Ready for handwriting?

Writing Readiness Inventory Tool In Context (WRITIC)

theory - assessment - recommendations

Margo van Hartingsveldt and Liesbeth de Vries

Researchgroup Occupational Therapy – Participation & Environment; Center of Expertise Urban Vitality; Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Original title: Klaar om te schrijven? Writing Readiness Inventory Tool In Context (WRITIC) theorie – assessment – advies
ISBN 978-90-826386-0-8 / © 2016 Hogeschool van Amsterdam

While every attempt has been made to provide information that is both accurate and effective, the authors do not assume any responsibility for the accuracy or use/misuse of this information. Any comments or suggestions of the recorded data will be gratefully received by the authors.

ISBN 978-94-6301-347-5

Eburon Academic Publishers, Utrecht, The Netherlands
www.eburon.nl

Cover design and drawings: Machteld Hardick, Groningen, www.mhardick.nl

© 2021. Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing from the propriet or.

Table of contents

Foreword to the English edition

Foreword

Introduction

Authors

Part I  Theory

1. Handwriting and handwriting readiness - Margo van Hartingsveldt and Liesbeth de Vries

1.1 Handwriting

1.2 Handwriting difficulties

1.3 Development of handwriting

1.4 Relationship between cognitive and motor skills in handwriting

1.5 Handwriting readiness

1.6 Interactive and occupational perspective of the development of handwriting

1.7 Rationale for the development of the WRITIC

2. Psychometric properties of the WRITIC - Margo van Hartingsveldt, Liesbeth de Vries, Edith Cup, Imelda de Groot, Ria Nijhuis- van der Sanden and Helga Haberfehlner

2.1 Development, content and construct validity of the WRITIC

2.2 Reliability and convergent validity of the WRITIC

2.3 Predictive validity of the WRITIC

2.4 Reference data for handwriting readiness assessment

2.5. The WRITIC: a reliable, valid and predictive measurement

Part II  Assessment

3. Items of the WRITIC - Margo van Hartingsveldt and Liesbeth de Vries

3.1 Child

3.2 Environment

3.3 Paper-and-pencil tasks

4. Administering the WRITIC - Margo van Hartingsveldt and Liesbeth de Vries

4.1 Short interview with the child

4.2 Observation of the paper-and-pencil tasks

4.3 Teachers questionnaire

5. Scoring - Margo van Hartingsveldt and Liesbeth de Vries

5.1 Procedure for scoring

5.2 Scoring the items

5.3 Roadmap WRITIC

6. Additional assessments of performance components - Liesbeth de Vries and Margo van Hartingsveldt

6.1 Occupation-based assessment

6.2 Additional assessments

6.3 Conclusion

Part III  Recommendations

7. Recommendations and intervention - Liesbeth de Vries and Margo van Hartingsveldt

7.1 General principles

7.2 Child

7.3 Environment

7.4 Paper-and-pencil tasks

Attachments

1. Overview (sub)domains WRITIC

2. Drawing book

3. Scoring book

4. Score form

5. Teachers questionnaire

6. Reference data WRITIC

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Foreword to the English edition

After publishing the Dutch manual of the Writing Readiness Inventory Tool In Context (WRITIC), in the last part of 2016, we had the pleasure of giving more than 25 one-day courses in The Netherlands and Flanders on the use of the WRITIC and have sold more than 1000 Dutch manuals of the WRITIC. Implementing the WRITIC in the Netherlands and Flanders is still going on and the WRITIC is used more and more in these two Dutch speaking countries.

We have received a lot of interest from all over the world as a result of the international publications on the development of the WRITIC and its psychometric properties. People from different countries in and outside Europe, who speak different languages, have indicated that they want to translate the WRITIC into their own language. Because Dutch is a not a well-known language, we have decided to start with this English translation. So, this English-language manual ‘Ready for handwriting’ offers opportunities to further translate WRITIC assessment from English into different languages.

