‘I don’t know what’s right and what’s wrong’: Parent perceptions of support and progress of their children with handwriting difficulties

Tierney, F, Sumner, E ORCID: 0000-0002-9196-7713, Prunty, M and Barnett, A ‘I don’t know what’s right and what’s wrong’: Parent perceptions of support and progress of their children with handwriting difficulties. Literacy. ISSN 1741-4350 (Accepted)

Text Parent perceptions of support and progress of their children with handwriting difficulties.pdf - Accepted Version Access Restricted Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (416kB)

Abstract

Background: For some students, handwriting difficulties persist from primary to secondary school. The aim of this study was to understand parent perceptions of their child’s experience with handwriting and typing.

Method: 15 parents of children attending secondary schools in England participated in semi-structured interviews. These focused on parent perceptions of the child’s handwriting difficulties, their responses to support received for handwriting/typing, and their views on the child’s use of and progress in handwriting and typing. Audio recordings of the interviews were transcribed to provide data for reflexive thematic analysis.

Results: Four main themes were extracted: ‘factors impacting the nature and extent of support’, ‘the impact of handwriting difficulties on their child’, ‘parents' efforts to ensure their child receives appropriate support’, and ‘uncertainty and concern about their child’s future’.

Conclusions: Parents’ perceptions of their child’s experience with handwriting/typing provide a new perspective to previously reported views of professionals. Several practical implications arise from the findings including the need for: (1) evidence-based guidance for individualised support for young people with handwriting difficulties, (2) increased resourcing and multidisciplinary collaboration to support children, (3) staff training around handwriting difficulties and (4) a commitment to family-centred practice in decision-making around support.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	1301 Education Systems; 1302 Curriculum and Pedagogy; 1303 Specialist Studies in Education; Education; 3901 Curriculum and pedagogy; 3903 Education systems
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB1603 Secondary Education. High schools
Divisions:	Education
Publisher:	Wiley
Date of acceptance:	9 April 2026
Date Deposited:	21 Apr 2026 13:55
Last Modified:	21 Apr 2026 13:55
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/28415

View Item