Effectiveness of Occupational Therapy Strategies for Teaching Handwriting Skills to Kindergarten Children

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Write direction handwriting skill development program implemented as a part of the general education curriculum in kindergarten classrooms. A convenience sample of 211 students in 14 kindergarten classes and 12 schools participated in the Write direction, a 14-week handwriting skill development program designed to use occupational therapy strategies to promote hand and finger skills, kinesthetic awareness of letter formation, directionality of letter formation, and visual-motor skills. A pretest–posttest design utilizing a matched comparison group (n = 171 students) was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the program to improve handwriting skills. Students who participated in the Write direction program showed a statistically greater improvement in handwriting skills pre- to postintervention (p < .05), including approximation, line orientation, proportion, and directionality, compared to students who did not participate in the program. The use of occupational therapy strategies to promote handwriting skill development as part of a kindergarten general education curriculum shows promise for improving handwriting skills.

Keywords:

• Visual-motor coordination
• task performance
• sensory motor performance
• therapy
• occupational motor skills