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The impact of central on peripheral writing processes has been studied mainly in adults and children whose first language is a deep orthographic system. The results suggest that the influence varies according to age, but it also could depend on the orthographic system. The objective of the present work was to address the possible impact of the central (orthographic retrieval) on peripheral (motor execution) processes during writing acquisition in a transparent orthography. To achieve the objective, seventy-five Spanish children performed a copying and a spelling-to-dictation task, where orthographic consistency, lexical frequency and word length were manipulated. The results suggest that the central processes influence the peripheral ones from an early age (when writing has not yet been automated). Specifically, orthographic consistency cascaded into movement production, but it was modulated by task and grade, as this effect was only evident for 2nd grade children when they were asked to perform a spelling-to-dictation task., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Although several studies have found that the sublexical route of spelling has an effect on handwriting movements, the ability of lexical variables to modulate peripheral processes during writing is less clear. This study addresses the hypothesis that word frequency affects writing durations only during writing acquisition, and that at some point of development, the handwriting system becomes a relatively autonomous system unaffected by lexical variables. Spanish children attending Grades 2, 4, and 6 performed a spelling-to-dictation and a copy task in which word frequency was manipulated. Results revealed that written latencies decreased with age, especially between Grades 2 and 4, and that writing durations decreased between these two groups. All these measures were longer during copying but the effect of task on written latencies and in-air pen trajectories was smaller for older children. Crucially, a significant word frequency effect on writing durations was observed only in Grade 2. This effect was marginally significant in Grade 4 and disappeared in Grade 6. However, all groups showed a similar effect of word frequency on written latencies. These findings suggest that lexical processes impact peripheral processes during writing acquisition and that this influence diminishes to eventually disappear at some point in development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]