|
OT's Ease Handwriting
Frustration for Students
The days of reading, writing
and arithmetic are gone. Because of curriculum
changes there isn't the emphasis on handwriting
that there once was. To further complicate the
issue, in some school districts, there may be
more than one method of teaching handwriting
being used, adding confusion to the process
for some students. According to Handwriting
Without Tears approximately ninety percent of
all school based occupational therapy (OT) referrals
are for handwriting issues.
Three occupational therapists
from the J. D. McCarty Center for children with
developmental disabilities in Norman recently
completed The Print Tool workshop presented
by Handwriting Without Tears. The Print Tool
is an assessment and remediation program for
children from kindergarten through fifth grade.
In The Print Tool workshop
the OT's learned to analyze all handwriting
curricula through the use of curriculum analysis;
understand the eight essential components of
handwriting; administer and score The Print
Tool assessment (evaluation); interpret The
Print tool results, write a report and design
handwriting plans for children (remediation);
set handwriting goals and demonstrate evidence
based intervention through proper documentation;
and plan ways to share handwriting knowledge
with others.
"Most handwriting
assessments are pretty fluffy," explained
Whittney Grigsby, doctor of occupational therapy
and one of the McCarty Center OT's completing
The Print Tool workshop. "This assessment
tool provides quantitative measures by which
to assess the student's handwriting ability
and to make specific remediation recommendations.
The quantitative measures
include: Spacing. How much or how little spacing
does a student place between letters and words;
Memory. Does the student distinguish between
upper and lower case letters; Orientation. Are
the letters facing the correct direction or
are they reversed; Placement. Are the letters
placed on the line correctly; Control. Does
the student demonstrate the fine motor skills
needed to form the letters; Start. Does the
student start to form the letter in the correct
place; and Sequence. This is the order in which
the student forms the letter and stroke direction.
With the completion of
this workshop Emily Langley, certified occupational
therapy assistant, has qualified for Handwriting
Without Tear's level I certification for handwriting
assessment and remediation. Grigsby and Stacy
Angermeier, registered occupational therapist,
have one more workshop to attend to qualify
for their level I certification.
Thirty-years ago the Handwriting
Without Tears curriculum was created by occupational
therapist Jan Olsen of Bethesda, Maryland, in
response to her son's tears over handwriting
in the first grade. Olsen used her OT training
and background to develop strategies to help
him with his handwriting. Her son's teacher
noticed his progress and asked Olsen to help
other students in the class. Olsen became known
in the area as the tutoring solution for handwriting,
and her ideas became the basis for the first
therapists' guide, Handwriting Without Tears.
Handwriting Without Tears
is one of three handwriting curricula in use
in schools. The other two are the D'Nealian
handwriting curriculum and the Zaner Bloser
Ball and Stick method.
"The Print Tool assessment
and remediation process is a natural fit for
an occupational therapist," Angermeier
explained, "because of our training in
developing fine motor skills, sequencing and
visual motor processing."
"It also gives us
a level of preparation in this process that
we wouldn't have otherwise had," added
Langley. " It will be of great help because
besides seeing patients here at the McCarty
Center, the three of us also see patients in
area schools. This program is for children with
and without disabilities."
According to the Handwriting
Without Tears website there are currently eight
certified handwriting specialists in Oklahoma.
Langley will be the ninth.
The J. D. McCarty Center
is Oklahoma's center of excellence in the care
and treatment of children with developmental
disabilities. Founded in 1946, the McCarty Center
only treated one diagnosis…cerebral palsy.
Today, the hospital has treated more than 70
different diagnoses in the developmental disability
category. The McCarty Center provides inpatient
and outpatient services and contracts with school
systems to provide some of their therapy needs.
For more information about
Handwriting Without Tears visit www.hwtears.com.
For more information about the J. D. McCarty
Center for children with developmental disabilities
visit www.jdmc.org.
|
