Effectiveness of a Handwriting Intervention With At-Risk Kindergarteners.

OBJECTIVE: We examined the effectiveness of an occupational therapist-led handwriting intervention for special education and at-risk kindergarteners.

METHOD: We incorporated a two-group, pretest-posttest design. Both groups consisted of kindergarteners receiving individualized education program (IEP) or Response to Intervention (RtI) support. An occupational therapist provided biweekly group handwriting instruction using the Size Matters Handwriting Program to students in the intervention group (n = 23). The control group (n = 12) received the standard handwriting instruction.

RESULTS: Students in the intervention group demonstrated significantly greater gains in handwriting legibility than students in the control group. Students in the intervention group also demonstrated significantly greater gains in the prereading skills of uppercase letter recognition, lowercase letter recognition, and letter sound recognition.

CONCLUSION: This study provides preliminary support for an occupational therapist-led handwriting intervention to improve writing legibility and letter recognition in kindergarteners receiving RtI and IEP supports.