Date Presented 03/22/24
A handwriting intervention coupled with hands-on participation and caregiver education to promote carryover at home is effective at improving homeschoolers’ legibility but not their performance on a visual–motor integration outcome measure.
Primary Author and Speaker: Carrie A. Smith-Bell
PURPOSE: Homeschooled children in West Virginia are not eligible for free and appropriate public education. This includes occupational therapy services for addressing legibility. The purpose of this research is to determine if the use of an intensive, multisensory handwriting intervention that incorporates the education and participation of the caregiver is effective at improving the legibility of the elementary-aged, homeschooled child. The research questions are 1. How does this innovative intervention model improve legibility and 2. What outcome measures best assess successful remediation of handwriting.
DESIGN: In this pretest to posttest intervention study, families were recruited via an area homeschooling social media group. Children were required to be elementary school-aged with below grade level Print Tool performance.
METHOD: Each family received at least five one-hour intervention sessions. Quantitative data were collected using the Print Tool and the Beery-Buktenica Developmental Tests of Visual-Motor Integration, Visual Perception, and Motor Coordination. Paired t-tests and Pearson’s correlations were calculated.
RESULTS: Significant improvements in legibility were found at posttest. Legibility scores were moderately to highly correlated with standard scores on the Beery assessments at pretest only. The Beery assessments were moderately to highly correlated with one another at Pretest and Posttest.
CONCLUSION: The intervention model used in this study is effective at remediating handwriting among homeschooled children. It supports the value of including caregivers in occupational therapy sessions addressing academic skills to support carryover at home. The use of the Beery assessments as legibility outcome measures following intervention is not supported by this study. Targeted intervention and reduction in the use of outcome measures that are not sensitive to legibility changes in homeschooled children can improve practice efficiency and economy.
References
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Benning, M., Lemkuil, S., Sullivan, A., Moser, C., Watry-Christian, M., & Berrios, R. (2018) Effectiveness of a 5-day summer handwriting camp for children ages 5 to 9 years old. Journal of Occupational Therapy, Schools, and Early Intervention, 11(4), 385–395. https://doi.org/10.1080/19411243.2018.1496868
Miller-Kuhaneck, H., & Watling, R. (2018). Parental or teacher education and coaching to support function and participation of children and youth with sensory processing and sensory integration challenges: A systematic review. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 72(1), 7201190030p1–7201190030p11. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2018.029017
Ainol, M., Kadar, M., Razaob, N. A., & Wan Yunus, F. (2022). The effectiveness of occupational therapy handwriting intervention for children with motor coordination issues: A systematic review. Malaysian Journal of Health Sciences, 20(1), 161–177. https://doi.org/10.17576/JSKM-2022-2001-15
