VMI and Handwriting Progress Research

The American Journal of Occupational Therapy published pretest-posttest research with 207 kindergarten, first-grade, and second-grade students.   The intervention group participated in the Size Matters Handwriting program for 40 sessions and the control group received standard instruction.  All the groups were evaluated with two handwriting measures and the Beery–Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual–Motor Integration (VMI) were administered at baseline and after the intervention.

The results indicated the following:

• the intervention group demonstrated significant improvements on the handwriting measures
• there was no significant difference in change scores on the VMI,

The researchers concluded that the VMI may not detect changes in handwriting related to occupational therapy intervention.

Read the full study here http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4482580/

Reference:   Beth Pfeiffer,corresponding author Beverly Moskowitz, Andrew Paoletti, Eugene Brusilovskiy, Sheryl Eckberg Zylstra, and Tammy Murray. Developmental Test of Visual–Motor Integration (VMI): An Effective Outcome Measure for Handwriting Interventions for Kindergarten, First-Grade, and Second-Grade Students?  Am J Occup Ther. 2015 Jul-Aug; 69(4): 6904350010p1–6904350010p7. Published online 2015 Jun 23. doi: 10.5014/ajot.2015.015826

Handwriting Stations include the materials to create a handwriting
station on a tri-fold or in a folder. The station includes proper letter formation for
capital and lower case letters, correct posture, pencil grip, warm up exercises, letter
reversals tips and self check sheet. In addition, there are 27 worksheets for the
alphabet and number practice (Handwriting without Tears® style and Zaner-Bloser®
style). This download is great for classroom use, therapy sessions or to send home
with a student.  Find out more at http://yourtherapysource.com/hwstation.html