Observational studyThe American journal of occupational therapy : official publication of the American Occupational Therapy Association2023
Motor Assessment With the STEGA iPad App to Measure Handwriting in Children.
Observational study in The American journal of occupational therapy : official publication of the American Occupational Therapy Association, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Functional connectivity during drawing after upper extremity peripheral nerve surgery: enhanced connectivity between motor and visuomotor-parietal regions.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Neural mechanisms of handedness for precision drawing: hand-dependent engagement of cortical networks for bimanual control and tool use.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Reducing Inter-Individual Differences in Task fMRI Preprocessing with OGRE (One-Step General Registration and Extraction) Preprocessing.Neuroinformatics · 2025Article
- Prediction of Functional Academic Outcomes by Fine Motor Skills in Individuals With Sickle Cell Disease.The American journal of occupational therapy : official publication of the American Occupational Therapy Association · 2024Article
- Reducing individual differences in task fMRI with OGRE (One-step General Registration and Extraction) preprocessing.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Healthy adults favor stable left/right hand choices over performance at an unconstrained reach-to-grasp task.Experimental brain research · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
importanceHandwriting and the fine motor control (hand and fingers) underlying it are key indicators of numerous motor disorders, especially among children. However, current assessment methods are expensive, slow, and subjective, leading to a lack of knowledge about the relationship between handwriting and motor control.
objectiveTo develop and validate the iPad precision drawing app Standardized Tracing Evaluation and Grapheme Assessment (STEGA) to enable rapid quantitative assessment of fine motor control and handwriting.
designCross-sectional, single-arm observational study.
settingAcademic research institution.
participantsFifty-seven typically developing right-handed children ages 9 to 12 yr with knowledge of cursive. OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Predicted quality, measured as the correlation between handwriting letter legibility (Evaluation Tool of Children's Handwriting-Cursive [ETCH-C]) and predicted legibility (calculated from STEGA's 120 Hz, nine-variable data).
resultsSTEGA successfully predicted handwriting (r2 = .437, p < .001) using a support vector regression method. Angular error was the most important aspect of STEGA performance. STEGA was much faster to administer than the ETCH-C (M = 6.7 min, SD = 1.3, versus M = 19.7 min, SD = 5.2). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Assessment of motor control (and especially pen direction control) may provide a meaningful, objective way to assess handwriting. Future studies are needed to validate STEGA with a wider age range, but the initial results indicate that STEGA can provide the first rapid, quantitative, high-resolution, telehealth-capable assessment of the motor control that underpins handwriting. What This Article Adds: The ability to control pen direction may be the most important motor skill for successful handwriting. STEGA may provide the first criterion standard for the fine motor control skills that underpin handwriting, suitable for rehabilitation research and practice.
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