Handwriting Accuracy of Beginning Writers and Its Impact on the Readability of Their Sentences

Abstract

Occupational therapists require an understanding of the range of factors which contribute to handwriting proficiency in beginning writers to best assist children experiencing handwriting difficulty. However, there is limited research which has focused on children’s ability to handwrite sentences. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy and readability of sentences written by mainstream Year 1 and Year 2 children. A total of 408 children were asked to write a self-generated, dictated, and copied sentence. The Perceive, Recall, Plan, and Perform (PRPP) System of Task Analysis (Stage One) was employed to determine the sentence mastery score and proficiency of the subskills required to correctly handwrite a sentence. The readability of each sentence was assessed using a three-point Likert scale. The results of the study showed that the sentence mastery score for Year 1 children ranged between 53-56% across the three sentence writing tasks, while Year 2 children scored between 63-65%. The overall score was impacted by errors in alphabet-letter-writing, letter-spacing, word-spacing, and spelling. 20% of Year 1 and 40% of Year 2 children generated a sentence which was easily readable when writing from memory. Readability scores improved when sentences were copied. The study identified proficiency levels for different subskills required for handwritten sentences to be readable. The need for further research to determine developmental and ability milestones for handwriting sentences in the early years are discussed. Considerations for occupational therapy handwriting assessment and intervention at the sentence level are provided.