Handwriting Development Assessment and Remediation

Handwriting Development Assessment and Remediation: A Practice Model for Occupational Therapists is a comprehensive guide for occupational therapy students, as well as newly graduated and experienced pediatric clinicians. Katherine Collmer, M.Ed., OTR/L, created this textbook resource to provide a consistent tool for assessing handwriting development skills and developing a remediation plan for addressing problem areas. She also provides essential handwriting skill development research and information about the role that handwriting plays in literacy.

The step-by-step guide to the assessment and remediation process offers detailed information about using the assessment tools, gathering and analyzing data, formulating remedial goals, selecting therapeutic strategies, and implementing the remedial treatment plan.


The Needs and Strategies Tool Box contains documentation and therapy tools that are fillable online and downloadable for convenience. Available assessment tools include:


• Behavioral Criteria Assessment Checklists detailing specific behaviors that indicate the existence of underlying developmental needs


• Assessment Treatment Plans that guide your administration of the assessment to maintain consistency


• Checklists designed to capture teacher and parent input as well as visual and classroom handwriting needs Student self-assessment tools and therapy rubrics


• A Remedial Treatment Plan documentation form to assist with time management and consistency

Therapeutic strategies are offered in the form of handouts to facilitate the development of home activity plans to enhance the carryover of skills.


"[This book] blew me away! The conceptual framework you have laid out is so sound and profound and I love the way you have integrated pedagogy and OT theory and frameworks. The book is helping me think not just about my role in handwriting but how I deliver school-based service as a whole -- this is much more than a 'handwriting book'!" (Colleen, school-based OT, IL)


"There is just so much information to absorb between the book itself and the supporting online resources that I find myself reading and re-reading. I go from the book to the online forms and back to the book. This is an extraordinarily well-researched resource." (Excerpt from a book review by Eleanor Cawley, M.S., OTR/L)