Effectiveness of a 5-day summer handwriting camp for children ages 5 to 9 years old

ABSTRACT

With handwriting being limitedly taught in schools; high intensity, summer handwriting camps may resolve the numerous handwriting rehabilitation referrals of school-aged children. To improve handwriting, a 5-day (3-hr/daily session) summer camp was created for children (ages 5–9 years old). Thirty children (ages 5–9) were given manuscript instruction and 16 children (ages 7–9) were given cursive instruction. Handwriting was assessed via the Test of Handwriting Skills: Bus (letter recall) and Horse (letter formation) subtests. Participants’ manuscript and cursive skills significantly improved (p < 0.05) and the subtests positively correlated post intervention (p < 0.05). Thus, a high intensity, 5-day handwriting camp may improve handwriting skills.

KEYWORDS:

• Cursive
• manuscript
• handwriting
• rehabilitation
• pediatrics

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the contributions of Alyssa Alfano OTS and the graduate students of the Occupational Therapy Program at Concordia University–Wisconsin for their research assistance and the children who participated in this project. This project was funded partially by the Shopko Foundation.

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded partially by the Shopko Foundation [2I040-65100T-70714-313].