Handwriting Without Tears versus Teacher-Designed Handwriting Instruction in First Grade Classrooms

Abstract

Occupational therapists working in school-based practice provide handwriting interventions using a variety of approaches. A quasi-experimental pretest/posttest control group design was utilized to examine the effectiveness of the Handwriting Without Tears (HWT) program compared to standard, teacher-designed handwriting programs in eight first grade classrooms. At each of four schools, one first grade classroom participated in a standard handwriting program typically conducted by the teacher (control group, N = 54), and another first grade classroom utilized the HWT program (experimental group, N = 67). The Minnesota Handwriting Assessment was used to compare the handwriting skills of the students. The control group showed a higher average posttest scores compared to the HWT group in each subtest of the Minnesota Handwriting Assessment (p < 0.01). There were no significant differences in average posttest scores for the experimental and control groups for students receiving special education services. Though our study did not support HWT as being a more effective method of handwriting instruction than a standard method of handwriting instruction, the findings do demonstrate that handwriting skills of students in both groups improved, thus supporting the viability of using a multisensory handwriting approach, such as HWT, in the classroom.