inter-intra rater reliability, construct and discriminative validity of iranian typically developing children handwriting speed test (i-chst)

objectives: the purpose of this study was to develop an iranian hand writing speed test (i-chst) for testing of iranian students aged 8-12. to date, no  norms of handwriting speed have been published for hand-writing speed of the iranian students. methods: a sample of 400 typically developing iranian students across four age cohorts was recruited. among those 400 students 50% were girls and 50%  were boys. 73% were studding at government schools and 27% were from the private schools. 79% were right handed and 11% were left handed. the results showed that the handwriting speed assessment test has excellent inter-rater reliability (r=1, p=0.000) and construct validity (r=0.798, p=0.000). results: the findings showed that handwriting speed increases with age and the rate of increase was found to be greatest among iranian children aged 8-12. it is also found that the girls aged 11-12 wrote faster than boys of the same age. discussion: based on this research, i-chst was a valid and reliable test for testing the hand writing speed in iranian children and it could be used for testing or intervention purposes by the therapists at clinics.