Abstract:
It is estimated that five to ten percent of children
experience sensory motor difficulties that result in various
learnlng disabilitiies , among them. inabllity to output
Information on paper in the appropriate manner (Ayres ,1985). The relationship between sensorimotorabillty and
handwriting is well documented in the literature (Freeman,1917; Townsend , 1951; Nlkola-Ll sa, 1987). While much of the
literature is inconclusive, there are findings to suggest
that muitisensory handwriting programmes are an effective
approach to improvlng writing abIlity in these chlldren.
For a number of years, Occupational Therapists have been
involved in the remediation of handwriting utllizing ,
amongst other approaches . multisensory programmes. While
subjective assessments of effectiveness have been extremerly
positive. scientIfic evaluation has been minimal . If further
intervention in this area is to occur, it Is essential that
the profession be able to justify the existence of such
programmes .
The purpose of this study was to examine what effects a
multlsensory writing prog~am would have on the curslve
writing ability of chlldren with sensorimotor dlfficulties.
A single case with multiple baselines across be havlours design was used , with the behavlours being cursive writing
abilIty of fIve distInct letter groups. The fIve groups were
taught in random order, one group every two weeks , In a
one-hour session. Repeated measurements of writing speed and
qualIty for each letter group were made. This design was
repeated over three other cases .
Results of the study yielded statistical signifi cance in
trend changes In specIfic letter groups for all of the
chlldren following interventlon. One child achieved
statistical significance In the overall change In quality ,
while none of the children achieved overall statistical
significance In speed score changes .
Teacher reports and an assessment of written language prior
to and following the program suggest that Intervention may
have had a positive effect on self-confidence in written
output, and on the maturlty of written expression in some of
the cases .
Further research in this field is needed to validate the
continual use of multisensory writing programmes by
Occupational Theraplsts worklng with this specific
population and to provide some directlon with regards to the
Integration of multlsensory writing programmes within the
regular academic remedial programme .
