The Effects of Hand-Over-Hand and a Dot-to-Dot Tracing Procedure on Teaching an Autistic Student to Write his Name

Effects of intervention on handwriting accuracy and speed for elementary students with autism spectrum disorder

“…Moreover, findings in three studies were mixed. One study (Cosby et al, 2009) only demonstrated two experimental effects, and in two other studies (Batchelder, 2009;Harris et al, 2017), average accuracy levels during intervention did not exceed 42%. Moore and colleagues (2013) found more robust results-four experimental effects and high accuracy after delivering multiple components of antecedent instruction and consequence-based procedures drawn from the field of applied behavior analysis.…”

“…Prior reviews of writing intervention for students with ASD have not included handwriting studies-instead focusing on spelling and sentence construction (Pennington & Delano, 2012) or self-regulated strategy instruction for composition (Asaro-Saddler, 2016). Four prior studies (Batchelder, McLaughlin, Weber, Derby, & Gow, 2009;Cosby, McLaughlin, & Derby, 2009;Harris, Little, & Akin-Little, 2017; Moore et al, 2013) have applied handwriting intervention for students with ASD using various forms of antecedent instruction and consequence-based procedures. Each study investigated the effects of intervention on handwriting accuracy for letters in the students' first names.…”

“…Two other handwriting intervention studies which included students with ASD applied a combination of antecedent instruction and consequence-based procedures to one high school student (age = 14 years; Batchelder et al, 2009) and one kindergarten student (age = 5 years; Moore et al, 2013). Batchelder and colleagues (2009) demonstrated three experimental effects between intervention and number of legible letters; after providing physical prompting, letter models with dot-to-dot visual cues, and differential reinforcement with candy rewards, the student achieved a range of 38% to 42% accuracy.…”

“…Across these four studies which have applied intervention for acquisition of accurate handwriting for students with ASD (Batchelder, 2009;Cosby et al, 2009;Harris et al, 2017;Moore et al, 2013), most studies included single participants, and instruction focused on a narrow set of skills (i.e., letters in a student's first name). Moreover, findings in three studies were mixed.…”

“…Four studies investigated handwriting intervention (Batchelder et al, 2009;Cosby et al, 2009;Harris et al, 2017;Moore et al, 2013). Table 1 displays a summary of student demographics, study features, and overall outcomes.…”