Tech-savvy kids can't push a pencil Using both a blackboard and a tablet at home in Adelaide, Jack Loy has the write stuff. Picture: Calum Robertson Source: News Limited PRIMARY school children are losing their handwriting skills, as touch-screen pinching, swiping and typing and a lack of physical exercise leaves them with underdeveloped arm and hand muscles. Teachers have warned a growing number of children will perform poorly in the upcoming May 14 NAPLAN tests, because their reliance on technology and sedentary lifestyles mean they lack the arm strength and skills to write answers quickly and concisely. Educators have also taken a swipe at the tests themselves, saying the national curriculum is being forced on children too early and the pressure to achieve key National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy goals leaves teachers with no time to engage children in play-based learning. The warning from teachers and early education specialists comes as schools launch their own programs to develop students' motor skills and parents seek outside support from occupational therapists. But a spokesperson from the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, which sets the curriculum and the NAPLAN tests, denied students were being restricted in play-based learning, saying "creativity" is "to be taught explicitly across all learning areas as part of the general capability of critical and creative thinking." The spokesperson said handwriting was included in the curriculum from Prep to Year 7, but if students' handwriting continued to deteriorate, ACARA "might entertain" the idea of introducing the subject to the high school curriculum. "The curriculum is a living document and is always subject to being looked at and altered as circumstances change, so if (handwriting) continues to be an issue we might entertain that down the road," the spokesperson said. Sonja Walker, an English teacher of more than 25 years, has about 30 children, some as young as four, receiving weekly handwriting tuition and fine motor skills support at her occupational therapy centre, Kids First Children's Services, in Sydney's northern beaches area. Ms Walker said 90 per cent of her students, most of them aged under nine, have handwriting problems as a result of the over use of technology. "Children's inability to write at length and to have stamina to be able to express their ideas clearly and concisely ... has deteriorated, particularly over the past five years with the growing use of keyboards and other technical devices," she said. But the impact of technology isn't just that kids are typing, it's the fact that they are more sedentary in their lifestyle. For kids to have good handwriting they need ... strong muscles through the trunk of their body so their arms and hands and fingers are developed well enough to be able to write clearly and legibly and at length. Queensland Teachers' Union President Kevin Bates said the number of children entering school without knowing how to hold a pencil properly was "alarming," with many so lacking in basic motor skills they are even stumped by scissors. "The sorts of things that many of us would look at as being simply childish activities like working with playdough or dressing dolls or putting blocks together, those sorts of things are actually critical in developing those fine motor skills and actually lead to the task of writing," he said. Now students are being engaged in the traditional curriculum much earlier on. By moving more quickly to this formalised curriculum we're in fact robbing those kids of the opportunity to develop those skills. Mr Bates said the pressure on teachers to have children ready for NAPLAN tests by Year 3 meant some were cutting "less important" subjects such as arts to make time to teach motor skills. Occupational therapist Kimberley Strahan, of Adapt Healthcare in Maroochydore, Queensland, said there had been a noticeable increase in the number of children being referred by schools for fine motor skills therapy since the introduction of the iPad. "Kids use the iPad to colour in, they use it to write, to learn to spell, and parents think they're a one-stop shop and that the iPad is going to fix their child," she said. Ms Walker said handwriting was also a problem among teenagers, with her occupational therapists increasingly being asked to provide reports for high school students wanting to avoid handwriting in exam situations. " (They) are being called upon to ... provide reports for schools for children who need special provisions in examination situations because they just can't write," she said. They can't spend two hours writing, or in the case of the HSC or the VCE they're doing a three hour examination where they have to write four essays and they can't do it.