This English manual is a complete translation of the original Dutch manual. The first part about Theory and the third part about Recommendations are a direct translation from Dutch to British English with minor cultural changes. This was performed by the RIGS expert translation service in Amsterdam and edited by the authors.

The second part on Assessment included a formal forward and back translation from Dutch to British English that was performed by the same expert translation service. The translation emphasized conceptual rather than literal translations, as well as the need to use natural and acceptable language for the target audiences of the assessment: British occupational therapists who will be administering the WRITIC and British kindergarten children who will be assessed with the WRITIC.

We were happy to have worked with Mellissa Prunty in this translation process. Mellissa is a Senior Lecturer in Occupational Therapy at Brunel University in London and chair of the National Handwriting Association in the United Kingdom (UK). She has screened the English version of the entire manual and we have discussed with her the discrepancies that have arisen from the forward and back translation of the second part of the manual: ‘the Assessment’.

Thanks to the master students Lucy Hickey and Laura Miles, who did the first research on validation of the English version of the WRITIC. Thanks to Debbie Kramer-Roy who also gave valuable advice about the English translation of the WRITIC.

Our advice is that before you start to administer the WRITIC in practice, you should have attended a full day training including theory of handwriting readiness and practicing scoring and administration of the WRITIC.

Our dream for the future is that all children can easily participate in the mastery of handwriting. With this English version of the WRITIC manual this dream could become reality for children all over the world.

Amsterdam, 2019
Margo van Hartingsveldt
Liesbeth de Vries

Foreword

People’s handwriting is used for many different cultural practices like a handwritten postcard, letters, a diary, and Post-it notes. Moreover, handwriting is also an aesthetic form that we still uniquely associate with a manual craft and a skill performed by different people in a unique way; from calligraphy (among which the popular hand lettering) to urban graffiti and from applying tattoos to a signature. The human hand is pivotal in the production of letters, signs and texts. The modern handwriting is developed based on an age-old tradition. The primary tool for handwriting is a pen. This developed from a stylus, a tool that started as a wedge to carve traces in sand, in clay or in wax. Over time the stylus took on different shapes, a quill feather, then a pencil, a pen, a fountain pen, and a ballpoint. In all these forms, the stylus was led by the hand and its basic product was a line or a ‘trait’.¹

Handwriting is of all ages. It is a skill that children learn at school. People’s handwriting is very personal and is a way to record or express language. Handwriting leaves a trail and is sometimes called “language by hand”. It is part of daily life for children and adults; it is used to make a shopping list, to write a birthday card and to make notes during a telephone call.

At school children’s handwriting is a means to show what they are learning in all different school subjects. Handwriting remains important in education because it is more than a means of expressing language. Learning handwriting has an impact on cognition and has a contribution in learning the spelling and reading. Therefore handwriting remains an important skill to learn, also in this current time of computers, smart phones and tablets.

In inclusive education there is an increased focus on early identification of children at risk of developing (learning) difficulties and on a growing body of expertise in teachers in how to deal with these children. An assessment like the Writing Readiness Inventory Tool In Context (WRITIC) fits well in this development, especially since children’s occupational and physical therapists, but also specialist teachers, can administer the WRITIC in children about whom the teachers have concerns in terms of their handwriting readiness.

Many people have contributed in the development of the WRITIC.

At first we would like to thank all 705 children and their parents/guardians and teachers that participated in research in the development of the WRITIC and in the collection of the reference data. Without them we would have no data and there would not be a valid, reliable and predictable WRITIC with reference data.

Thanks to prof. dr. Ria Nijhuis-van der Sanden, dr. Imelda de Groot and dr. Edith Cup, the research group in the development and research of the WRITIC and who have contributed in different chapters of this manual.

Thanks to Helga Haberfehlner who participated in the reference data study as a research assistant and co-author of the reference data chapter.

Thanks to the experts who participated in the content validity study: Anneloes Overvelde, Hans Nijtmans, Pauline Aarts, Chiel Volman, Nanette Nab, Theone Kampstra, Lia Wouters, Koen van Dijk and Annelies de Hoop.

