Description: Illegible handwriting and difficulty controlling a pen are common post-stroke. Little research has been published to guide therapists who retrain handwriting in adults (or children). Typical exercises involve non-specific copying of letters and lines of text. Furthermore, few outcome measures target the adult population. This presentation will summarise Australian-led research which explored handwriting behaviour, legibility and speed norms in healthy older adults (age-matched to stroke survivors), developed the Handwriting Assessment Battery, and evaluated the feasibility of a 2-week handwriting retraining program for stroke survivors.

Learning objectives: By the end of the presentation, learners should be able to;

  • Name features of handwriting that can be measured
  • Use normative legibility and speed data for older adults
  • Administer and score the Handwriting Assessment Battery
  • Find (the limited) research on adult handwriting retraining
  • Describe task-specific retraining strategies for improving handwriting legibility post-stroke/ABI

Presenters: This 1-hr webinar presented by:

Dr Annie McCluskey PhD MA DipCOT

Occupational therapist
Director, The StrokeEd Collaboration
Honorary Senior Lecturer
Sydney School of Health Sciences,
Faculty of Medicine & Health
The University of Sydney

Bronwyn Simpson MAppSc BAppSc (Occ Therapy)

Occupational therapist
Associate Lecturer & PhD Candidate
Sydney School of Health Sciences,
Faculty of Medicine & Healt
The University of Sydney