Daniel Soltis
Heidi A Press
Improving Posture and Pressure for Handwriting
This projects measures handwriting pressure and foot position to help grade school students improve their handwriting by improving their posture and pencil pressure.
http://itphandwriting.blogspot.com/index.html
This project measures whether a student's feet are securely placed on the floor and whether or not a student is pressing down too hard while writing. The student receives ongoing feedback and is encouraged to make a connection between how his or her posture can affect his or her handwriting.
A major problem in handwriting is excessive grip pressure and excessive downward force on the pen. This is often a compensation for insufficient support for the hand caused by inadequate trunk support. If there is adequate trunk support, there is better hand support, and pressure/force can be reduced, allowing the student to write more easily.
For optimal trunk support, a student should sit at a 90/90/90 position: the feet should be flat on the floor directly under the knees, with the knees bent at a 90 degree angle. The student should be sitting upright, with the hips at a 90 degree angle and the spine straight.
Often the student moving the feet off of the floor or at different angles can lead to shifts in body position, with compensatory changes in posture and a resulting increase in grip pressure and downward force and increased difficulty in handwriting.
Grade-school students with handwriting problems.
This system would be integrated into a one-on-one or small group handwriting lesson.
The student places his or her feet on a mat for proper foot positioning, and writes an assignment on a clipboard. During the assignment, the student may receive ongoing visual or auditory feedback alerting him or her whenever the feet move off the proper position on the mat and/or when he or she is pressing too hard while writing. The teacher has the option of turning on all, any part, or none of the feedback systems, depending on the student\'s needs.
Ideally, over time, the student will be able to track his or her progress and improve in posture and pencil pressure.
The system consists of a mat with switches that are closed when the student\'s feet are in the right position, and a clipboard that uses a grid of force sensing resistors to track total pressure and variations in pressure to identify when a student is writing with too much pressure. These are connected to a Processing program via Arduino, which analyzes the incoming data and provides (optional) ongoing feedback and a final visualization of results.
A major problem in handwriting is excessive grip pressure and excessive downward force on the pen. This is often a compensation for insufficient support for the hand caused by inadequate trunk support. If there is adequate trunk support, there is better hand support, and pressure/force can be reduced, allowing the student to write more easily.
For optimal trunk support, a student should sit at a 90/90/90 position: the feet should be flat on the floor directly under the knees, with the knees bent at a 90 degree angle. The student should be sitting upright, with the hips at a 90 degree angle and the spine straight.
Often the student moving the feet off of the floor or at different angles can lead to shifts in body position, with compensatory changes in posture and a resulting increase in grip pressure and downward force and increased difficulty in handwriting.
Grade-school students with handwriting problems.
This system would be integrated into a one-on-one or small group handwriting lesson.
The student places his or her feet on a mat for proper foot positioning, and writes an assignment on a clipboard. During the assignment, the student may receive ongoing visual or auditory feedback alerting him or her whenever the feet move off the proper position on the mat and/or when he or she is pressing too hard while writing. The teacher has the option of turning on all, any part, or none of the feedback systems, depending on the student\'s needs.
Ideally, over time, the student will be able to track his or her progress and improve in posture and pencil pressure.
The system consists of a mat with switches that are closed when the student\'s feet are in the right position, and a clipboard that uses a grid of force sensing resistors to track total pressure and variations in pressure to identify when a student is writing with too much pressure. These are connected to a Processing program via Arduino, which analyzes the incoming data and provides (optional) ongoing feedback and a final visualization of results.