Relationship of finger function to beginning writing: application to diagnosis of writing disabilities

Finger function tasks designed to elicit soft neurological signs or to measure sensory-motor integration were administered to 100 first-, 100 second- and 100 third-grade children as part of a multivariate study of normal writing acquisition in an unreferred sample. The finger-succession task--a measure of motor planning and programming of complex, sequential movements--had the best reliability and validity for assessing handwriting and composition. However, of the developmental measures, the alphabet task--requiring the child to retrieve and produce alphabet letters in sequence, thereby integrating orthographic symbols and motor output--had the best concurrent validity for assessing handwriting, spelling and composition. The authors recommend that clinicians use the finger-succession and alphabet tasks for early identification of 'at-risk' children in order to prevent severe writing disabilities later in development.