I am Amruta Kharote a dedicated educator with 9 years of teaching experience. Specializes in Phonics, Handwriting, Vedic, and Academic subjects. Through my programs and expertise, I nurtures young readers, fostering a love for books. My focus on phonics helps students become confident readers. I also emphasizes legible and efficient handwriting skills. 

Degree: Bachelors of Commerce - University: MS university

Degree: Masters of Commerce - University: MS university

Degree: ECCED - University: Helen o'grany

Cursive writing is a complex and central cultural skill (Kersey and James, 2013; Kiefer et al., 2015), involving many brain systems and the integration of both motor and perceptual skills (Vinci-Booher et al., 2016; Thibon et al., 2018). The skill of cursive writing is often used as a tool for learning (Arnold et al., 2017), considering the depths of processing that note-taking by hand provides, even in the absence of a review of the notes (Kiewra, 1985). Thus, cursive writing has been considered an essential precursor for further academic success (Fears and Lockman, 2018), and the skill is typically acquired during childhood in societies with a strong literacy tradition (Kiefer et al., 2015). Children must learn how to coordinate their hand movements accurately and produce the shape of each letter, and they may take several years to master this precise skill (Van der Meer and Van der Weel, 2017).

Today, most adults write using a keyboard and computer (Longcamp et al., 2005, 2006), and in some countries programs for elementary school education, typewriting on digital devices has already replaced traditional handwriting (Kiefer et al., 2015). Therefore, the amount of time spent writing by hand has been reduced as learning activities are increasingly relying upon digital devices (Mueller and Oppenheimer, 2014; Vinci-Booher et al., 2016). These devices (e.g., tablets and mobile phones) may improve a student’s ability to take notes, but they may also hinder learning in different and unknown ways (Stacy and Cain, 2015). Most educators acknowledge note-taking as an important factor of classroom learning (Stacy and Cain, 2015), and keyboard activity is now often recommended as a substitute for early handwriting as this type of activity is less demanding and frustrating for children (Cunningham and Stanovich, 1990).

• Learning Objectives:
  • Materials and Methods Participants
  • Experimental Stimuli and Paradigm
• Course Outline:

   Materials and Methods Participants
  Sixteen healthy school-aged children and sixteen healthy adults were recruited to participate in this study at the Developmental Neuroscience Laboratory at NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology). The study followed a cross-sectional design to study differences in oscillatory brain activity in tasks of cursive writing, typewriting, and drawing among children and adults. The school-aged children were recruited from 7th graders at the Waldorf school in Trondheim, who are very used to cursive handwriting and drawing. Interested parents contacted the lab for further information about their child’s participation. The adults were recruited through different lectures at the university campus, or they were contacted through friends. All participants were right-handed, as determined by the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (Oldfield, 1971). Only right-handed participants with a handedness quotient larger or equal to +0.6 took part in the study, ranging from lowest to highest, 0.65–0.93 in adults and 0.60–1.00 in children, respectively. Four of the children were removed from further analysis due to inadequate data or other information that could affect the data analyses (e.g., dyslexia, ADHD, or prematurity). In addition, four of the adults were removed due to inadequate data and to maintain equal sized groups. Because of this, the resulting total sample included 12 school-aged children and 12 young adults.

  For the school-aged children (four boys and eight girls), the mean age was 11.83 years (SD = 0.39). Parents gave their informed consent concerning their children, and the child could withdraw from the experiment at any time without any consequences. For the adults (six men and six women), the mean age was 23.58 years (SD = 2.02). The adults also gave their informed consent and could withdraw at any time. The adults were rewarded with a 150 NOK cinema ticket, whereas the school-aged children were rewarded with snacks in the lab and a picture of themselves with the EEG-net on. The Regional Committee for Medical and Health Ethics approved the study.

  Experimental Stimuli and Paradigm
  Psychological software tool, E-prime 2.0, was used to generate 15 different Pictionary words on a separate Microsoft Surface Studio. The participants used a digital pen to write in cursive by hand and draw directly on the touch screen, and a keyboard to typewrite the presented words. The screen measured 25.1″ × 17.3″ × 0.5″ and had a screen resolution of 4500 × 3000 (192 PPI) pixels.

  The experiment included a total of 45 trials, where each word was presented in three different conditions, represented in a semi-randomized order. The 15 words varied in difficulty, from concrete words, such as “shoe,” to more abstract words, such as “birthday.” For each trial, participants were instructed to either (a) write in cursive the presented word with a digital pen directly on the screen, (b) type the presented word using the right index finger on the keyboard, or (c) draw the presented word by freehand with a digital pen directly on the screen. Whereas handwriting and typewriting were both relatively simple transcription tasks, drawing included higher-level processing (ideation). Before each trial, an instruction appeared 1–2 s before one of the 15 target words appeared, and the participants were given 25 s to either handwrite, type, or draw the word. EEG data were recorded only during the first 5 s of each trial. The participants could draw and write wherever they preferred directly on the screen. The words that were typed were the only words that did not appear on the screen while the participant was typewriting. A small sound indicated that the current trial was over and a new one was about to start. The drawings and writings produced by the participants were stored for offline analyses.

• Recomended Audience:

  This Hobby classes and Extracurricular activities are suitable for students whose age is more than or equal to 5 years old. As your child continues to grow, you will notice new and exciting abilities that your child develops. A child’s brain grows the most during the first five years of life. By age 5, the brain has reached approximately 90 percent of its adult size. This means that much of the brain’s structure and function has been established. Hence our best recommended audience for these hobbies classes are all students who are minimum 5 years old and more. Even a grownup students upto 16 years old can also go ahead for these Hobbies & Extra Curricular classes with their learning.

• Pre-Requisite Requirement:

  For attending Hobbies and Extra curricular activities classes, Basic pre-requisite requirement is having interest in learning of that class. Without having natural interest on particular topic/class, it's not meaningful to proceed with it along with Instructors. So, it's advisable to have these as a part of your learning phase of your life if you are really inclined and motivated to learn that hobby or activity. You should have all the items and required things with you at your home which are needed in that class. If not then you must buy from market it after taking suggestion from Instructors as per provided standard.

• Course Level:
  Intermediate
• Language of Teaching:
  English, Hindi
• Class Schedule Availiability:
  Morning, Evening