Handwriting

Handwriting

Occupational Therapists at PCSG are trained to evaluate the following areas:

Postural Control
This includes balance reactions; trunk control against gravity; shoulder cocontraction and joint stability; arm and hand strength; and the ability to isolate movement of the arm from the shoulder and the trunk.

Hand Skills
This includes clinical observations that involve forearm supination; grasp and release patterns; tactile and kinesthetic discrimination; and in-hand manipulation skills.

Visual Perception
This includes how a child understands what he visually perceives and involves discrimination, figure-ground, visual closure, and visual memory.

Visual-Motor Integration
This includes how a child translates through his hand what he visually perceives.

Assessments may include:

1) Observation of Hand Skills (by Mary Benbow)
2) Motor Free Visual Perceptual Test (MVPT)
3) Test of Visual-Perceptual Skills (upper and lower version)
4) Test of Visual Motor Skills - Revised
5) Test of Handwriting Skills

Problems in Handwriting May Include:

1) Poor posture for writing
2) Inadequate postural control
3) Poor wrist position/stability
4) Poor pencil grip
5) Poor use of lines on paper
6) Reversals
7) Poor spacing between letters or words