Keynote Speaker
Daniel A. Domenech, Ph.D.
American Association of School Administrators
Keynote Address: The 2012 Education Outlook
View bio.
Moderator
Martin D. Saperstein, Ph.D.
Saperstein Associates
Saperstein is President of Saperstein Associates (SAI), an Ohio-based opinion research firm. With over 30 years of research experience, Saperstein specializes in providing data-driven insight for clients in the fields of education, finance, and health care.
Presenters
Renowned researchers and academics will present their findings on a variety of topics related to hand-generated communication including brain scan research suggesting that handwriting is a crucial component in setting up brain systems for reading acquisition, occupational therapy and kinematic issues in handwriting, and speedwriting and note-taking for college and career readiness, among others.
Researchers
 Steve Graham (Research presented by Tanya Santangelo, Ph.D.)
Vanderbilt University, Currey Ingram Professor of Literacy
ABSTRACT
A Meta-Analysis of the Effectiveness of Teaching Handwriting
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Research presented by Tanya Santangelo, Ph.D. This presentation will present the results of a meta-analysis of true- and quasi-experiments examining the effectiveness of handwriting interventions. The findings support the value of teaching handwriting, as explicitly teaching handwriting improves handwriting legibility and fluency as well as the quality of students' writing. The effectiveness of individualized handwriting instruction was also supported, but instructional programs designed to improve students' motor skills were not.
BIOGRAPHY
Steve Graham, Ed.D., is the Currey Ingram Professor of Literacy at Vanderbilt University. His research interests include learning disabilities, writing instruction and writing development, and the development of self-regulation. Dr. Graham is the former editor of Exceptional Children and coauthor of the Handbook of Writing Research, Handbook of Learning Disabilities, Writing Better, and Making the Writing Process Work. Dr. Graham has received numerous awards including the Career Research Award from the International Council for Exceptional Children, and the Samuel A. Kirk Award from the Division of Learning Disabilities, among others.
Tanya Santangelo, Ph.D.
Arcadia University, Special Education
Dr. Santangelo's research interests include the development and validation of effective practices for assessing and teaching writing, increasing teachers’ knowledge and use of evidence-based practices, and the use of differentiation to promote equity and excellence for all students.
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 Jane Case-Smith
The Ohio State University, Division of Occupational Therapy
ABSTRACT
Benefits of an OT/Teacher Model for First Grade Handwriting Instruction
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With the declining emphasis on teaching handwriting in the elementary grade curriculum, the 25 to 30% of students who struggle to learn handwriting often become poor or illegible handwriters. Best practice handwriting instruction needs to return to the classroom and specific models are needed to provide supports and interventions to students at risk for poor handwriting. We have developed an inclusive handwriting program for first grade students that teaches children how to write legibly and fluently, providing specific adaptations and interventions to the students who need additional supports. Our co-teaching model, Write Start, uses occupational therapists and teachers to provide a collaborative handwriting/writing program in which they use evidence-based instruction principles, weekly assess students’ handwriting and writing, and base instruction on student progress/individual needs. The handwriting instruction uses instructor modeling with emphasis on visual cues and simple language, student practice with immediate feedback, and developmentally appropriate, meaningful writing tasks. In addition to these methods for presenting and practicing the letters, we emphasize self-evaluation and peer supports, so that the students learn self-regulation and the importance of legible handwriting to communicate. Co-teaching models with occupational therapists support the first grade teacher’s handwriting and writing instruction while embedding specific interventions for students who show need for additional supports. Our co-teaching model, Write Start, resulted in first grade students improving an average of 27% in handwriting legibility and writing the alphabet in less than half their original time. Students who completed the 12 week program improved significantly more in writing fluency than students who participated in standard handwriting/writing curricula. Although students of all ability levels improved significantly, students with the lowest scores in legibility at the beginning of the study improved the most.
BIOGRAPHY
Jane Case-Smith, professor at Ohio State University, Division of Occupational Therapy, has researched fine motor skill development and interventions for young children with disabilities. As an occupational therapist, she is interested in handwriting in children with motor planning disorders, such as development coordination disorders, visual motor problems, including cerebral palsy, and attentional or cognitive impairments, including autism spectrum disorder. She is highly invested in research of collaborative school-based models for handwriting instruction, such as co-teaching and consultation. She is editor of the primary text used in occupational therapy education for pediatrics, Occupational Therapy for Children, and has published over 50 articles and 25 chapters.
