Lindsay and McLennan ([<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref80">31</reflink>]), who used a global handwriting evaluation. Indeed, in the present study, the choice of an analytic handwriting evaluation with predetermined criteria allowed us to better understand which aspects of legibility were improved by the presence of lines on paper. The alignment of words on the sheet was better performed on lined paper than on unlined paper. As specified by Graham et al. ([<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref81">19</reflink>]), the alignment of words is one of the elements that contributes to overall handwriting legibility. Very recently, Sparaci et al. ([<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref82">42</reflink>]) found that word and letter alignment is a specific aspect of cursive handwriting that second- and third graders have difficulty mastering. Our results showed that lined paper effectively guided students to better align their words and is, therefore, a potential tool for helping students with persistent difficulties in these aspects. Lined paper also enabled children to write letters with better size consistency, which is an important characteristic of handwriting that can reduce the risk of confusion between the letters. In addition, lined paper helped children to write smaller letters without impeding overall handwriting legibility. This is an important aspect, as producing letters smaller than those children write spontaneously is in line with school expectations. Indeed, from the end of the second grade, children are required to reduce their handwriting size, as specified in the French Annual Progress Markers published by the Ministry of Education and Youth ([<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref83">35</reflink>]). Furthermore, letter size is an indicator of handwriting development, with smaller letters representing greater sensory-motor maturity (Levine et al., [<reflink idref="bib29" id="ref84">29</reflink>]; Rosenblum & Livneh-Zirinski, [<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref85">37</reflink>]). According to the data provided in the BHK test (Charles et al., [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref86">6</reflink>]), the mean score obtained by third graders for criterion 1 (letter size) and the associated standard deviation are 0.05 and 0.35, respectively. In the present study, 12 children out of 36 scored 1 on this criterion when they wrote on unlined paper, thus writing a little wider than expected for their age. In the lined condition, only one child had a score of 1 and continued to produce larger letters than those normally produced in this grade. Thus, our results showed that lined paper helps children to produce letters in a size that is more in line with what is expected for their age. Finally, by providing spatial visual markers within which small letters must be formed, thus constraining handwriting size, lined paper could lead some children to a better control of their distal articulations, especially finger articulations. If this is the case, it could facilitate the acquisition of more mature writing movements, similar to the ones that experts use. Future research that examines both students' motor activity and the evolution of their handwriting performance over time would provide a better understanding of the effects of lined paper on how movement is controlled during handwriting and its implications for legibility and fluency.</p> <p>Interestingly, despite a large significant effect of lined paper on overall legibility, our results indicate that several BHK criteria were not impacted by line presence. For instance, the space between words (criterion 4) and letters (criterion 7) was not significantly improved on lined paper. Similarly, there were no effects of line presence on distorted (criterion C10) or ambiguous (criterion 11) letter forms. It is possible that the visuo-spatial information present on the lined paper led students to pay more attention to some dimensions of legibility (size aspects of letter formation, alignment) than to others (e.g., the spacing or shape of the letters). This suggests that offering copying exercises on lined paper could be relevant in helping children to better master some aspects of handwriting legibility (especially size and word alignment), but it will not be sufficient to enable all children to perform writing movements that satisfy all legibility criteria. Specific teaching strategies, such as individualized handwriting instructions, visual demonstration, or self-evaluation instructions, should be considered during handwriting lessons to improve all the legibility dimensions (for a meta-analysis, see Santangelo & Graham, [<reflink idref="bib39" id="ref87">39</reflink>]).</p> <hd id="AN0189054368-20">The effect of line presence on handwriting fluency</hd> <p>Our results did not confirm our second hypothesis, as there was no effect of paper type on fluency in third-grade children. In a previous study, Fitzpatrick et al. ([<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref88">13</reflink>]) found that paper type had no significant impact on fluency in kindergarten children, although the finding that more letters were written on lined than blank paper approached significance. The authors also explored whether paper type had an effect on process measures (e.g., number of velocity peaks, writing velocity). Their results revealed that the number of velocity inversions was lower when children wrote on lined than on unlined paper, suggesting that lined paper could favor movement with a less jagged velocity profile. In another study, Chartrel and Vinter ([<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref89">7</reflink>]) also found a small decrease in the number of velocity peaks at the ages of 5 and 7 years when children wrote on double-lined compared to single-lined paper. As Fitzpatrick