The Mcmaster Handwriting Assessment Protocol

The McMaster Handwriting Assessment Protocol

The McMaster is a formal assessment used to gather objective information about students’ ability to perform functional handwriting tasks similar to those required at school. These tasks include a writing task from memory (i.e. full name, name of school, alphabet, and numbers 1-10), near and far point copying tasks, writing from a dictation, and composing a sentence. Additionally, the near point copy task and dictation task are timed in order to determine speed of output. Expected speed of output for a Grade 2 student is 24 – 30 letters per minute. The handwriting analysis is completed using an analysis checklist. The handwriting speeds are illustrated below:

WRITING TASK / SPEED
Near point copying / ** Letters Per Minute
Dictation / ** Letters Per Minute