Functional abilities as reflected through temporal handwriting measures among adolescents with neuro-developmental disabilities

Children and adolescents with neuro-developmental disabilities have difficulty executing handwriting. This article examines the relationships between handwriting features, executive functions, and daily functioning among adolescents with neuro-developmental disabilities. Participants included 81 adolescents aged 10-18 years. The research group, 41 participants characterized by parent-reported CHECK and BRIEF questionnaires as having difficulties in daily functions and deficient executive functions indicative of neuro-developmental disabilities, copied a written paragraph onto a sheet of paper affixed to a digitizer supplying objective measures of the handwriting process (ComPET) and completed a computerized executive function assessment (WebNeuro). Adolescents in the research group required significantly more on-paper and in-air time per stroke while copying the paragraph, and had significantly lower executive function abilities as measured by the computerized assessment (WebNeuro) than those in the control group. Significant correlations were found between the temporal handwriting process measures and both executive functions and daily functions abilities, which predicted 30% of the in-air and 25% of the on-paper variance in handwriting time. The results suggest standardized handwriting evaluation may provide better insight into daily performance amongst adolescents with neuro-developmental disabilities, emphasizing executive function as an underlying mechanism among this population.