Tuesday, September 15, 2015

September SpOT Light Series: Handwriting with Katherine

Handwriting With Katherine is where you can find all things related to handwriting from Occupational Therapist Katherine Collmer's point of view.  With 17 years of therapeutic experience ranging from psychiatric, neurologic, geriatrics and of course pediatrics, it is her expertise in Assessment and Remediation of Children’s Handwriting Development Skills that she shares with parents and therapists alike.

Profile Picture of Katherine Collmer
"I have been interested in writing since I was a teenager.  I still have the short stories that I scribed way back then.  Blogging, however, wasn’t even in my vision back in 2009 when this type of writing found a place in my life.  I was getting restless during a transition in my pediatrics career and a friend of mine suggested that with my interest in writing I should look into blogging.  She suggested that I contact the Advance Magazine online blog editor…and that’s where it all began!"

Katherine integrates research-based evidence into many of her posts, making them both useful and insightful.  For example, in a recent post titled Handwriting and Learning: A Vital Link to Skilled Writing, she reflects "Learning through the use of our hands continues to be a vital link for educational success throughout life, with handwriting playing a major role;" all the while, she incorporated ten references to support the idea.


Katherine is also a strong advocate for identifying visual deficits issues early since it is such a crucial element of handwriting.

Child sitting crookedly at a table.
"Sitting Posture Can Indicate Vision Concerns"
 "Every time I connect a child’s parents with a developmental optometrist and they uncover a hidden visual skill deficit, I consider that a memorable therapeutic moment.  However, my most memorable is the little boy who put on glasses for the first time at the age of 5 and said, “Hey, mommy, look at those pictures on the wall!”  His mommy cried because he’d walked down that hospital hallway many, many times in his young life and had never even seen them before.  Priceless."

Now into her sixth year of publishing, Handwriting With Katherine continues to provide teachers, parents and therapists with easy to use tips, from Pre K to Older Students.  Hop on over now to Handwriting with Katherine to discover what the three handwriting performance areas that simply need to be taught and reinforced right from the start.  And if you want to discover more about Katherine, just “Send me a note!”.   You can also check out her newest adventure Go-To-For-OT on which she pairs up with #therabloggers Stacy Turke, Marie Toole, and Molly Shannon as they share insights on pediatric development and the most frequently asked questions from parents and teachers.




           

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for spotlighting me and my business! It's an honor to be recognized by my peers.

    ReplyDelete
  2. If you were around me, I'd be asking you to present PDs :)

    ReplyDelete