Handwriting evaluation in school aged ( 7-14 years) children

Abstract

Objective:

To evaluate handwriting performance in school going children ranges from 7- 14 years old and to explore the association between illegible handwriting and complaints of pain.

Material and Methods

Cross sectional study design and convenience sampling technique were used in this study. 200 healthy students with age range of 7-14 years (girls = 94 and boys = 106) were included in this study. 185 participants were right handed and 15 students were left handed.  Students with no physical and mental impairment were a part of this study. Students who had received any special education classes were excluded from the study. The participants were taken from Gulab Devi Girls High School and Gulab Devi Primary School. Informed consent was obtained from class teachers of the students. HPSQ used to evaluate handwriting problems faced by school going children. All students were tested in department of Audiology, Gulab Devi teaching hospital under same condition from the month of February to October 2023.

Results

Total sample size was 200, out of which 94 were female and 106 were male. Out of 200 students, we had larger number of children with the age lies between 7 and 8 years old, were 51.5 %, then smaller number (19.5%) were 12 and 13 years old and smallest number (3.5 %)  was 14 years. With the average age of students was about 9 years (SD=1.9). It also showed that 20.25 % had illegible issues and 32 % students had poor performance time and wellbeing. The association between illegible handwriting and pain complaints was highly significant as p value was 0.000

Conclusion

Handwriting difficulty in children are frequently underestimated or not adequately addressed, despite their considerable impact on academic achievement and self-confidence. So, HPSQ can be used to identify any handwriting deficits in school going children as it can predict all the main components of handwriting. It can be used for clinical or academic evaluation in order to highlight the problems that children faced during academic performance and thus easily refer to Occupational Therapy for better performance in their life.

Key words: Handwriting problems, evaluation, Handwriting Proficiency Screening Questionnaire