Does fatigue influence children's handwriting performance?

Objectives: Handwriting is one aspect of school children's work. This article examines the influence of fatigue on handwriting, through the use of prolonged writing. Study design: The study population included 157 third-grade students with good and poor handwriting. Quality and speed of handwriting, in addition to ergonomic factors, were assessed through the Hebrew Handwriting Evaluation (HHE), prior to writing and after writing for 10 consecutive minutes. Results: Results of this study clearly demonstrate that children with both poor and good handwriting perform more poorly after writing long texts. Although both groups were influenced by the fatigue situation, poor handwriters still scored lower than the good handwriters in both conditions (fatigue and non-fatigue), on most variables. Conclusions: Continued studies in this area are recommended, and it is suggested that children take 'writing breaks' when writing, in order to improve the quality of their handwriting.