Participant Information
To what extent does a child's birth month affect their handwriting legibility?
Department of Psychology, Health and Professional Development Faculty of Health and Life Sciences Oxford Brookes University Researcher: Naomi Cave, Email: 19013783@brookes.ac.uk Supervisor: Olivia Afonso, Email: afonso.o@brookes.ac.uk. Telephone number: 01865 484814
To what extent does a child’s birth month affect their handwriting legibility?
You are being invited to take part in a research study. Before you decide whether or not to take part, it is important for you to understand why the research is being done and what it will involve.
Please take time to read the following information carefully.
What is the purpose of the study?
Previous studies have reported contradictory evidence about whether children born in summer perform academically at the same level as their peers born in winter. A range of skills have been investigated but little is known about whether differences affect handwriting skills. The purpose of this study is to investigate if a child’s birth month affects their handwriting legibility.
Who has been invited to participate?
You have been invited to take part as you have a child attending Key Stage 2 and they are aged 7 to 11 and around 60 people are expected to take part.
What will happen to me if I take part?
After providing consent for you and your child to take part, you will be asked to ask your child to write the sentence ‘the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog’ on an A4 lined piece of paper in no more than 2 minutes. Then you will be asked to send the researcher a picture of the sentence without any identifying information included.
What are the possible disadvantages and risks of taking part?
The task is not dissimilar to the activities that your child performs at school, so we do not expect it to be stressful or upsetting in any way. However, we encourage you to discuss the task with your child to ensure that they are happy to do this. Please make sure that your child does not take more than 2 minutes in completing the task but do not inform the child of the time limit to avoid your child becoming anxious about it. You can withdraw from the study at any point before submitting your responses by closing the study in your browser
What are the possible benefits of taking part?
There are no individual benefits to you, but if you chose to take part in this study then you will be helping us to better understand the potential differences in handwriting development between children born in different months. The main benefit will be to the researcher who is completing this study as part of their studies in psychology at Oxford Brookes University.
Will, what I say in this study be kept confidential?
Yes. You will not be asked to give any information that could be used to identify you personally (e.g., your name, date of birth, IP address). We will ask you for the picture of the handwriting produced by your child not to contain any identifying information. Only the researchers involved in the study will have access to your anonymous responses. Confidentiality, privacy, and anonymity will be ensured in the collection, storage, and publication of research material (subject to legal limitations). Research data will be stored in Google Drive, for which the University has a security agreement.
What should I do if I want to take part?
As a parent of the child if you are happy for them to take part in the study you should tick the box that appears below to give your consent and click on the option to continue to the questionnaire.
What will happen to the results of the research study?
The results of this study will be written up for a dissertation, and may be published in an academic journal, or presented at a conference. They may also be used for future research on the topic. All data collected from this research will be kept in keeping with the University's policy of Academic Integrity. This means that all data will be securely stored in electronic form on a Google Form which is password protected. This information is only accessible to me and my supervisor, this will be stored for 10 years.
Who has reviewed the study?
This research is being conducted by a Psychology student at Oxford Brookes University as part of the requirement for their course. The study procedures have been reviewed and approved by the Psychology Research Ethics Committee, Oxford Brookes University.
If you have any concerns about how the study has been conducted, please contact the Psychology Research Ethics Officer, Dr. Emma Davies, on edavies@brookes.ac.uk Contact for Further Information If you would like any further information then you can contact me, or my supervisor. Our details are on the top of this sheet. If you wish to obtain a summary of the findings when they have been written up, please e-mail 19013783@brookes.ac.uk after the 2nd February 2022.
Thank you for taking the time to read this information sheet. DATE 27/10/2021. Name of Researcher: Naomi Cave Date:9th November 2021 Signature: NCAVE
Contact for Further Information Please contact the researcher or their supervisor (contact details above) if you would like any further information about this study.
If you wish to obtain a summary of the findings when they have been written up please e-mail Naomi Cave at *19013783@brookes.ac.uk after 2nd February 2022
Thank you for taking the time to read the information sheet.
9th December 2021
I have read the information above and I consent voluntarily to be a participant in this study.
