The Cleveland Museum of Art is a sizable museum. Whenever I take my son, we must first decide if we want to quickly peruse many galleries or choose one or two exhibits and take the time to read each description and discuss each work of art. Developing professional goals for my doctoral degree, felt much like a trip to the art museum. The pediatric practice of occupational therapy is vast. To become an expert, I would not be able to peruse it all; I needed to concentrate on one or two areas.
For me, this meant narrowing my focus to evidence-based practice for handwriting acquisition for children learning to write. Handwriting has always been intriguing to me. Even as a kid, I was fascinated by how lines and circles could turn into symbols for sounds. How those symbols, or letters, could be grouped together to form words, and words could be strung together to form ideas and literature. As an English major in college, I was keenly aware of the importance of converting language into written form to share knowledge and ideas. As a parent, with a close-up view of the struggle to acquire handwriting proficiency, I understood the challenge. And as an occupational therapist, I wanted to analyze the challenge and develop a better path toward success.
To this end, I developed the following professional goals:
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Artifact 1: Ohio State Conference Presentation
Handwriting, Keyboarding or Both, Choosing the Right Tool for the Right Task
Handwriting Intervention Primer
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Artifact 1: Frame of Reference
A Frame of Reference for Learning Sequential Strokes for Printing Letters
Artifact 2: Competence Project
Letter-Perfect Handwriting Instruction
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