et al. ([<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref90">13</reflink>]) found a strong relationship between the number of velocity inversions and fluency, such that the number of velocity inversions accounted for 80% of the variance in the number of letters written in a copy task, we expected an improvement of fluency on lined compared to unlined paper. There are several possible reasons for the lack of effect of paper type on fluency in the present study. First, it is possible that the number of letters produced during writing, which is a product measure of handwriting, is not as sensitive as the number of velocity inversions, which is a measure of the writing process, to capture changes in speed profiles induced by paper type. Future studies evaluating the writing process rather than product measures of handwriting in third graders are needed to better explore whether the presence of lines continues to impact speed profiles at this age and to better understand the motor control processes involved when writing on different types of paper.</p> <p>Another reason that can explain the lack of effect on fluency is the participants' level of overall handwriting skill. In the present study, participants had two years more handwriting experience than those in previous studies (i.e., Chartrel & Vinter, [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref91">7</reflink>]; Fitzpatrick et al., [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref92">13</reflink>]) and have, therefore, probably automatized handwriting to a greater extent. In the first steps of handwriting learning, children extensively use sensory feedback to control their movement, which disrupts the normally smooth execution of letter segments and leads to slow and dysfluent movement. As suggested by Meulenbroek and Van Galen ([<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref93">33</reflink>]), providing lines on paper could lead children to plan the spatial goals of movement in advance, which could reduce the reliance on sensory information to control the movement and consequently explain why younger children tend to write more letters on lined paper than on blank paper. With practice, handwriting fluency improves as children increasingly automate handwriting movement and letter formation becomes increasingly programmed before the onset of movement. Thus, lines on paper could be less and less relevant in helping children to plan their movement, which could explain why by third grade, lined paper did not impact fluency. Altogether, these results suggest that the use of lined paper may be a useful teaching strategy to promote fluency in younger writers but when children reach a certain level of fluency, it would no longer be particularly useful for fostering this aspect.</p> <p>Finally, a third explanation, not necessarily contradictory to the previous ones, refers to the trade-off between handwriting speed and handwriting legibility that was often reported when children consciously attempt to speed write or write more neatly (Graham et al., [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref94">16</reflink>]; Weintraub & Graham, [<reflink idref="bib44" id="ref95">44</reflink>]). For instance, when the children were asked to write neatly, the speed of their handwriting decreased (Weintraub & Graham, [<reflink idref="bib44" id="ref96">44</reflink>]). In previous studies, authors used either single-lined (Lindsay & McLennan, [<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref97">31</reflink>]) or double-lined (Chartrel & Vinter, [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref98">7</reflink>]) paper, which probably places less emphasis on legibility components than the Seyès paper we used in the present study. Indeed, the various visuo-spatial information offered on Seyès paper are designed to improve the proportions of the letters and the spatial organization within the page. Teachers mainly use this type of paper to help students to improve their handwriting legibility. Thus, when writing on this specific type of support, children may pay more attention to these dimensions of legibility than to fluency. In other words, it is possible that compared to blank paper, lined paper leads children to be more focused on aspects of letter size and alignment, which could explain the improvements on these aspects of legibility at the expense of fluency.</p> <hd id="AN0189054368-21">Factors moderating the beneficial effect of lined paper</hd> <p>We predicted that fine motor and visuomotor skills would moderate the effect of paper type (H3). Our data did not support this hypothesis. Indeed, as revealed by the analyses, fingertip tapping and visuomotor precision performance did not moderate the effect of lined paper on handwriting quality, indicating that line presence on paper helped students similarly regardless of their visuomotor and fine motor skills. These results suggest that all third graders, in the present study, had a sufficient level of visuomotor development and fine coordination of movement to manage the constraints imposed by the lined paper. This finding indicates that lined paper can be offered to third graders without risk of disadvantaging pupils with low visuomotor and fine motor skills. However, our study was not conducted with students with motor development disorders, and it remains to be determined whether the use of lined paper is an advantage or a constraint for these children. In addition, it has been shown that visuomotor precision and fingertip tapping scores increase sharply in young children (Korkman et al., [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref99">26</reflink>]). Therefore, it is possible that visuomotor and fine motor skills moderate the effectiveness of lined paper for younger students. Future studies should explore whether younger children, with less developed visuomotor and fine motor skills, all benefit in the same way by using lined paper to improve the quality of their handwriting.