Handwriting as an occupation in homeschool contexts: Applying the PECO model

Purpose This study explored the occupational experience and perceptions of homeschooling parents regarding their children’s handwriting. Researchers applied the model for the Process for Establishing Children’s Occupations (PECO) to understand how parents understood the development of, and influences on, their children’s handwriting. Further, the meaning and value parents attributed to handwriting and its remediation were explored.Method This study employed a directed content analysis of 13 rural homeschooling mothers’ responses during individual, semi-structured interviews following their children’s completion of a multisensory Handwriting Without Tears-based intervention.Results Themes related to the occupation of handwriting largely aligned with the stages and influences of occupational development identified in the PECO model. The outcomes stage served as both a means and an end; that is, handwriting outcomes were at times rewarding and motivated children’s further engagement in handwriting. From this, an additional potential relationship between PECO model constructs is introduced.Conclusion The proposed extension to the PECO model suggests that positive outcomes of improved legibility support children’s confidence and interest in engaging in handwriting both within and outside of the homeschool. Further, handwriting was described through an occupational science lens as a co-occupation and transaction between parents, interventionists, and children, which can inform the discipline’s consideration of pediatric occupations.