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 Stephen Peverly
Teachers College, Columbia University, Department of Health and Behavior Studies
ABSTRACT
The Relationship of Transcription Speed and Other Cognitive Variables to Note-taking and Test Performance
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Dr. Peverly’s presentation will review his recent research on the cognitive processes that underlie note-taking (primarily in lectures) and the relationship of notes to test performance. The findings will address the importance of transcription speed as well as verbal ability and sustained attention to note-taking. The presentation will also highlight the relationship of notes to test performance by addressing whether notes are more strongly related to tests that emphasize memory or to tests that emphasize inferences.
BIOGRAPHY
Stephen T. Peverly, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology and Education, Chair of the Department of Health and Behavior Studies, and member of the Program in School Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University. His current research focuses on the cognitive processes that underlie reading comprehension and studying, especially lecture note-taking. His research articles include Implementing Evidence-Based Academic Interventions in School Settings and The Importance of Handwriting Speed in Adult Writing, among others. Dr. Peverly is a licensed psychologist in New York State and a permanently certified School Psychologist in the states of New York and Massachusetts.
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 Gerry Conti
Wayne State University, Director of the Human Movement Laboratory
ABSTRACT
Kinematic and Clinical Correlates of Handwriting in Elementary School Children
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Kinematic analysis of handwriting may add considerable neuromotor knowledge to our understanding of the substrates of cursive handwriting development. This presentation will discuss kinematic and clinical findings of legible and illegible handwriting in healthy third and fifth grade children. Kinematic analyses will reflect movement domains of speed, force inefficiency and direction, while clinical features will include measures of strength, hand steadiness, and coordination. Findings indicate that with maturation, children show less force inefficiency in the up-and-down direction of writing, complemented by improved hand steadiness and coordination in clinical assessment. These findings suggest that precursor tasks requiring hand dexterity are important in the development of legible handwriting skills.
BIOGRAPHY
Gerry E. Conti, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Occupational Therapy at Wayne State University. Her doctoral degree is in kinesiology, expressly the field of motor control. Her research examines kinematic, clinical, and biomechanical factors impacting effective reach, grasp, and hand manipulative skills across the lifespan. Her interests also include neurological conditions such as stroke, traumatic brain injury, and spinal cord injury.
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 Karin Harman James
Indiana University, Department of Psychology and Brain Sciences
ABSTRACT
The Neural Correlates of Handwriting and its Affect on Reading Acquisition
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Although there is a great deal of research that investigates the neural correlates of reading, very little is known about how handwriting experience—an important component of reading acquisition—affects neural processing. Through a series of studies using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to probe how the brain processes stimuli in real time, we have demonstrated that, a) there is a distinct system in the human brain that is recruited during reading that is also recruited during writing, b) that the reading network develops as a function of handwriting experience, and c) that handwriting, and not keyboarding, leads to adult-like neural processing in the visual system of the preschool child. These findings suggest that self-generated action, in the form of handwriting, is a crucial component in setting up brain systems for reading acquisition.
BIOGRAPHY
Karin H. James is an Assistant professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University, as well as being a faculty member in the programs in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science. She has instigated the Developmental Neuroimaging Project at Indiana University that investigates how self-generated actions in children have a significant affect on cognitive development. Dr. James’ laboratory is one of a handful worldwide that probes the brain function of 5 year old children using fMRI. Recently, her work on handwriting and the development of brain systems in preschool children has resulted in media attention from The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and National Public Radio.
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 Virginia W. Berninger
University of Washington, Department of Educational Psychology
ABSTRACT
Evidence-based, Developmentally Appropriate Writing Skills K to 5: Teaching the Orthographic Loop of Working Memory to Write Letters, Spell Words, and Express Ideas
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In an era emphasizing evidence-based instructional practices, it is puzzling why neither handwriting nor spelling is included in the Common Core State Standards for Writing K to 5. Considerable research shows that both handwriting and spelling support the written expression of ideas. Results of assessment, instructional, brain, and genetics research will be used to explain (a) the developmental milestones in grapho-motor skills for finger movements and in orthographic coding skills in the mind’s eye (storing and processing letter forms and written words in working memory); (b) the role of the orthographic loop between the mind’s eye and the serial finger movements of hand, which receive both somatosensory and visual sensory feedback, in engaging the mind in written expression of ideas; (c) the importance of automatic access to and retrieval and production of legible letter forms; (d) the contribution of handwriting (sequencing strokes of letters) to establishing serial organization, which is fundamental to other writing skills—spelling (sequencing letters in words) and composing (linear sequencing of words in sentences and sentences in discourse organization); and (e) the benefits of teaching for transfer across levels of language (writing letter forms, spelling words, and composing sentences in text) close in time to facilitate efficient, temporal coordination of working memory components. This approach to writing instruction and standards takes into account individual differences and developmental steppingstones in teaching and learning handwriting (manuscript and cursive and a variety of digital tools) for purposes of spelling English, a morphophonemic orthography, and composing strategically and flexibly for a variety of writing goals and genre in and outside school and is designed to avoid the wars over skills and meaning that have plagued reading and writing.
