Date
Spring 2019
Document Type
Poster Session
Department
Occupational Therapy
Advisor
Mary Anderson OTD, OTR/L
Keywords
children, fine motor deficit, handwriting deficit, attention deficit
Abstract
The purpose of this project was to determine effective interventions shown to increase fine motor skills in children who experience handwriting deficits related to ADD/ADHD or other attention deficits. The project was prepared for a pediatric outpatient OT at Hasbro Children’s Hospital. The information was found via the USM databases through specific search terms and parameters.
This work is significant because many OTs and teachers are working with children who have deficits in handwriting and fine motor abilities. There needs to be additional research conducted specifically with children who have ADD/ADHD and exhibit fine motor and handwriting deficits.
The research shows that the most effective interventions consist of three different themes: sensory, motor, and cognitive. The motor interventions include repetitive practice, handwriting clubs, interactive metronome training, and three-dimensional robotic guided repetitive motion fine motor training. The sensory interventions include short-term sensorimotor intervention and a sensorimotor intervention combined with repetitive practice. The cognitive interventions include cognitive orientation to occupational performance (CO-OP) intervention and self-guided and task-oriented interventions.
My recommendations were to include intensive handwriting practice combined with worksheets and homework, handwriting clubs with a group where clients are allowed to pick their own writing topic and to assure any intervention occurs twice weekly for at least 20 sessions.
Start Date
4-19-2019 9:00 AM
Recommended Citation
Hatch, Josephine, "Evidence and Interventions for Children with Handwriting Deficits" (2019). Thinking Matters Symposium Archive. 194.
https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/thinking_matters/194
Included in
Analytical, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Techniques and Equipment Commons, Occupational Therapy Commons
