Category Archives: Assessments

Explore therapeutic and educational assessments designed to evaluate a wide range of skills, including motor, cognitive, sensory, social-emotional, and developmental functioning. These tools help professionals tailor treatment plans for individuals of all ages and abilities.

Visual Motor Assessment with Post-COVID Standards

Assessments, School-Based Practice, Visual Perception, , ,

The recent Therapro webinar, Psymark’s Visual Motor Abilities Test (VMAT) with Post COVID Standardization: Administered & Digitally Scored on the iPad, gave clinicians a practical look at how the visual motor assessment test process is evolving for today’s students. Presented by Karen Silberman, Ed.D., LEP and Dana Khudaverdyan, Ed.D., LEP, this session highlighted why updated assessment tools matter and how digital testing can improve efficiency, accuracy, and clinical decision-making.

Visual-motor integration remains one of the most important foundational skills for school success. It impacts handwriting, copying from the board, scissor use, classroom participation, and overall academic performance. For occupational therapists, school psychologists, educators, and intervention teams, selecting the right visual motor assessment test is critical for identifying concerns early and creating meaningful intervention plans.

The webinar introduced the new Psymark Visual-Motor Tests App: Visual-Motor Abilities Test (VMAT), the first fully digital standardized visual-motor assessment designed for iPad use. Built for children ages 4–9, VMAT includes post-COVID norms, providing more relevant benchmarking for today’s learners whose developmental experiences have been shaped by increased screen use and changes in fine motor opportunities since 2020. 

One of the strongest takeaways from the webinar was the efficiency of administration. Unlike traditional paper-and-pencil testing, VMAT allows clinicians to administer the assessment directly on an iPad using a finger or stylus. Automatic scoring removes subjectivity, reduces human error, and generates comprehensive reports instantly. This means less time measuring angles and calculating scores—and more time developing interventions and collaborating with families and teams. Reports can be easily used for IEPs, RTI/MTSS documentation, and referrals.

Another standout feature is the built-in Goal Bank. Therapists can move directly from assessment results to individualized treatment planning without starting from scratch. This supports faster goal writing and stronger documentation, especially in busy school-based and outpatient settings.

To further support visual-motor intervention planning, Therapro also recommends these related tools:

These tools pair well with VMAT by helping clinicians move from identification to intervention quickly and effectively.

As therapists, we know that assessment should do more than generate a score—it should guide better outcomes. The VMAT helps bridge that gap by combining current norms, digital precision, and practical reporting into one streamlined platform.

If you missed the webinar, you can still view the recording and explore how this innovative visual motor assessment test can support your practice. You can also browse additional resources in Therapro’s Visual Perception and Assessment categories to build a stronger toolkit for evaluation and intervention.

For clinicians looking to modernize visual-motor assessment while improving accuracy and saving valuable time, VMAT is a strong step forward.

The DASH-2: Assessing Handwriting Speed and Legibility

Assessments,
The DASH2- Detailed Assessment of the Speed of Handwriting

Handwriting remains an important skill for recording information, expressing one’s thoughts on paper and communicating ideas to others, despite the increasing use of technology in educational settings. Writing demands placed upon students increase as they progress from primary, through secondary, to further and higher education. Confident, legible, and fast handwriting can support success both within the educational system and in workplace settings that still require the ability to write legibly and fast.

The most important objective in acquiring the skill of handwriting is to be able to write legibly, however, in many situations, the speed of handwriting is also important.

Based on this realization, the authors of the DASH-2 (who are experts in motor control) wanted to provide a reliable measure of the speed of handwriting while at the same time accounting for legibility. Thus, when measuring the speed of production, only letters/words that are legible within the context of the writing are counted. 

Uses of the DASH-2

The primary aim of the DASH-2 is to provide a reliable age-appropriate measure of handwriting speed and legibility. Data from the DASH-2 can be used to:

  • identify individuals with handwriting difficulties
  • determine eligibility for extra support 
  • provide a detailed description of handwriting performance
  • contribute to diagnostic assessment (e.g. Dysgraphia)
  • monitor progress and evaluate intervention effectiveness
  • aid research

DASH-2 Tasks

The DASH-2 contains five handwriting tasks:

  • Copy Best: Copying a sentence in ‘best’ handwriting for 2 minutes
  • Alphabet Writing: Writing lower case letters in alphabetic order from memory continuously for 1 minute
  • Copy Fast: Copying letters in words and words in sentences from a model sentence that contains all the letters of the alphabet quickly for 2 minutes. This is the same sentence used in Copy Best.
  • Graphic Speed: Drawing X’s in circles for 1 minute
  • Free Writing: Writing on the topic of My Life of Past/Present/Future for 10 minutes

Interpretation of Test Results: The 7Ss and 4Ps

Although the main focus is on speed and legibility, the authors encourage obtaining other useful information about an individual’s handwriting and written expression. They offer a format that is part of the Record Form for making Qualitative Observations during the testing.

