About Us 

The IOWAN is a valid and reliable tool that is simple to organize, easy to repeat, short duration and easy to score.  It presents authentic student performance and can be administered individually or in a whole group (e.g., classroom).

The IOWAN is the product of years of research.  It began in 1993 when practitioners were looking at standard tasks as indicators for performance. Two consultants for the Iowa Department of Education, Jean Linder and David Tilly, discussed various standard tasks for occupational therapists.  Since state-wide 1994-95 annual occupational therapy data indicated that 65% of the students receiving services were in the 6-12 year old range, they decided to pursue a standard task for handwriting.

Approximately 80 occupational therapists, occupational therapy assistants and occupational therapy students/educators participated in the normative data collection across Iowa during 2000.  Over 13,000 samples of handwriting were collected in grades 1-5. 

The IOWAN is a near-point copy measure of handwriting that can be used as an indicator of handwriting fluency and legibility.  It was designed as a screening tool.  The purpose of the IOWAN is to answer the question: Is there a problem?  It was not designed as a diagnostic tool to entitle students into special education nor as entrance criteria for occupational therapy services.  It is one piece of data that can be used to make decisions.  Reviewing authentic work samples (e.g., classroom handwriting samples), observing, interviewing teachers, parents and students are also critical elements of student evaluation.

There are two different handwriting data collection passages.  Examiners may choose to use one or both.  The Taylor (generic) passage, is used for all grades and genders, compares the student’s handwriting to same-grade students as well as allowing the examiner to view the student’s writing along the continuum.  The difficulty of the passage does not change as it does with the Grade Level passages.  The Grade Level passage compares the student’s handwriting skills to same grade and gender students, grades 1-5,

It is hoped that professionals will use the IOWAN as a screening tool to identify problematic handwriting skills; as a dynamic indicator to measure student progress in handwriting over time; and improve professional decision-making.  It represents actual student performance.