Pauses in the Dynamics of Handwriting Production: Evidence of Persistent Difficulties in French Students With Dyslexia

Despite the persistent difficulties of people with dyslexia concerning writing, few studies examine the impact of dyslexia on the dynamic aspects of written text production. Our objective is to examine the written productions of students with dyslexia (N = 21), compared with matched control students (N = 22), taking into consideration online indicators. They were asked to produce spontaneous narrative and expository texts. The written texts (N = 86) were collected using the Eye and Pen software with digitising tablets. Results show significant differences between the two groups concerning bursts and some pause locations and durations. While previous works conclude that the spelling difficulties of university students do not impact the transcription process anymore, which means that they no longer have effects on the dynamics of writing, and thus on writing fluency, our study qualifies these conclusions. Indeed, our results show that students with dyslexia's word transcription is atypical and problematic in terms of online indicators: they display shorter bursts (number of units written without a pause) and make longer pauses, especially inside and before words and before punctuation signs. The way in which they allocate cognitive resources is still partially altered by cognitive obstacles; their transcription process is also slowed down and disorganises other high-level cognitive operations.