WELCOME TO THE
HANDEDNESS PROFILE SITE!
Background
Many preschool children swap hands during activities. But is the preferred hand necessarily the better one? Occupational therapists are often confronted with the decision to determine the writing hand. A wrong decision could result in „converted“ or switched handedness, which in turn may have serious consequences. Therefore, it is important to understand the complexity of handedness when assessing its various dimensions in order to provide targeted and effective therapy.
The Handedness Profile (HP) is a standardised assessment developed by Dr. Elke Kraus, a South African occupational therapist, currently OT professor in Germany, international handedness researcher and specialist. She has been researching handedness since the 1990s and trained therapists in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxemburg and South Africa since 2003, whilst continuously refining and optimising the HP for paediatric practice. The HP is a validated diagnostic instrument to determine handedness in paediatric practice, particularly for occupational therapists but also other professions working in this area. It consists of 5 subtests on hand preference and motor proficiency, which support clinical decision-making when children frequently change hands during activities with changing hand use. It also provides a comprehensive analytic foundation to understanding "mixed" hand use in relation to fine motor skills by offering a systematic clustering approach to determine which handedness type variations are likely to be responsible for the swapping behaviour.
In particular, the Handedness Profile is characterised by the following:- It was developed in the context of scientific literature and research.
- It records not only the direction (left or right) but also the degree of handedness (how strongly handed).
- It differentiates between trained & untrained aspects in unimanual and bimanual tasks related to preference and performance.
- Bimanual cooperation between the hands is recorded.
- Crossing the body midline as a dimension of hand preference are included.
- It provides tools (structural aids) for merging and summarising quantitative and qualitative information.
- It integrates complex & relevant contextual factors.
HP Basic Course
The online Basic Courses for administration and interpretation of the Handedness Profile are now also established in English and presented by Dr. Elke Kraus. It coordinated by Lourdes Bruwer from Jump-Leap-Fly in Cape Town, South Africa. International participants are welcome!
The course consists of 4 consecutive modules stretching over circa 3 months, as well as self-learning time (SLT). SLT may be instructed (i.e. tasks must be done), or individual (i.e. own learning time). The virtual contact time (webinars) always takes place in the evenings (planned on Monday nights between 6pm and 9pm), or on weekends. This enables participants to still work parallel to the course. However, you should make sure you have time each week to complete the program.
Course Dates
Total hours of teaching time = 46 hours (CPD Points have been approved) plus 14 hours directed SLT and between 10-30 hours free individual SLT. A more detailed timetable can be found below.
For quality assurance, each module ends with an MCQ quiz to ensure participants' knowledge of the module.
Costs
There are two types of costs: (i) the basic course with 46 hours of teaching and 14 hours of instructed Self-Learning Time (SLT); and (ii) the HP Assessment Kit.
(i) The HP Basic Course
Module 1 Theory and Research: €200,00
Module 2 Administration: €200,00
Module 3 Scoring: €200,00
Module 4 Interpretation: €200,00
The course payments are calculated in Euros independently of the exchange rate, and they are processed over this elopage site.
It is possible to do only the theory course, or to do all four modules (these cannot be split up).
(ii) The HP Assessment Kit
The HP Assessment Kit consists of all test items for the five subtests, a test manual, protocollsheets, and a digitised scoring software. It is available within Southern Africa through Lourdes: lourdes@jumpleapfly.co.za. Should participants come from other countries, please contact Elke regarding the HP Assessment Kit.
Refresher Course
Trained therapists and administrators who successfully completed the HP Basic Course in the past, can re-book any module for €100,00. Please contact Lourdes to book your spot: lourdes@jumleapfly.co.za. They will join the participants of the current HP Basic Course and have access to all the E-Lectures, training videos and other documents of that module, and they can present Handedness Profile cases for discussion.What do trained therapists say about the course?
