title: SOS: a screening instrument to identify children with handwriting impairments.
abstract: Poor handwriting has been shown to be associated with developmental disorders such as Developmental Coordination Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, autism, and learning disorders. Handwriting difficulties could lead to academic underachievement and poor self-esteem. Therapeutic intervention has been shown to be effective in treating children with poor handwriting, making early identification critical. The SOS test (Systematic Screening for Handwriting Difficulties) has been developed for this purpose. A child copies a sample of writing within 5 min. Handwriting quality is evaluated using six criteria and writing speed is measured. The Dutch SOS test was administered to 860 Flemish children (7-12 years). Inter- and intrarater reliability was excellent. Test-retest reliability was moderate. A correlation coefficient of 0.70 between SOS and "Concise Assessment Methods of Children Handwriting" test (Dutch version) confirmed convergent validity. The SOS allowed discrimination between typically developing children and children in special education, males and females, and different age groups.
authors.affiliation: Rehabilitation Sciences and Physiotherapy, Arteveldehogeschool University College and Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. hilde.vanwaelvelde@ugent.be
authors.forename: Hilde
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Van Waelvelde
authors.forename: Tinneke
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hellinckx
authors.forename: Wim
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Peersman
authors.forename: Bouwien C M
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Smits-Engelsman
mesh_terms: D000381:Agraphia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D002648:Child; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006236:Handwriting; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D019957:Motor Skills Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015588:Observer Variation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D015203:Reproducibility of Results