Thanks to the many students who participated in the WRTIC research. In the reliability and construct validity study: Nicole Arink, Mariette Stroo and Edith Thijssen (former students of the bachelor occupational therapy of Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences) and Lisanne Meulmeester, Jeanette Nieman, Betty Stroomer, Marijn Winkel, Joke Altena, Iris van der Berg, Tamara Dennissen and Paul Eijckmans (former students of the bachelor occupational therapy of HAN University of Applied Sciences). In the convergent, construct and predictive validity studies in the WRITIC: Janine Grootendorst, Priscilla Hardus, Inge Hanssen, Eefje Schalken-Bastiaans and Marieke Adelaars (former students of the Master Pediatric Physical Therapy Avans University). In the reference data study: Claudia Borsch, Jill de Haan, Anna Hildebrand, Kelly Huigsloot, Danielle Meijer, Lianne Stark, Michelle van Damme, Carina Dubbeldam Naära Tomasowa (former students of the bachelor occupational therapy of Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences) and Aline Averesch, Iris Steijn, Jessica Spaan, Lisan Brookhuis, Lisette Weijers, Michiel van Lingen, Myrthe Verhoog, Mitchell Walgien, Ronalys de Gier, Siem Matton and Tom Smits (former students of the Minor Child of faculty of Health of Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences) and Deborah Cabal, Marieke Hagemeijer, Karin Stellingwerf (former students of bachelor exercise therapy of Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences).

Thanks to the students who have contributed to part 3 ‘Recommendations’ of this manual with their literature study. Thanks to Dim Strubbe, Puck de Gooijer and Kelly Jansen (former students of the bachelor occupational therapy of Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences).

We trust the WRITIC to be an assessment that can contribute to increasing the participation of children at school. Based on the WRITIC, intervention can be directed in order to prevent handwriting difficulties and children can be enabled to happily engage in all handwriting activities in first grade which sets a solid basis for their further school career.

Maasbommel, Joure, 2016

Margo van Hartingsveldt
Liesbeth de Vries

¹ Van Dijck J, Neef S. Sign here! Handwriting in the age of technical reproduction: introduction. In: Neef S, van Dijck J, Ketelaar E, editors. Sign here! Handwriting in the Age of New Media. Amsterdam: University Press; 2006. p. 7-17

Introduction

Handwriting readiness is the construct of the Writing Readiness Inventory Tool In Context (WRITIC). This assessment is developed for kindergarten (5-6 years old) children to evaluate if they are ready to learn handwriting in first grade. The WRITIC can be administered in the pre-writing phase with children about whom the teachers have concerns regarding their handwriting readiness. We recommend administering the WRITIC 5-6 month ahead of the start of handwriting education.

The development of a standardized, reliable, valid and predictive norm-referenced assessment is a time consuming process. In 2008 a systematic review was conducted on assessments on handwriting readiness. After we did not find an assessment that met our criteria, we started with the development of the WRITIC. This process started in 2009 and seven years later in 2016 the Dutch manual of the WRITIC was finished. The development of the assessment was part of the PhD thesis of the first author. In this period 331 children participated and through this research we determined that the WRITIC is a reliable, valid and predictive instrument. This was followed by the reference data study in which another 374 children participated and the cut-off point was established on the subdomain Task Performance of the WRITIC (WRITIC-TP).

The score on the WRITIC-TP discriminates between children who are ready for instruction in handwriting and children who are not. In case of non-handwriting readiness according to the WRITIC, tests on fine motor coordination and visual-motor integration can be administered for complementary information. The scores on the other subdomains of the WRITIC give criterion-referenced information and give directions for intervention to practice paper-and-pencil tasks to enable the child to become more ready for handwriting in first grade.

Assessments in occupational therapy that are occupation-based are adminstered in the environment in which occupational performance takes place and focus on meaningful activities. The WRITIC is an occupation-based assessment. It is used in the school environment and it starts with a short interview with the child where the child is asked about the interest he has in drawing, colouring and ‘writing’.

