Ready for handwriting?

WRITIC-assessment is an occupation-based assessment to evaluate handwriting readiness in 5-6 years old kindergarten children. It can be administered in the pre-writing phase with children about whom the teachers have concerns regarding their handwriting readiness.
The manual provides information about the theory of handwriting readiness, about administration and scoring of the WRITIC-assessment and recommendations for children who are not (yet) ready for handwriting based on WRITIC-assessment.



The WRITIC is a valid, reliable and predictive assessment. In the Netherlands reference data have been collected in 5 - 6 years old children (n=374). WRITIC-assessment contains three domains and every domain is composed of two subdomains. For the 'Child' domain 'Interest' and 'Sustained attention,' for the 'Environment' domain 'Physical environment' and 'Social environment' and for the 'Paper-and-pencil tasks' domain 'Task performance' and 'Intensity of performance.'

WRITIC-assessment has to be administered in the classroom. First, the child's interests in paper- and pencil tasks are being evaluated by a short interview. After that, the child is encouraged to complete a drawing book with five paper-and-pencil tasks while the assessor observes and scores the performance.

The subdomain 'Task performance' (WRITIC-TP) is the norm-referenced part of the WRITIC and discriminates between children who are ready for instruction in handwriting and children who are not. The other subdomains are criterion-referenced and give directions for intervention to practice paper-and-pencil tasks to enable the child to become more ready for handwriting in first grade.

In inclusive education there is an increased focus on early identification of children at risk of developing (learning) difficulties and on a growing body of expertise in teachers in how to deal with these children. An assessment like the Writing Readiness Inventory Tool In Context (WRITIC) fits well in this development, especially since children's occupational and physical therapists, but also specialist teachers, can administer the WRITIC in children about whom the teachers have concerns in terms of their handwriting readiness. To become a valid and reliable assessor training is strongly recommended.

The manual consists of three parts: theory, assessment and recommendations. The recommendation section of the manual allows specific advice and intervention to be provided to support children with handwriting difficulties based on the outcome of the WRITIC, so that each child can easily participate in the mastery of handwriting.

This ebook is an English translation of the Dutch manual Klaar om te schrijven? Writing Readiness Inventory Tool In Context (WRITIC) theorie - assessment - advies (2016), published by the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.