RT - Journal Article T1 - Handwriting Difficulties: Introducing an Instrument JF - Iranian-Rehabilitation-Journal YR - 2008 JO - Iranian-Rehabilitation-Journal VO - 6 IS - 1 UR - http://irj.uswr.ac.ir/article-1-36-en.html SP - 39 EP - 46 K1 - Handwriting evaluation K1 - Mentally Retarded (MR) student K1 - Legibility components AB - Objectives: The main purpose of this study is to produce an instrument for handwriting evaluation and to execute it on mentally retarded (MR) students. Methods: This was a descriptive, cross-sectional, and relationship study. 126 MR students (53 girls and 73 boys) ranging from 9 to 19 years old (13.23±2.17) from two exceptional children schools in shahr-e-rey participated in this study. A handwriting checklist made by the researcher was executed on all students. Data were analyzed by U-Mann whitney, one-way ANOVA, and Spearman rank correlation. Results: The test showed there isn’t a significant relationship between handwriting and laterality (P=0.196), sex (P=0.487) and age (P=0.449). There is a significant relationship between handwriting and grade (r=0.448, P<0.005), but no significant difference was seen between different grades. “separate writing” caused minimum legibility (81%), and “spacing” was damaged at the least (34.9%). Discussion: The frequency of handwriting difficulties in MR students showed that the necessity of professional attention in exceptional schools. LA eng UL http://irj.uswr.ac.ir/article-1-36-en.html M3 ER -