Revisiting Handwriting Fundamentals Through an Interdisciplinary Framework

Area of Science:

• Occupational Therapy
• Education
• Linguistics

Background:

• Handwriting research is fragmented across disciplines, limiting its application in academic skills instruction.
• Existing literature primarily focuses on English orthography, neglecting other language systems.
• A unified approach is needed to advance handwriting research and intervention.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review handwriting literature from occupational therapy and education.
• To propose an interdisciplinary conceptual framework for handwriting research and intervention.
• To explore factors influencing Malay language handwriting.

Main Methods:

• Cross-disciplinary literature review of occupational therapy and education research.
• Identification of key factors influencing handwriting.
• Synthesis of findings into a conceptual framework.

Main Results:

• Four major factors influencing Malay language handwriting identified: neuromotor, ergonomic, orthographic, and cognitive.
• Neuromotor and ergonomic factors predominantly from occupational therapy.
• Orthographic and cognitive factors largely from education, highlighting the need for language-specific orthography research.

Conclusions:

• An interdisciplinary framework is essential for coordinated handwriting research.
• The proposed framework can guide future research and intervention, particularly for non-English languages.
• The Malay language provides a valuable case study for investigating orthographic influences on handwriting.