Information: SOS-2-EN (English version)
The Systematic Detection of Writing problems, Englisch version (SOS-2-EN) has been developed in 2014 to detect quality (readability) and quantity (writing speed) problems among children in an easy way. The SOS-2 contains criteria that researchers describe as important (variation size, direction, fluency, space between words, staying on the line and letterform).
To objectively determine whether a child has a writing problem the SOS-2 can be used to determine the two most important aspects of handwriting (quality of handwriting and writing speed) in children from grade 1 through grade 6. Standards are developed for Dutch, German and Belgian children who write connected strokes. The Dutch version has also norms for children who write manuscript.
The SOS-2 test has good psychometric data. The test-retest reliability (ICC) was for writing quality being 0.69 and for speed being 0.66 (p<0.001). The intra-raters reliability (ICC) on the total score (n=267) ranged from 0.85-1.00 (p<0.001). The inter-raters reliability on the total score (ICC ) ranged from 0.73 - 0.82 (p<0.001). The inter-raters reliability for writing speed was perfect, the ICC being 1.0.
The internal consistency was 0.58 (n=938). Congruent validity in Belgium was 0.70 ((p<0.001) and previous validity studies in Holland ranged from 0.80-0.88, p=0,01).
The test has recently translated in English with an English text and examples for investigation propose.
The child copies a text for exactly five minutes. The number of letters written within this 5-minute time span is counted for the purpose of assessing the writing speed. The first five sentences of the written product are assessed for assessing the quality.
The manual contains a template to objectively assign the score. For discription of the outcome we used percentiles. Values around the 50th percentile indicate the child's score versus his/her peers in class are average. Furthermore the 5th percentile is taken as borderline between normal and deviating and the 15th percentile as an indication for where the risk area starts.
If a child has a writing problem, further assessment into the nature of a writing problem, besides administring the SOS, is necessary. One should be aware of signs of other problems like DCD (Development Coordination Disorder), learning problems, ADHD, forms of autism or other underlying pathologies.