Hello Debbie
Your enquiry was:
>I'm going to test an student whose prefered writing arm has been amputated
>for writing speed, as a preliminary to making exam time recommendation.
>Before I do the same test on several 'normals',I thought perhaps someone on
>dis-forum might know if there are any standard ranges for average normal
>handwriting, presumably expressed in words per minute (like
>typing/shorthand), for university level students.
I would suggest that you need to decide why you are testing the writing
speed of the student's non-dominant hand in order to make an exam time
recommendation. It is only a useful comparison if you are seeking to
demonstrate how long writing takes using this method. Are you really
anticipating that he will use his non-dominant hand to generate his answers?
Unless he is comfortably ambidextrous, I would have thought that a better
option would be to use assistive technology or amanuensis. Anyway, the
'norm' for handwriting speeds has been variously calculated at between 20 -
30 words per minute in exam conditions.
Hope this helps
Alison Cox
ACCESS Centre Manager
Stevenson College
EDINBURGH
Tel (0131) 535 4727
Fax (0131) 535 4666
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