Supporting the fine motor development and rectifying spelling errors of an elementary school student with writing difficulties

This study, which aims to support fine muscle development and to solve the problems by supporting the writing skills with the text analysis technique, as well as the (physical) determination of the problems of students who have difficulty in writing due to reasons such as holding a pencil, writing speed, font size, writing style, etc. caused by the lack of fine muscle development, one of the causes of writing problems, was conducted with the action research method, one of the qualitative research designs. The sample of the research was collected from a student who is studying in Kayseri province at the 3rd Grade of a primary school in the 2021-2022 academic year and has writing problems due to insufficient fine muscle development. In the sample selection, objective criterion sampling, one of the non-selective sampling methods, was used in accordance with the purpose of the study. In this context, as a priority, students who meet the criteria were searched for in schools that are easily accessible to the researcher. After the school determination was made, one of the objective sampling methods, the criterion sampling method was used. The data of the study, the texts used by the subject and the researcher at the writing stage and the products obtained from the study process were analyzed with the "Writing Analysis Technique", "Typographical Errors Form" and "Multidimensional Legibility Scale." The application process of the study was carried out at the dates and times determined by the designated subject, parent, classroom teacher and researcher. As a result of the muscle movement studies carried out in this process and the activities applied to the development of cutting, drawing, dictation, letter direction and line awareness, a serious improvement in writing problems was observed. According to the results of the pre-test and post-test legibility scale, the legibility score of the 53-word "SNOW" text dictated in the first lesson of the subject based on the pre-test measurement results was found as 7 and "unreadable", readability score in the same text dictated last lesson was found 12 ve "readable". In other words, the techniques used in the study and the one-on-one studies increased the legibility level of the student's writing at a noticeable rate (from the "not readable" level to the "readable" level). According to the first test result in the spelling errors analysis performed on the same writing, the subject who made 70 spelling errors (letter skipping/insertion, syllable skipping/insertion, word skipping/insertion, letter mixing, adjacent/separate writing, reverse writing, distortion, incorrect writing, syllable separation at the end of the line, punctuation errors) while writing a 53-word text by dictation also decreased to 7 spelling errors as a result of the last test conducted after the application. As a result, the studies conducted to strengthen the fine muscles (throwing, holding, cutting, circular scribbling, winding rope, hitting the board with the soft part of the fingertips, kneading and shaping with play dough, doing exercises with a finger muscle strengthening tool, regular and irregular line studies, going over) have made important contributions to the elimination of writing problems of a student with serious writing problems due to insufficient fine muscle development. In addition, it can be said that the writing analysis technique, which was initially commissioned by the student and then by himself on the written articles, has also made important contributions to the elimination of writing problems. It can be said that this result is also important for our country in terms of showing that the causes of writing disorder can be noticeably eliminated by identifying the causes of writing disorder and complying with the problem through studies to be conducted, given the inadequacy of studies aimed at solving it in the literature.