</p> <hd id="AN0189054368-22">Limitations and research perspectives</hd> <p>Taken together, our results indicate that the use of lined paper is beneficial to enhancing legibility but has no effect on fluency in third graders. However, these results need to be interpreted in the context of the following limitations, which also have implications for future research. First, the sample size of 34 children was small and may limit the statistical power to reveal some significant differences. In addition, the effect of line presence was explored at a single point in time, as all participants were third graders. However, as revealed by several studies (e.g., Graham et al., [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref100">16</reflink>]), the most marked changes in handwriting characteristics and in motor skills take place in kindergarten and early elementary school. It is possible that the effects of lined paper are different at different stages of handwriting learning. Future research should explore the effect of paper type with wider samples of children from different age groups.</p> <p>A second limitation of the present study concerns the assessment of handwriting performance and visuomotor and fine motor skills. In the present study, we explored the effect of line presence on the products of handwriting performance (legibility, fluency), which are also commonly evaluated by teachers in the classroom. Although our findings provide a starting point for understanding how lined paper impacts handwriting quality in children of third grade, further research should also explore the handwriting process to better understand motor control strategies employed by children of this age when writing on lined and blank paper. Concerning the assessment of children's visuomotor and fine motor skills, in the present study, we used two subtests from the NEPSY-II. However, a variety of tests exist that can be used to evaluate fine motor and visuomotor skills of children. Handwriting is a motor activity that requires holding and manipulating an object across fingers. Thus, the use of tasks that imply the manipulation of objects, such as translation or rotation tasks (for a description of these tasks, see Cornhill & Case-Smith, [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref101">9</reflink>]), could be more relevant than fingertip tapping to assess fine motor skills more closely related to those required for writing. A new study that includes these measures should be conducted to increase the level of confidence in our results, which show that motor skills do not moderate the effect of lined paper on handwriting quality in third graders.</p> <p>Third, in the present study we used "Réglure Seyès" paper, which is specific to the French school context. Therefore, it is possible that the findings of this study may not generalize to other types of lined paper. Future studies should compare different paper types to identify line characteristics that could optimize handwriting performance.</p> <hd id="AN0189054368-23">Conclusion</hd> <p>Handwriting is an important and complex skill that requires several years of learning. The acquisition of both fluent and legible handwriting is part of the school's expectations. In addition, from the end of the second grade, French children are expected to reduce their handwriting size (Ministry of National Education & Youth, [<reflink idref="bib34" id="ref102">34</reflink>]). The results of the present study showed that the use of lined paper helps students achieve some of these expectations. Specifically, writing on lined paper improves word alignment and consistency in letter size and leads third-grade children to reduce the size of their letters. Furthermore, as revealed by the moderation analyses, these benefits of line presence in third graders are observed regardless of their fine motor and visuomotor skills. Altogether, these results indicate that lined paper could be used as a tool to improve the topokinetic and morphokinetic components of handwriting in children of third grade, but it will not be sufficient to improve all legibility aspects and fluency. Therefore, other types of practice should be considered to help students improve all dimensions of handwriting.</p> <hd id="AN0189054368-24">Acknowledgements</hd> <p>We thank Wassila Zemzem for her help in collecting the data.</p> <hd id="AN0189054368-25">Funding</hd> <p>Open access funding provided by Université Paris-Est Créteil.</p> <hd id="AN0189054368-26">Declarations</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0189054368-27">Conflict of interest</hd> <p>No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.</p> <hd id="AN0189054368-28">Publisher's Note</hd> <p>Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.</p> <ref id="AN0189054368-29"> <title> References </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref1" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> Asher AV. Handwriting instruction in elementary schools. 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Items – Name: Title
  Label: Title
  Group: Ti
  Data: The Use of Lined Paper in Child Education: Impact of Line Presence on Handwriting Quality
– Name: Language
  Label: Language
  Group: Lang
  Data: English
– Name: Author
  Label: Authors
  Group: Au
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Jessica+Guilbert%22">Jessica Guilbert</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1775-4269">0000-0002-1775-4269</externalLink>)<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Jonathan+Fernandez%22">Jonathan Fernandez</searchLink>
– Name: TitleSource
  Label: Source
  Group: Src
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22Reading+and+Writing%3A+An+Interdisciplinary+Journal%22"><i>Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal</i></searchLink>. 2025 38(9):2543-2561.
