Occupational therapy practitioners' perceptions of important competencies for handwriting evaluation and intervention in school-aged children.

OBJECTIVE

The primary purpose of this study was to identify the practitioner competencies that occupational therapists perceive as important for handwriting evaluation and intervention in school-aged children. A secondary purpose was to compare the practitioner perceptions of those in school-based practice with those from other primary practice settings.

METHOD

A stratified random sample of 376 occupational therapists recruited from a national professional organization database participated by completing a survey instrument containing 80 competency items.

RESULTS

A majority of the 80 practitioner competency items were perceived to be of high importance to the respondent groups. A significance difference in perception when comparing the school-based practitioners to all other practitioners was revealed in only 3-12 competency summary categories.

CONCLUSION

Practitioner competency survey items were perceived to be of high importance to the participants. School-based practitioner perceptions of competency were, for the most part, mainly similar to those in other primary practice settings.