"The course not only provides extensive teaching on the theory and development of handedness but also provides training on how to administer and interpret the findings of the Handedness Profile, a comprehensive assessment that will enable you to evaluate hand preference and hand performance of a child who is uncertain which hand to use." - Louise Kitchen
"Great course with a lot of input on various levels, the topic of handedness with all its complexity finds room here. The Handedness Profile offers an absolutely great tool here! Terrific! I am looking forward to the many experiences with it and can absolutely recommend this further education!" - Carola Globig
"The best and most meaningful handedness assessment on the market. I don't want to miss it anymore. So far, I have always come to a valid conclusion about a child with unestablished or mixed handedness using the Handedness Profile. Thank you!!!!" Participant in a practicability study 2018 (HPA121218/6.43.10)"I really enjoyed the advanced training on the Handedness Profile. Scientific findings and a lot of experiential knowledge flowed into the test development and were brought closer to us with various case studies. We were also able to discuss our own cases and questions in relation to the assessment and are now wonderfully prepared for application in practice! Thank you very much!" - Janika Bertheau
"The HP complements my diagnostics with a validated measuring instrument and makes it possible to present the occupational therapy diagnostics to the child's parents as well as to the pediatricians." - Heike Schumacher
"I appreciate the differentiation of individual areas and the wide range of applicability with regard to age. It is the best assessment for me so far in terms of handedness and implementation, even if it is time-consuming, because it is so clear and structured". - Participant in a practicability study 2018 (HPA191118/21.32.07)
"I like to use the Handedness Profile in order to be able to make a well-founded statement in cases of unclear handedness. The training for this is absolutely recommendable." - Elisabeth Derler
"What I appreciate about the HKP is the extensive scientific foundation. At the same time it is a practical tool for me to understand and assess unclear handedness in children and adults and to initiate the necessary interventions. Thank you dear Elke for your open ear and your support in difficult cases. And thank you for your tireless efforts to further research the topic of handedness." - Katharina Nuhsbaum
"I find the complexity, the consideration of several functions/skills in the test phase and the classification of the handedness types excellent!" - Participant in a practicability study 2018 (HPA010219/9.09.11)
Here is a video message from Mariet Venter, one of the therapists who has completed the HP course:
https://www.kapwing.com/videos/64abba7ad17ebf00a7e057fd
Recommended Reading
Springer Nature released Dr. Elke Kraus' new book, Beyond Left and Right Handedness: a practice-based Approach to Assessing and Analysing Handedness Dimensions and Types in August 2023. Apart from providing readers with current knowledge from research and theoretical postulates, the Handedness Profile is presented in detail as an instrument that is able to identify different types of handedness based on the profiles. Several case studies using the HP are presented and discussed in terms of interpretation as well as recommended intervention strategies. The book can be purchased on Amazon: https://www.amazon.de/Beyond-Left-Right-Handedness-Practice-based-ebook/dp/B0BTNVSSP7/ref=sr_1_1?crid=BLM403G4FXRP&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.BHW2oKah3_SfryCyN3H-aAr7vVrAxM_KE0eNt5DIInr90vNKTxFFFvbHHfjkYe2E4ku76d4t-1nwKmuR_iCJhwG4pqR4Afasgb743cI8zaQI8M9KuGVHZeqb_sw4QG-bOY9c3iNr2A5Xax-J0wNG_ev-oo1uRVv4ThhweNMIH28Sp1wGi3ioMiWlyp38qLle2JaKE-gbUId0QLTQsiyBixm2eAym-pfS8yIlO386N24.MzG7PiYvNl6v4wPy-DQSIfOTj-EwILZBEfqmT4MmUl0&dib_tag=se&keywords=between+left+and+right+handedness+kraus&qid=1716389924&sprefix=%2Caps%2C342&sr=8-1 for about €97,00. It is an excellent basis for the course.South Africa: The book can be purchased through Barnes and Noble over the Amazon America for R2984,02. With delivery shipping and handling (R344,49) and import fees (R497,62) the total is around R3826,13. These prices are subject to change due to variations in exchange rates and shipping costs.
Timetable Overview
Yellow blocks indicate real-time webinars, blocks in all other colors can be completed in your own flexible time (Self-Learning-Time - SLT). The content of the pink blocks is more theoretical, the blue blocks involve practicing what is being demonstrated in the training videos, and the green blocks are directed SLT time with a specific outcome (e.g. testing a child). Note that your own learning pace and possibilities are not presented here, so you should add some extra time for that.The SLT blocks are stretched over several weeks as to allow maximum flexibility. Even if you were not able to do all the tasks until the next webinar, it is possible to catch up later, as long as you adhere to the sequence of the modules and complete everything within three months of the course.
ContactPlease contact the us:
- Lourdes for any queries around the organisation of the course, as well as the HP Assessment Kit: lourdes@jumpleapfly.co.za
- Elke for issues around content or payment of the course or technical issues: haendigkeitsprofil@yahoo.com
We look forward to meeting you!
