Effects of the Pre-K Handwriting Without Tears Program on Handwriting Readiness Skills of Preschoolers with Pre-Writing Deficits in a Rural Eastern North Carolina Head Start Program

The purpose of this study was to determine if preschoolers with pre-writing deficits who received additional small group exposure to the Pre-K Handwriting Without Tears® (HWT) - Get Set for School TM (GSS) program would improve more in their fine motor and pre-writing skills than similar students who only received whole class Pre-K HWT® - GSS handwriting instruction. Pre and post-test data were collected using the Shore Handwriting Screening (Shore) the HWT® Check Readiness screen the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency 2nd Edition (BOT-2 Fine Motor Composite) and the Learning Accomplishment Profile 3rd Edition (LAP-3 Pre-Writing Domain). The ten lowest scoring students on the SHORE were rank ordered and paired. This cohort was chosen because of their potential for greatest benefit from additional exposure to HWT® - GSS. From each pair students were randomly assigned to either control or experimental groups. The entire class received HWT® instruction twice weekly while the experimental group received additional exposure to the handwriting program twice weekly over a five month period. At the conclusion of the study there were no statistically significant differences in fine motor and pre-writing skills between control and experimental groups when assessed using the BOT-2 LAP-3 and the HWT® - GSS Check Readiness. However the Shore did suggest pre-writing skill improvement of the control group (p-value = 0.053) as compared to the experimental group. In conclusion twice weekly HWT® - GSS implemented on a whole class basis using occupational therapy support was beneficial in enhancing handwriting readiness in preschoolers at Head Start. Additional small group exposure to the HWT® - GSS program was not needed for handwriting readiness but may produce additional benefits in a targeted subset of fine motor skills.