Handwriting in Lebanese bigraphic children: Standardization of the BHK Scale

ABSTRACT

Educational systems in Lebanon are bilingual. They simultaneously impose two handwriting systems in Arabic and Latin. This historically driven situation could constitute a significant impact on the process and development of handwriting skills. Using an accurate and valid handwriting evaluation tool standardized for the Lebanese population is a necessity. This study presents normative and discriminant data for the Concise Evaluation Scale for Children’s Handwriting (BHK) in Lebanese children, followed by a comparison to the BHK norms developed in France with unilingual children. The BHK was standardized with a sample of 763 Lebanese children from grades 1 to 5. Four trained raters were involved in the data collection. Data analysis addressed the development of norms, reliability, and pilot administration of discriminant validity. The BHK differentiates between Lebanese children with and without handwriting difficulties. In those without handwriting difficulties, the number of letters written in 5 minutes and writing proficiency increases throughout the first five school years and are gender related, favoring the girls. Lebanese children display better handwriting proficiency than French children, except for the handwriting quality that develops better among French children as of Grade 2. The BHK is a promising tool for the detection of dysgraphia and poor handwriting in Lebanese children.

KEYWORDS:

• Bilinguism
• dysgraphia
• handwriting assessment
• transcultural study

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our gratitude to the following psychomotor therapists at the Institut de psychomotricité, Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth who participated in data collection: Mrs. Céline Najm Samarani, educator; Miss Zeinab Fawaz; and Miss Rawan Dia, graduate students. We thank Dr. Hiba Zafran of the Institut d’ergothérapie, Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth for her edits during revision. The Saint Joseph University of Beirut Ethics Committee approved this study (Approval number: USJ-2013-54).

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Funding

This study was funded by the Lebanese CEDRE Lebanese-French Research Program (Grant no. 30929NF).

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the Lebanese CEDRE Lebanese-French Research Program (Grant no. 30929NF).