Final Presentation: https://goo.gl/o0HC5f
Inspiration
Prevalence of Printing Difficulties:
Disconcertingly, estimates of printing difficulties range from 5% to as high as 33 % of school-aged children.
BUT printing is necessary and useful!
Importance of Printing in School:
- Main method of demonstrating knowledge
- Comprises 30-60% of a student's day
- Early handwriting intervention and teaching school success
Printing May Strengthen Reading Skills:
- Action (fine motor) and perception (reading) systems in the brain are linked
Printing May Help Struggling Readers:
- In a 2010 study by a neuroscientist, Dr. Harman James 4, only children who practiced printing showed a change in their brain activation. Those that practiced pointing to letters had no change in brain activation
Who struggles the most?
In elementary schools, students with low incidence diagnoses have the largest challenges learning to print, including their name
Low Incidence Dx include:
- Down Syndrome
- Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder
- Intellectual Disability
- Autism Spectrum Disorder
Many students with low incidence diagnoses have not yet learned to print their name as teenagers!
How it works
Based on motor learning theory and current evidence, Printing Like A Pro! uses cognitive strategies for handwriting intervention such as:
- Numbered arrow cues
- Verbal-instruction
- Self-monitoring & evaluation
What's next?
- Use in clinical work with children in school contract(s) ( those that have access to an android phone or tablet)
- Evaluate success of app in improving legibility of name printing, with use of legibility criteria from a standardized handwriting assessment such as the Minnesota Handwriting Assessment ( Reisman, 1999) while monitoring to determine best schedules of intervention ( intensity and duration)
- Engage in formal research of app, beginning with a pilot study
- Revise app as needed based on above testing and use.
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