Writing with the non-adept is a co-factor in many neuro-divergent conditions. Identifying a possible mis-match between the writing and the adept hand represents a paradigm shift in how to conduct assessments for  personal, educational, medico-legal and legal purposes. Currently it is an unacknowledged co-factor in many seemingly intractable problems. Failure to eliminate the mis-match when present results in a needless waste of time, effort, resources and money for individuals, families, institutions and society as a whole. The paradigm shift is radical in two inter-locking ways

Practical

Each session, irrespective of the presenting problem, involves taking a seemingly irrelevant side step to establish whether there is a mis-match between the writing and the adept (wright) hand. This is done, incidently, using paper and pencil and object manipulation tasks. If the mis-match is found, then it cannot be eliminated as a co-factor in whatever the presenting problem happens to be. Remedying the mis-match must be considered as part of any treatment..

Conceptual:

The practice is grounded in a faceted rather than a components model of how humans act and interact with objects and with each other. The faceted model can be best imagined as a four-sided pyramid with each face representing physical, intellectual, emotional and social perspectives. One implication of this model is that if something is found to be out of kilter with one facet, then  something else will, on deeper probing, invariably be found to be out of kilter in one or other of the facets.

The ‘unit of analysis’ is therefore taken to be the interaction between individuals, and not the individual alone. The underlying rationale is that all presenting problems exist within some or other social context. In principle there are three types of interaction:

mutually beneficial: all parties to the interaction benefit by engaging in progressive problem shifting

mutually destructive: no party to the interaction benefits because they’re engaged in regressive problem shifting

zero-sum: one party gains / progesses and the other(s) lose(s) or remain(s) static