Examining the Effectiveness of My Scrivener on Handwriting Legibility

NCT ID: NCT00693303

Last Updated: 2017-12-15

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 21 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2008-06-30
• Study Completion Date: 2008-08-31

Brief Summary

The purpose of this study was to examine the changes in handwriting performance in elementary aged children who received handwriting training which included use of the My Scrivener stylus. Training on the My Scrivener stylus provided additional feedback to the children which is hypothesized to produce significant improvement.

Detailed Description

Once parental consent was given, students met individually with the PI or a trained occupational therapy graduate student in a private space at the Boys and Girls Club of the Northern Shenandoah Valley for a pre-test evaluation session. The evaluation consisted of the following:

1. Evaluation Tool of Children's Handwriting (ETCH; Amundson, 1995). This is a criterion-referenced tool measuring a child's legibility and speed in grades one through six. This measure is able to evaluate both manuscript and cursive handwriting; however, only the manuscript portion will be used as that will be the focus of the club's training. The ETCH asks the child to write letters and words in lower-case and upper-case, write numerals, perform near point and far point copying, write to dictation, and compose original sentences. Total time for the evaluation is 15-20 minutes.

2. Brief Assessment of Motor Function (BAMF: Parks, Cintas, Chaffin, & Gerber, 2007). This is a criterion referenced tool that can identify gross, fine, and oral motor performance in as little as 10 minutes. For this particular study, only the Fine Motor Scale of the BAMF will be used. Data from this tool will be used to categorize subjects for between group comparisons.

3. The Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration (VMI: Beery, 1998). This gold-standard tool measures a child's visual motor performance by asking them to copy geometric shapes ranging from the very simple to the very complex. Data from this tool will be used to categorize subjects for between group comparisons.

Once all children were evaluated, twice weekly Handwriting Camp sessions were held. During these small group sessions lasting approximately 30 minutes each, 4 children at a time received instruction from the Handwriting Without Tears Curriculum from either the PI or trained OT graduate students and 20 minutes of supervised practice time on the My Scrivener equipment to reinforce the letter writing instruction for that day.

The Handwriting Camp sessions lasted for approximately 8 weeks.

At the conclusion of the camp, the pre-tests were re-administered as well as an open-ended question interview was conducted on how well the child enjoyed using the device.

Conditions

Healthy Children

Keywords

single subject; quantitative

Study Design

• Allocation Method: NA
• Intervention Model: SINGLE_GROUP
• Primary Study Purpose: TREATMENT
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Handwriting Training using My Scrivener

Subjects received 20 minutes of training per week which included writing letters and words with the My Scivener device.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Handwriting Training using My Scrivener

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Subjects received 20 minutes of training per week which included writing letters and words with the My Scivener device.

Interventions

Handwriting Training using My Scrivener

Subjects received 20 minutes of training per week which included writing letters and words with the My Scivener device.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• The subjects were any child enrolled in the summer program at the Boys and Girls Club of the Northern Shenandoah Valley entering grades 1 to 6 in Fall 2008 whose parents give consent.

Exclusion Criteria

• None

• Minimum Eligible Age: 5 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 13 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

Shenandoah University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Deborah Marr

Assistant Professor

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Deborah Marr, ScD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Shenandoah University

Locations

Boys and Girls Club of the Northern Shenandoah Valley

Winchester, Virginia, United States

Countries

United States

Other Identifiers

#H133S070082

Identifier Type: OTHER

Identifier Source: secondary_id

08-1125

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id