Reliability of The Print Tool™ in measuring handwriting abilities in kindergarten students

Occupational therapists in the educational setting are concerned with the child's functional participation in school related tasks. Handwriting is the primary fine motor task that occupies 30–60% of a child's school day. As the demand for evidenced based assessment and intervention strategies continue to guide occupational therapy practice, practitioners are charged with the responsibility of using assessment tools with sound psychometric properties and to consider the strengths and weaknesses of the tools available. The research objective of this study was to determine if The Print Tool™ is sufficiently reliable to be used to document the quality of handwriting in kindergarten students. Thirty kindergarten students were recruited from a public elementary school in south-central Louisiana. Testing and retesting was conducted during the second semester of the school year and revealed fair correlation and no significant change between scores obtained for Capitals Total (r = .712) and Overall Score ( r = .723).