Using Computer Animation Technique to Assist the Teaching of Handwriting to Children with Dyspraxia Supervisors: Dr. Wendy Keay-Bright,
Dr. Stephen Thompson,
Prof. Clive Cazeaux Research group: CARIAD
I have proposed a method to assist children with dyspraxia to improve
their handwriting skills. I have chosen an animation technique called
‘Rotoscopy’, a method that normally been used in animation and film
production and adapted it to Rotoscopy pre-writing prototypes using the
interactive whiteboard (IWB) as interaction device. The motivation of
this research is to discover how efficient if Rotoscopy is used beyond
its normal purposes? Does it give benefits in terms of behavioural and
motivational aspect rather than commercial and profit point of view?
Implementation of the prototypes has taken place through series of
workshops with a teacher and a group of children with handwriting
difficulties at a special education school in Caerphilly, Cardiff. In
the workshops children were given pre-writing activities in two
different environments. They have been trained to use Rotoscopy
pre-writing prototypes and IWB as well as using pen and paper. Their
activities and action has been observed and recorded using video camera.
Evaluation method is based-on video analysis of children’s
pre-writing result, time to complete the task and their reaction and
motivation during the process. It was learnt that majority of children
who used Rotoscopy pre-writing prototypes and IWB have produced better
results in terms of accuracy of the drawing as well as time to finish
the task. Furthermore the children are more motivated to use the
prototypes and IWB compared to pen and paper activity. The study’s
contribution involves offering a new way to improve children’s
handwriting skills using computer system and IWB.
