A Preliminary Study of the Immediate Effects of Spherical-Grip and Palmar-Support Handwriting Assistive Devices on Handwriting Kinematics During Numeric Copying in Children with Disabilities

Background: Children with disabilities may experience difficulty with handwriting due to motor impairments that limit their ability to grasp and manipulate a pen. Objectives: This preliminary exploratory study investigated the effects of handwriting assistive devices (ADs) on handwriting kinematics in children with disabilities. Methods: A quasi-experimental within-subject repeated-measures design was used. Seven children with disabilities affecting hand function participated in this study. The children performed a numeric copying task under three conditions: no assistive device (no-AD), spherical-grip AD, and palmar-support AD. Handwriting kinematics were measured and compared across the three conditions. Results: The spherical-grip AD was associated with shorter writing duration and path length than the no-AD condition. No other statistically significant differences were observed among the three conditions. Applications: Our findings should be interpreted as AD-related differences in handwriting kinematics rather than as evidence of improved handwriting performance because handwriting quality was not assessed and path length was not normalized for numeral size. Nevertheless, quantitative kinematic assessment may provide objective information for evaluating handwriting ADs and for understanding how different device designs influence handwriting movement characteristics in children with disabilities.