Handwriting assessment of Franco-Quebec primary school-age students

BACKGROUND: Reasons for referring school-age children to occupational therapy mainly relate to handwriting problems. However, there are no validated tools or reference values for assessing handwriting in francophone children in Canada.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to adapt and validate the writing tasks described in an English Canadian handwriting assessment protocol and to develop reference values for handwriting speed for francophone children.

METHOD: Three writing tasks from the Handwriting Assessment Protocol-2nd Edition (near-point and far-point copying and dictation) were adapted for Québec French children and administered to 141 Grade 1 ( n = 73) and Grade 2 ( n = 68) students.

FINDINGS: Reference values for handwriting speed were obtained for near point and far point copying tasks.

IMPLICATIONS: This adapted protocol and these reference values for speed will improve occupational therapy handwriting assessments for the target population.