The 7Ss are features of the examinee’s handwriting that can be observed in the finished product:

  1. Shape/letter formation
  2. Size
  3. Spacing
  4. Slant/slope
  5. Stringing together/joining
  6. Site/sitting on the line
  7. Shakiness

The 4Ps have been associated with poor handwriting outcomes.

  1. Posture
  2. Paper Position
  3. Pen/Pencil Grip
  4. Pressure 

Types of Scores:

The DASH-2 yields different types of scores pertaining to the five DASH-2 tasks:

  • Raw scores and scaled scores for each of the four core tasks
  • A total Standard Score
  • Percentile equivalents for the total standard score

The four types of supplementary scores provide:

  • A scaled score for the Graphic Speed task
  • a Copy Speed Difference score for the Copy Best/Copy Fast tasks
  • The percentage of illegible words from Free Writing
  • A WPM score for each section on the Free Writing task, to provide a profile of the whole Free Writing task

Summary:

This relatively new handwriting assessment fills a gap in our tools for the evaluation of handwriting speed and legibility for older students. Developed by the same authors of the Movement Assessment Battery for Children – Third Edition who are experienced in observing motor control and evaluation development, we can feel comfortable in getting reliable results from the DASH-2. It is being used in some exciting research projects at the University of Washington. We think it is an important component in our ability to identify handwriting difficulties with a standardized and reliable assessment.

Guest Blogger: Karen Conrad Weihrauch, ScD, OTR/L 

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Using Schoodles School Fine Motor Assessment (SFMA) as Part of a Strengths-Based Assessment

Assessments, Fine Motor & Hand Skill Development, ,


What does a ‘strengths-based’ assessment mean to you? In the past, it may have simply
involved listing a student’s strengths and then moving on to their needs. However, a
strengths-based assessment can be a powerful tool for promoting self-confidence,
motivation, and independence. This type of assessment highlights areas for growth and
improvement, while simultaneously showcasing a student’s positive attributes. By utilizing
a strengths-based approach, parents, staff, and students can all view the student in a
different, more positive light.

Using a criterion-reference tool like Schoodles, you can more effectively locate areas where
a student excels, as well as areas that require further support. Unlike standardized tools,
Schoodles offers the flexibility to provide verbal prompts, visual demonstrations, task
grading, or other aids to help students complete challenging tasks.
Here are some strengths/needs we can observe during testing:

  • Good attention to task/ may need support to move from activity to activity
  • Demonstrates interest and curiosity about all of the materials/may need a limited amount of materials in front of him to work to his potential
  • Highly sociable/may need some social time before beginning hands-on tasks
  • Quick learner/excellent candidate for 6-10  week burst of service to improve skills
  • Easily understands and follows visual versus verbal directions/may benefit from visual supports to move through the day
  • Loves to use his hands/ may benefit from fidgets or may need to be presented with one task at a time and given extra time to explore hands-on activities.

To effectively support students, we must shift our attention from their limitations to their capabilities. It is a common misconception that a strengths-based focus disregards a student’s challenges. We can describe a student’s skills in neutral or positive terms, highlighting attributes that help them succeed. While we do not ignore struggles or weaknesses, we strive to reframe them in a constructive manner.

You could start by reviewing your previous documentation to initiate a shift toward strengths. Highlight all the positive statements in green, all neutral statements in yellow, and all negative statements in red. By doing this, you can aim to minimize negative statements and ultimately eliminate them altogether.

When writing reports, it’s important to provide a positive summary of your data while still including any challenges. Here are some helpful tips:

  • Place all test scores at the bottom of your report.
  • Use positive or neutral descriptive language only.
  • Focus on what the student CAN do.
  • Reframe subjective language into objective language.
  • Highlight areas of potential growth.

By using Schoodles‘ SFMA alone or in combination with other tools, you can gain valuable
information about student strengths in a relatively short amount of time. Focusing on
student strengths during information gathering, report writing, and sharing will help
facilitate a sense of student efficacy in the students, their parents, and staff.

Guest Blogger Marie Frank OTR/L, Schoodles Co-Owner