Date Presented Accepted for AOTA INSPIRE 2021 but unable to be presented due to online event limitations.
The requirements for handwriting performance continue to increase for children entering kindergarten. There is a general lack of consensus on a quantitative measure of handwriting specifically in the preschool age group. The Just Write! is a tool written by the researchers to measure functional handwriting and shows promising results in the initial standardization phase.
Primary Author and Speaker: Tiffany Bolton
Additional Authors and Speakers: Brittney Stevenson, William Janes
PURPOSE: The requirements for handwriting performance continue to increase for children entering kindergarten. Nearly 40% of a preschooler’s day involves fine motor tasks with 10% consisting of writing with a pencil on paper. Comparatively, in kindergarten children were engaged in fine motor tasks for 46% of their day, 42% of those tasks consisting of writing with a pencil on paper (Dinehart, 2015). Handwriting is the most common referral reason for occupational therapy in the school setting (Cahill et al., 2013). However, there is a general lack of consensus on a quantitative measure of handwriting specifically in the preschool age group. Multiple studies have found preschoolers capable of writing letters, but there are no adequate assessments that assess emerging functional handwriting (Puranik et al., 2014). Currently, the VMI is a widely used tool for evaluation of handwriting. However, measures visual motor components of handwriting and not handwriting itself (Pfeiffer et al., 2015). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to establish the interrater reliability and internal consistency of the Just Write!, which assesses name writing, grasp, and written upper- and lower-case accuracy.
DESIGN: Pre-/posttest quasi-experimental
METHODS: The researchers collected data via a convenience sample (n = 78) at a community preschool. Pretest and posttest data collection consisted of the VMI and the administration of the Just Write! (name-writing, grasp, upper- and lower-case letter writing). Between test dates, participants engaged in an 8 week intervention group focused on emerging writing skills. We calculated Cronbach’s alpha to determine correlations between each of the domain scores (name-writing total score, grasp score, upper-case accuracy, lower-case accuracy, and total letter-writing accuracy). We also completed 3 rounds of interrater reliability rating with 2 faculty and 3 OT graduate students.
RESULTS: The correlations between grasp score and all other scores (α = [.042-.529]) were dramatically lower than correlations between other scores (α = [.405-.922]) suggesting that there was virtually no relationship between grasp score and any indicators of writing quality. Only upper-case accuracy and total accuracy exhibited an ‘excellent’ correlation (α = .922). Lower-case accuracy was poorly correlated with total accuracy (α = .570). Interrater reliability was achieved in all test domains at greater than 90%.
CONCLUSION: The strong correlation between upper-case and total accuracy is unsurprising as total accuracy is a composite of upper- and lower-case accuracy. The poor correlation between lower-case and total accuracy is more interesting, but unsurprising; lower-case letter formation is not developmentally expected of children ages 4-5. Taken together, these results suggest that the variables considered represent distinctly different components of handwriting quality—with the exception of grasp pattern which does not correlate with any components of handwriting quality. Initial interrater reliability results are positive.
References
Cahill, S.M., & Lopez-Reyna, N. (2013). Expanding school-based problem-solving teams to include occupational therapists. Journal of Occupational Therapy, Schools, & Early Intervention, 6(4), 314-325. https://doi.org/10.1080/19411243.2013.860763.
Dinehart, L. (2015). Handwriting in early childhood education: Current research and future implications. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 15(1), 97-118. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798414522825
Pfeiffer, B., Moskowitz, B., Paoletti, A., Brusilovskiy, E., Zylstra, S. E., & Murray, T. (2015). Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (VMI): An effective outcome measure for handwriting interventions for kindergarten, first-grade, and second-grade students? American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 69(4), 6904350010. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2015.015826
Puranik, C. S. & Lonigan, C. J. (2014). Emergent writing in preschoolers: Preliminary evidence for a theoretical framework. Reading Research Quarterly, 49(4), 453-467. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.79.