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  Label: Availability
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  Data: Springer. Available from: Springer Nature. One New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, NY 10004. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-460-1700; e-mail: customerservice@springernature.com; Web site: https://link.springer.com/
– Name: PeerReviewed
  Label: Peer Reviewed
  Group: SrcInfo
  Data: Y
– Name: Pages
  Label: Page Count
  Group: Src
  Data: 19
– Name: DatePubCY
  Label: Publication Date
  Group: Date
  Data: 2025
– Name: TypeDocument
  Label: Document Type
  Group: TypDoc
  Data: Journal Articles<br />Reports - Research
– Name: Audience
  Label: Education Level
  Group: Audnce
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Early+Childhood+Education%22">Early Childhood Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Elementary+Education%22">Elementary Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Grade+3%22">Grade 3</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Primary+Education%22">Primary Education</searchLink>
– Name: Subject
  Label: Descriptors
  Group: Su
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Handwriting%22">Handwriting</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Writing+Skills%22">Writing Skills</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Instructional+Materials%22">Instructional Materials</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Paper+%28Material%29%22">Paper (Material)</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Writing+Instruction%22">Writing Instruction</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Grade+3%22">Grade 3</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Psychomotor+Skills%22">Psychomotor Skills</searchLink>
– Name: DOI
  Label: DOI
  Group: ID
  Data: 10.1007/s11145-024-10612-w
– Name: ISSN
  Label: ISSN
  Group: ISSN
  Data: 0922-4777<br />1573-0905
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Abstract
  Group: Ab
  Data: Several surveys have shown that the type of paper used in classroom writing activities varies considerably between schoolteachers, school grades, and also countries. The present study aims to (1) evaluate if handwriting quality (both legibility and fluency) of school age children is better when they write on lined than on unlined paper and (2) explore whether fine motor and visuomotor skills of children could moderate the potential effects of lined paper. To this end, 34 third-grade students copied a text on blank and lined paper. All children were exposed to the two paper conditions (within-subject design). Handwriting legibility and fluency were evaluated using the Concise Assessment Scale for Children's Handwriting. The students' fine motor and hand--eye coordination skills were also assessed to determine whether these factors moderate the effect of line presence. The results revealed that handwriting legibility was better on lined paper than on unlined paper. However, fluency was not impacted by the presence of lines on the paper. Moderation analyses revealed that for third-grade students, lined paper similarly impacts handwriting performance regardless of their fine motor and visuomotor skills. The implications of these findings for guiding teachers in choosing a type of paper for classroom handwriting activities are discussed.
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  Data: As Provided
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  Label: Entry Date
  Group: Date
  Data: 2026
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  Label: Accession Number
  Group: ID
  Data: EJ1492473
PLink https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=eric&AN=EJ1492473
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  BibEntity:
    Identifiers:
      – Type: doi
        Value: 10.1007/s11145-024-10612-w
    Languages:
      – Text: English
    PhysicalDescription:
      Pagination:
        PageCount: 19
        StartPage: 2543
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Handwriting
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Writing Skills
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Instructional Materials
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Paper (Material)
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Writing Instruction
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Grade 3
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Psychomotor Skills
        Type: general
    Titles:
      – TitleFull: The Use of Lined Paper in Child Education: Impact of Line Presence on Handwriting Quality
        Type: main
  BibRelationships:
    HasContributorRelationships:
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Jessica Guilbert
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          Name:
            NameFull: Jonathan Fernandez
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          Dates:
            – D: 01
              M: 01
              Type: published
              Y: 2025
          Identifiers:
            – Type: issn-print
              Value: 0922-4777
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              Value: 1573-0905
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              Value: 38
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              Value: 9
          Titles:
            – TitleFull: Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal
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