Tag Archives: handwriting

Strong handwriting development strategies support legibility, writing fluency, and academic success. Effective handwriting instruction includes posture, pencil grip, letter formation, and spacing. These strategies benefit children with and without motor challenges by building foundational skills needed for written expression and classroom participation. Explore tools, tips, and research-backed approaches to support handwriting development in all learners.

Collaborative Blog Project: Handwriting Evaluations

January 23 celebrated National Handwriting Day.  In honor of a holiday near and dear to many occupational therapists’ hearts, we tasked you all with sending us your best ideas, tips, tricks, and opinions on all things handwriting.  We then compiled these comments into Therapro’s first-ever series of collaborative blog posts.  Our first topic, handwriting evaluations! Here is what you all had to say:

Favorite & Most Helpful Handwriting Assessment or Evaluation Methods

Evaluation Tool of Children's Handwriting

By far most therapists surveyed relied on non standardized measures and skilled observations to collect information about a students handwriting.    When it came down to standardized measures the most popular were The Print Tool, The Evaluation of Children’s Handwriting (ETCH), and the Test of Handwriting Skills Revised.

Handwriting Evaluations: Pros & Cons

The Print tool

When discussing the pros and cons of each of these measures a few common themes emerged:

  • The Print Tool provides detailed information about a student’s physical approach to handwriting, but it can be time-consuming to administer and score.
  • Non-standardized measures can be quick and easy, but don’t provide needed normative data.
  • It is difficult to gain reliable information when a student does not yet know the alphabet. 

Other Factors to Consider When Evaluating Handwriting

Visual Perceptual Skills-4

Therapists surveyed indicated that evaluating a student’s motor performance as well as visual perceptual skills was a critical aspect of the handwriting assessment process.  Sensory, environmental, and psychosocial factors were also identified as areas to include when assessing a student’s handwriting.

Helpful Hints & Suggestions for Evaluating Handwriting

  • Include both a near-point and far-point copy task.
  • Include observations of the student performing both preferred and nonpreferred tasks.
  • When observing a child writing, position yourself for an optimal view of the student’s writing hand.
  • Eliminate distraction.
  • Have grips, different seating options, adaptive paper, and a variety of writing tools available to try.
  • Have letter strips available for visual reference.
  • Choose a topic that is of interest to the student to write about.
Handwriting Tools
Adaptive Paper

Thank you to all of the therapists who shared their knowledge and expertise!

Feifer Assessment of Writing

Feifer Assessment of Writing logo

The Feifer Assessment of Writing (FAW) goes beyond standard handwriting measures to help practitioners truly understand the factors contributing to handwriting difficulty. The FAW allows practitioners to answer the “why”!   By understanding the factors contributing to handwriting difficulty, practitioners are better equipped to develop treatment plans that are efficient and that adequately address the underlying cause of difficulty.

Feifer Assessment of Writing: What’s Measured?

The FAW is comprised of ten subtests (and two additional, optional, subtests) designed to identify and differentiate among the three subtypes of dysgraphia.  The subsets are: (*indicates subtest used in the Feifer Assessment of Writing Screening Form (FAW-SF))

  • Alphabet Tracing Fluency*
  • Motor Sequencing*
  • Copying Speed
  • Motor Planning
  • Executive Working Memory*
  • Isolated Spelling*
  • Retrieval Fluency
  • Sentence Scaffolding
  • Homophone Spelling
  • Expository Writing
  • Copy Editing (optional)
  • Story Mapping (optional)

FAW vs. FAW-SF

FWFAW-SF
PurposeA diagnostic achievement test used to examine the underlying processes that support written language skills in order to identify the presence of a written language disorder and to identify the specific subtype of dysgraphia.Identify children at risk for developmental dysgraphia Can be used as progress monitoring tool
Key Areas of FocusThree subtypes of written language disorder: Graphomotor dysgraphiaDyslexia dysgraphiaExecutive dysgraphiaK-1st grade: Graphomotor demands of the writing process  Grade 2 & above: Cognitive-linguistic demands of the writing process
Age RangePre-K- CollegeGrades kindergarten through college 
TimePre-Kindergarten: 15 minutesGrades K- 1: 20 minutes Grades 2+: 55-65 minutes K-1st grade:15-20 minuteGrades 2 and above: 20 minutes
Scores YieldedProvides an overall Total Index & three target index scoresGraphomotor IndexDyslexic IndexExecutive IndexProves a single index score that indicates the risk for dysgraphia or a written language learning disability and the need for further assessment. 

Modifying Games to Address Therapeutic Goals

Games are a useful therapeutic tool; they are versatile, engaging, and so much fun! WIth a few simple modifications games can address a wide range of therapeutic needs.  A few simple modifications can be used for almost every game:

  1. Add Visuals.  Visuals can be anything from simplified directions to communication aids, like “your turn” and “my turn”. Visuals can help those who struggle with sequencing, memory, or communication participate more independently in game play.  
  2. Change the playing position. Playing games on the floor, at a countertop, or with alternative seating helps to increase participation and access.  Playing a game on the floor allows players to play in alternative positions, like laying on their bellies. This position is great for those with postural instability, and helps increase their focus and endurance.  Another option is to use a therapy ball (add a base for stability), Alert Seat, Ball Chair, or air filled cushion instead of a traditional chair.  These types of alternative seating provides movement input which may allow those with shortened attention spans to participate longer and with more focus.  Some games like, Left Center Right, have few manipulatives making these great games to use on scooter boards or swings.  
  3. Modify the Manipulatives.  Some game pieces are just too small, too big, or too difficult for students to access.  One quick fix is to swap out the game tokens for something more manageable like a jumbo dice.  Another option, insert game pieces into putty for a bigger gripping surface.  Other modifications include using a card holder or book holder.  
  4. Manipulating the manipulatives to target hand skills. To encourage a pincer grasp, place smaller game pieces into an egg carton (or similar small container); the smaller space allows for only a few fingers to access the piece, encouraging a two or three finger grasp pattern every time the player picks up the game pieces.  To incorporate hand strengthening and bilateral coordination, use a tennis ball with a small slit cut into it.  Players must squeeze the tennis ball with one hand while using the other hand to insert or remove their pieces.  To target fine motor manipulation with insertion, use plastic containers (your recycling bin is a great resource); cut a slit in the lid and work on inserting game manipulatives into the containers.
  5. Change the game rules to address specific therapeutic goals. If your focus is social interactions, team building, or cooperative problem solving, change game play so players play as a group instead of competing against each other. If you are doing individual treatment sessions instead of group sessions, change gameplay to make it a single-person game.  When time is limited or you have participants who struggle with extended attention and focus, add a time rule where gameplay ends after a set amount of minutes.  When the game is too hard or too easy for players, add more complexity or decrease the complexity.   
Example of modifying a game; tube with cover
Example of modifying a game; coins in a clear tube
A tennis ball with a slit and a coin inserted
coins in an egg carton

With a little bit of creativity, most games can be changed, adapted, or modified in order to use them as a therapeutic tool.  Check out Therapro’s handy games guide to see these modifications applied to some of our great games!