Development and Validation of Handwriting Assessment (OTULIS)

ABSTRACT

Handwriting is fundamental to classroom learning, such as taking notes, doing homework, and taking examinations. Children with handwriting problems are often left behind and have difficulty engaging in classroom learning. To date, no handwriting assessment has been developed in Bahasa Malaysia specifically for the Malaysian population. Therefore, this study aimed to develop and validate a handwriting assessment tool (OTulis) for children aged 4–6 in Malaysia. This study used qualitative and quantitative approaches and was divided into three phases: (i) the development of OTulis, (ii) content validation, and (iii) cognitive interviews. The respondents were purposively recruited in all phases. Phase 1 was analyzed using thematic analysis. Phase 2 was analyzed using thematic analysis, content validity index (CVI), and modified kappa (k*). Phase 3 was analyzed using content analysis. The findings demonstrated that the OTulis assessment comprises pencil grip, posture, fine motor control and precision, visual memory, copying shapes, alphabet recognition, and copying sentences. Furthermore, OTulis achieved an I-CVI of 0.88–1.00, S-CVI/Ave of 0.99–1.00, and S-CVI/UA of 0.90–1.00. In addition, OTulis achieved excellent inter-rater agreement with modified kappa scores of 0.88–1.00. Therefore, the OTulis is a valid handwriting assessment tool for the Malaysian population aged 4–6.

Keywords:

• Occupational therapy assessment
• handwriting assessments
• handwriting development
• assessment for Malaysian
• validated assessment

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all the participants, parents, kindergarten teachers, and occupational therapists who participated in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and the Ministry of Higher Education provided research funding for this study (FRGS/1/2020/SSI0/UKM/03/2).