Interrater Reliability and Internal Consistency of the Just Write! Functional Handwriting Assessment

PURPOSE: The requirements for handwriting performance continue to increase for children entering kindergarten. Nearly 40% of a preschooler's day involves fine motor tasks with 10% consisting of writing with a pencil on paper. Comparatively, in kindergarten children were engaged in fine motor tasks for 46% of their day, 42% of those tasks consisting of writing with a pencil on paper (Dinehart, 2015). Handwriting is the most common referral reason for occupational therapy in the school setting (Cahill et al., 2013). However, there is a general lack of consensus on a quantitative measure of handwriting specifically in the preschool age group. Multiple studies have found preschoolers capable of writing letters, but there are no adequate assessments that assess emerging functional handwriting (Puranik et al., 2014). Currently, the VMI is a widely used tool for evaluation of handwriting. However, measures visual motor components of handwriting and not handwriting itself (Pfeiffer et al., 2015). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to establish the interrater reliability and internal consistency of the Just Write!, which assesses name writing, grasp, and written upper- and lower-case accuracy. DESIGN: Pre-/posttest quasi-experimental METHODS: The researches collected data via a convenience sample (n=78) at a community preschool. Pretest and posttest data collection consisted of the VMI and the administration of the Just Write! (name-writing, grasp, upper- and lower-case letter writing). Between test dates, participants engaged in an 8 week intervention group focused on emerging writing skills. We calculated Cronbach's alpha to determine correlations between each of the domain scores (name-writing total score, grasp score, upper-case accuracy, lower-case accuracy, and total letter-writing accuracy). We also completed 3 rounds of interrater reliability rating with 2 faculty and 3 OT graduate students. RESULTS: The correlations between grasp score and all other scores ([alpha]=[.042 - .529]) were dramatically lower than correlations between other scores ([alpha]=[.405-.922]) suggesting that there was virtually no relationship between grasp score and any indicators of writing quality. Only upper-case accuracy and total accuracy exhibited an "excellent " correlation ([alpha]=.922). Lower-case accuracy was poorly correlated with total accuracy ([alpha]=.570). Interrater reliability was achieved in all test domains at greater than 90%. CONCLUSION: The strong correlat