Children with handwriting difficulties: Impact of cognitive strategy training for acquisition of accurate...

An occupational therapy handwriting programme integrating cognitive strategy training with alphabet-letter-writing instruction was found more effective than in-class instruction alone for early writers. This study investigated the impact of cognitive strategy training for children struggling to correctly write alphabet-letters.

Participants were ten children in the first 2 years of formal schooling identified with challenges in alphabet-letter-writing. A nonconcurrent A1BA2 single system research design was used. The A Phases represented within-class handwriting instruction only and B Phase represented additional handwriting intervention which included cognitive strategy training. The Perceive, Recall, Plan and Perform (PRPP) System of Task Analysis (Stage 2) was the repeated outcome measure.

Results revealed all ten children demonstrated a similar pattern of change in cognitive strategy application which was concomitant with improvement and mastery in writing all 26-lowercase alphabet-letters from memory. Cognitive strategies which exhibited the greatest impact on acquiring and executing accurate alphabet-letter-writing skills were those related to planning, memory, attention and sensory perception. The least influential were those associated with generating and controlling motor actions.

This study provides beginning support for including cognitive strategies training concurrently with alphabet-letter-writing instruction to assist children struggling to write alphabet-letters.