BIOGRAPHY
Virginia Berninger (Ph.D., Psychology, Johns Hopkins; Professor, Educational Psychology, Director University Brain Education Technology UBET Center, and Coordinator Learning Disabilities Research, University of Washington; licensed clinical psychologist, WA; and former general and special education teacher) has been Principal Investigator on NICHD-funded research grants on writing for over 2 decades. She has conducted cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of writing development, randomized controlled studies of effective handwriting, spelling, and composing instruction, and research on the brain and genetic basis of writing. She has authored, co-authored, or edited 12 books and over 250 research articles, chapters, and other publications.
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Panelists
Discussion Group A: Prewriting/Early Literacy
Brett Miller, Ph.D.
National Institute of Health, Child Development & Behavior Branch
Dr. Miller directs the Reading, Writing, and Related Learning Disabilities Program in the Child Development & Behavior Branch (CDB) Branch of the National Institute of Health. Dr. Miller completed his Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in cognitive psychology and a postdoctoral fellowship at Haskins Laboratories in reading research. Dr. Miller's research program focuses on developing and supporting research and training initiatives to increase knowledge relevant to the development of reading and written-language abilities for learners with and without disabilities.
Victoria Molfese, Ph.D.
University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Department of Child, Youth & Family Studies
Dr. Molfese earned her Ph.D. in developmental psychology and is currently Chancellor's Professor at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Molfese has published numerous works in the area of cognitive development in infants, children, and adults. She is currently investigating the relations between early writing and other emergent literacy skills in reading development in preschool children, the role of teacher-student interactions in preschool for cognitive growth, and how sleep habits influence executive function skills and learning-related behaviors in young children. Studies of science and mathematics learning in PreK to 3rd grade children are planned.
Discussion Group B: Grades K-5
Michael Dunn, Ph.D.
Washington State University (Vancouver), Special Education Endorsement Program
Dr. Dunn is an assistant professor of special education and literacy at the Vancouver campus of Washington State University. His research interests include developing strategies that help struggling readers and writers as well as response to intervention.
Elaine Silliman, Ph.D.
University of South Florida, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Dr. Silliman is Professor Emeritus of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of South Florida (Tampa). She is a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) (1985) and the International Academy for Research on Learning Disabilities (2003). Her current research interests include the development of academic language proficiency in children and adolescents who are struggling with reading, writing, and spelling, including monolingual English-speaking children with social dialect variations and bilingual (Spanish-English) children. She is also the author or co-author of numerous journal articles and chapters, and co-editor of six books.
Kathy Simmons-O’Neal, B.A.
West Carroll School System (Louisiana)
Simmons-O’Neal earned her B.A. from the University of Louisiana at Monroe, focusing on special education and elementary education. She has been a teacher in the West Carroll School System since 1992. In addition to teaching 5th Grade and Kindergarten students, she has taught children with autism and provided reading intervention. Also, as part of her extensive education background, she has served as president of the Northeast Louisiana Reading Council and president of the Louisiana Reading Association.
Discussion Group C: College and Career Readiness
Charles MacArthur, Ph.D.
University of Delaware, School of Education
MacArthur is a professor in the School of Education at the University of Delaware. His major research interests include writing development and instruction for struggling writers, development of self-regulated strategies, adult literacy, and applications of technology to support reading and writing. He is currently principal investigator of a research project developing a writing curriculum for developmental writing courses in community colleges, and co-principal investigator of a study of writing instruction in first grade. He has published over 100 articles and book chapters and edited several books, including the Handbook of Writing Research and Best Practices in Writing Instruction.
Ernest Morrell, Ph.D.
Teachers College, Columbia University, Department of Arts & Humanities
Dr. Morrell is Professor of English Education and Director of the Institute for Urban and Minority Education (IUME) at Teachers College, Columbia University. He is also a writer of poems, plays, essays, novels, and academic books, book chapters, articles, reviews, and encyclopedia entries.
Stephen Peverly
Teachers College, Columbia University, Department of Health and Behavior Studies
Dr. Peverly is a Professor of Psychology and Education, Chair of the Department of Health and Behavior Studies, and member of the Program in School Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University. His current research focuses on the cognitive processes that underlie reading comprehension and studying, especially lecture note-taking. His research articles include Implementing Evidence-Based Academic Interventions in School Settings and The Importance of Handwriting Speed in Adult Writing, among others. Peverly is a licensed psychologist in New York State and a permanently certified School Psychologist in the states of New York and Massachusetts.
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