Handwriting Difficulties: Introducing an Instrument

Objectives: The main purpose of this study is to produce an instrument for handwriting evaluation and to execute it on mentally retarded (MR) students. Methods: This was a descriptive, cross-sectional, and relationship study. ۱۲۶ MR students (۵۳ girls and ۷۳ boys) ranging from ۹ to ۱۹ years old (۱۳.۲۳±۲.۱۷) from two exceptional children schools in shahr-e-rey participated in this study. A handwriting checklist made by the researcher was executed on all students. Data were analyzed by U-Mann whitney, one-way ANOVA, and Spearman rank correlation. Results: The test showed there isn’t a significant relationship between handwriting and laterality (P=۰.۱۹۶), sex (P=۰.۴۸۷) and age (P=۰.۴۴۹). There is a significant relationship between handwriting and grade (r=۰.۴۴۸, P<۰.۰۰۵), but no significant difference was seen between different grades. “separate writing” caused minimum legibility (۸۱%), and “spacing” was damaged at the least (۳۴.۹%). Discussion: The frequency of handwriting difficulties in MR students showed that the necessity of professional attention in exceptional schools.

Keywords:

Handwriting evaluation , Mentally Retarded (MR) student , Legibility components