Handwriting Interventions for Occupational Therapists
The American Journal of Occupational Therapy published “Interventions Within the Scope of Occupational Therapy to Improve Children’s Academic Participation: A Systematic Review.” This systematic review looked at OT interventions to improve components, including educational participation, literacy participation, and handwriting. Since occupational therapy interventions often target handwriting, it is crucial to use evidence-based and best-practice interventions.
The study alarmingly found that relatively few successful, wide-ranged studies show the most effective interventions for handwriting. Therapeutic practice, self-evaluation, and performance feedback were effective. At the same time, there was little evidence for practice addressing isolated component skills, “such as visual perception, kinesthesis, in-hand manipulation, visual motor integration, or biomechanical features of handwriting.”[1]AOTA Recommendations
AOTA, or the American Occupational Therapy Association, looked at this systematic review to create intervention ideas for handwriting. AOTA recommends following handwriting curricula, activity-based practice, self-evaluation of writing, and co-teaching/collaboration with teachers.
The handwriting curricula should include using sensorimotor activities to teach strokes and letters and provide a chance for the therapist to model using verbal and visual clues.
Activity-based practice is a way to get the child excited about handwriting. This could be using familiar words, such as favorite shows, characters, family members, or colors. Encourage the child to write by providing incentives like fun and colorful pens or any tool that will help them write. For example, you can give a fun pencil sharpener and encourage them to write so that they have the chance to use it.
Allow the child to self-evaluate their writing. This can be from a model made by you or as part of the curricula or have them identify what mistakes they’ve made and how they can improve.
It is also important to collaborate with the people reinforcing the child’s writing, like parents and teachers. Communicate with the teachers what is expected of the child and what modifications can be made in the classroom and evaluate progress. It is also essential to provide parents with tools to help reinforce the techniques the child is learning at school or in therapy.
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1. Grajo, Lenin C., Catherine Candler and Amanda Sarafian, p. 9.
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“Evidence-Informed intervention ideas: Handwriting for children and youth 5-21,” AOTA, accessed 29 July 2022, https://www.aota.org/practice/practice-essentials/evidencebased-practiceknowledge-translation/evidence-informed-intervention-ideas-handwriting-children-youth-5-21.
Grajo, Lenin C., Catherine Candler and Amanda Sarafian. “Interventions Within the Scope of Occupational Therapy to Improve Children's Academic Participation: A Systematic Review.” The American journal of occupational therapy: official publication of the American Occupational Therapy Association. 74, no. 2 (2020): 1-32. DOI: 10.5014/ajot.2020.039016