OTSH 82: Handwriting With At-Risk Kindergarteners (Journal Club)




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Have you ever wondered if that handwriting intervention you provide is helpful? Or how about what that intervention in the research article actually looked like?


In this episode of the OT School House Podcast, we are going beyond the article with the authors of the 2016 AJOT article titled Effectiveness of a Handwriting Intervention With At-Risk Kindergarteners.


Join me, along with Sheryl Zylstra, DOT, MS, OTR/L & Beth Pfeiffer, PhD, OTR/L, BCP, as we dive deeper into this journal article that shows how a handwriting intervention can impact at-risk kindergarteners.


Links to Show References:

Size Matters Handwriting Program


Episode Transcript

Download or read a rough edit of this OT School House Podcast episode

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Amazing Narrator

Hello and welcome to the OT School House podcast, your source for school-based occupational therapy tips, interviews, and professional development. Now to get the conversation started, here is your host, Jayson Davies. Class is officially in session.


Jayson Davies

Hey there, everyone and welcome to another episode of the OT School House podcast. Thank you so much for joining me today. My name is Jayson Davies and I am a School-based Occupational Therapist down in Southern California. But I love interacting here on the podcast with all of you, no matter where you are. We have international listeners. We have listeners from the UK, from Australia, and of course the United States of America, Canada. And I just love. I love knowing that you're out there listening gaining from this experience. But I also love hearing back from you, whether it be on Instagram, Facebook, or even an email at jayson@otschoolhouse.com. I really love hearing from all of you. So please, if you love this episode, let me know. You can also leave a comment down in the comments if you're listening on Apple Podcasts. Really appreciate any review that can be a five-star review, I would love that. But I'd love any review just as much helps me to grow. So, let's get into today's content. Today we have on Dr. Sheryl Zylstra and Dr. Beth Pfeiffer. Sheryl Zylstra is a school-based OT by trade. And she is actually the primary researcher on an article that we're going to be discussing today. And we are so lucky to have her on because she's going to be here talking about her article. We also have on Dr. Beth Pfeiffer who was actually the researcher, the academic behind the article, she helped Sheryl with making sure that everything was going according to plan on this article. And she's going to give us insight as well as Sheryl, on kind of what this whole experience will look like, as well as what we lead to what the outcomes lead to. And so I'm super excited to have both of these amazing occupational therapists on the show today to really give you an idea of how this, this research came together, what the outcomes were, and even maybe what you could do if you would like to dive into research yourself. At the very end, we talk about some of the barriers and facilitators to research and so be sure to stick around for that, as well as everything about the article that is titled "Effectiveness of a Handwriting Intervention with at-risk Kindergartens". This article was published back in 2016, in the American Journal of Occupational Therapists, and the researchers were Dr. Sheryl Zylstra and Dr. Beth Pfeiffer. So enjoy this interview with them talking about their article "Effectiveness of a Handwriting Intervention with at-risk Kindergarteners". Good morning, Beth. Good morning. Sheryl. How are you doing today? You know what, let's go ahead and start with Sheryl, I'll give you a chance to speak first.


Sheryl Zylstra

Oh, good. Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to talk about one of my favorite subjects.


Jayson Davies

Awesome. Yeah. And I'm excited to have you...excited to let you share your research. You know, there are so many school-based OTs out there. And it's hard to find time to read the research. So I'm happy to have you on here to share a little bit about what you did. And over to Beth, how are you doing this morning?


Beth Pfeiffer

I'm doing well. I'm delighted to be here with both of you today.


Jayson Davies

Well, thank you. I'm really happy to have both of you on. And we're going to talk about so much today. But first, I want to actually give you both the chance to kind of share a little bit about your OT career, how you got to where you are today. So Sheryl, would you like to go ahead and start?


Sheryl Zylstra

sure I've been an OT for over 30 years kind of stopped counting at 30. But the majority of it and pediatric practice but not all of it. And then the last six years or so I've been teaching full-time at the University of Puget Sound.


Jayson Davies

Awesome. And what about you Beth?


Beth Pfeiffer

I've been in OT for about 25 years, mostly in pediatric practice as well. I'm an associate professor in the Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences in the College of Public Health at Temple University. I've been there for about 15 years, most of my time there was spent directing a research lab. So I'm very invested in research, but I also try to keep my hand in clinical practice as well. And that's mostly school-based practice.


Jayson Davies

Awesome. We are so happy to have you here today. And you mentioned Temple University, correct? And that's outside of Philadelphia?


Beth Pfeiffer

Yes, it is.


Jayson Davies

Awesome. Okay.


Beth Pfeiffer

What else?


Jayson Davies

Yeah, in Philadelphia. Sorry. You're outside of Philadelphia. But the university is in Philadelphia.


Beth Pfeiffer

Yeah.


Jayson Davies

And sure. What about you? Where are you joining us from?


Sheryl Zylstra

I'm in Washington State near Tacoma, Washington. And I did my doctoral work at Temple University, which is how I met Beth and she was my faculty mentor there.


Jayson Davies