Association of Handwriting Impairment in Elementary School-aged Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

CLINICAL SCENARIO: In the writer’s school-based occupational therapy practice, students with autism spectrums disorders (ASD), who comprise a significant part of the caseload, are often referred for intervention because of handwriting challenges. Of the many articles on handwriting intervention for school aged students, including a recent systematic review (Hoy, Egan & Feder, 2011), the diagnostic category of ASD was not identified. This led the writer to wonder whether handwriting impairments are associated with ASD in schoolaged children. This would substantiate what I have seen in practice. If this hypothesis was supported by the literature this could provide evidence to further inform clinical practice as well as having resource and service implications. Additionally this would help to justify that this is an appropriate population to target for future research including type, intensity and duration of intervention for best efficacy of handwriting treatment.