The WRITIC is developed for children’s occupational therapists. The WRITIC can also be administered by children’s physical therapists and specialist teachers in regular elementary education.

The manual contains three parts: theory, assessment and recommendations.

Part I Theory

This part describes the theory on handwriting and handwriting readiness and provides information about the studies in determining the reliability, validity and reference data of the WRITIC.

Chapter 1 starts with theory on handwriting and handwriting readiness. Learning to write is important for the cognitive development and for learning to read and spell. In handwriting, different processes are involved among which motor and cognitive processes. The relation of text writing, handwriting and performance components is shown in the conceptual model on handwriting readiness. Chapter 1 described different factors that influence handwriting readiness and the writing difficulties of which the prevalence is relatively high. Finally the rationale for the development of the WRITIC is outlined.

Chapter 2 described the development of the WRITIC. It describes the theoretical relevance of the domains ‘Child’, ‘Environment’ and ‘Paper-and-pencil tasks’ and the subdomains. The psychometric properties are described by reporting the studies on validity, reliability and reference data. Conclusions are outlined in the last paragraph; the WRITIC is a valid, reliable and predictive measurement.

Part II Assessment

This part of the manual describes the theoretical argumentation of the items of the WRITIC and explains assessment, scoring and interpretation of the results of the WRITIC. It also reports additional assessments that can be used when children are not ready for handwriting based on the WRITIC.

Chapter 3 describes all items in the domain ‘Child’, ‘Environment’ and ‘Paper-and-pencil tasks’. The theoretical foundation and goal for each item is reported.

Chapter 4 is about how to assess the WRITIC and includes the instructions to be given by the therapist to the child while performing the different tasks. The first part ‘Interest in paper-and-pencil tasks’ is assessed by means of a short interview. The other parts of the WRITIC are assessed through observation of the performance of different paper-and-pencil tasks.

Chapter 5 shows how to score the items of the WRITIC. Scored are noted in the scoring book. After assessing the WRITIC the scores need to be translated to total scores on the subdomains ‘Task Performance’ and ‘Intensity of Performance’. This chapter ends with a road map on the scoring and interpretation of the WRITIC.

Chapter 6 This chapter describes the complete assessment of handwriting readiness, which starts with the WRITIC. When children score below the 15th percentile and are not ready for handwriting based on the WRITIC, additional assessments of performance components can be used in the second step in the evaluation of handwriting readiness.

Part III Recommendations

This part contains one chapter on recommendations for intervention. In this chapter recommendations are given for children who are not (yet) ready for handwriting in first grade, based on their results on the WRITIC. The recommendations are based on the recommendations given in the manual of the Screening Prewriting (Skills) Occupational Therapy (SPOT) and are updated in light of recent insights from scientific research and literature. The teacher, specialist teacher and remedial teacher can use the recommendations. Also the children’s therapist can use these recommendations when consulted in case children are suspected to have more complex difficulties based on their results in the WRITIC and additional assessments. Also parents/guardians can use the recommendations when practicing paper-and-pencil tasks in daily life.

At the end of the manual six attachments are included:

1.Overview (sub)domains WRITIC

2.Drawing book

3.Scoring book

4.Scoring form

5.Teacher questionnaire

6.Reference data WRITIC

Note

•In the Netherlands, 5–6 year old children learn prewriting skills in kindergarten. In this phase, they learn to produce different writing patterns, to use an appropriate dynamic pencil grip and an adequate sitting posture. In the following school year (6-7 years old) children receive handwriting instruction and learn the letter patterns. Different writing methods are used; cursive or print. We are aware that this might be different in other countries; children may learn handwriting later or earlier and the instruction might be different. The WRITIC is aimed for children who are in the phase of pre-writing, ahead of the phase of learning handwriting. Interpretation may be different when the WRITIC is assessed in this phase but when children are older/ younger. Research is needed to establish cross-cultural validity.

•Everywhere where he / his/ or him is written, this can also be read as she/ her(s)/ her.

About the authors

Editors