Dr Karen Ray
Lecturer
School of Health Sciences
- Email:karen.ray@newcastle.edu.au
- Phone:02 49854262
Career Summary
Biography
Karen is a registered occupational therapist and lecturer with The University of Newcastle, Australia. Karen has experience spanning thirty years, including mental health and paediatric services, primarily in school based settings. Karen has worked in clinical, educational and policy implementation roles in child and adult mental health. For the past ten years she has worked with schools, both as part of learning support teams and in conducting research focussing on interventions that maximise student participation, educational engagement and well being. As a clinician, Karen has enjoyed creating collaborative opportunities with schools to embed services that enhance child development and participation in education. This interest and focus on whole class, embedded approaches to occupational therapy in schools lead Karen into PhD studies. Karen's PhD investigated the impact of a whole class intervention for handwriting fluency in Kindergarten (the first year of formal schooling in NSW) and a particular focus on the downstream impacts of the intervention on literacy. Karen's Doctorate was supervised by both the School of Occupational Therapy and the School of Education at the University of Newcastle. Karen now works as a lecturer and course coordinator, bringing together her interest in cultivating future occupational therapists, and her desire to continue research in her fields of interest.
A major study has been undertaken through my PhD program involving the development and implementation of a whole class, co-taught approach to handwriting intervention for Kindergarten children, Write Start-K. The study has encompassed the evaluation of pilot data, the development of a theoretical model for handwriting fluency acquisition, and the revision and retesting of the program based on this model in a two group comparison study. Findings from the revised and updated intervention indicated that Write Start-K positively impacted handwriting fluency, reading and writing composition for the intervention group, with greater growth observed for the intervention group at post-intervention and follow up data collection points. This PhD program of study required high levels of collaboration with Department of Education staff, and a thorough knowledge of curriculum for Early Stage 1. My experience working directly for schools over a number of years has enabled this project to be successfully implemented and analysed. A number of publications attracting international interest have arisen from this work.
Qualifications
- Doctor of Philosophy in Occupational Therapy, University of Newcastle
- BACHELOR OF APPLIED SCIENCE (OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY), University of Sydney
Keywords
- Child development
- Co-teaching practices
- Handwriting fluency
- Occupational Therapy
- School based practice
Fields of Research
Code | Description | Percentage |
---|---|---|
520406 | Sensory processes, perception and performance | 40 |
321302 | Infant and child health | 60 |
Professional Experience
UON Appointment
Title | Organisation / Department |
---|---|
Lecturer | University of Newcastle School of Health Sciences Australia |
Awards
Prize
Year | Award |
---|---|
2021 |
School of Health Sciences HDR Publication of the Year School of Health Sciences, College of Health Medicine and Wellbeing, University of Newcastle |
Invitations
Speaker
Year | Title / Rationale |
---|---|
2023 | Letter Form Assessment: Background, use and interpretation |
Teaching
Code | Course | Role | Duration |
---|---|---|---|
OCCT 2253 |
Communication for Occupational Therapy Practice College of Health, Medicine & Wellbeing - The University of Newcastle |
Course Coordinator | 19/7/2021 - 3/9/2021 |
OCCT3264 |
Children Youth and Families: An Occupational Approach College Health, Medicine and Wellbeing - The University of Newcastle (Australia) |
Course Coordinator | 22/2/2021 - 2/4/2021 |
OCCT3264 |
Children Youth and Families: An Occupational Approach College Health, Medicine and Wellbeing - The University of Newcastle (Australia) |
Course Coordinator | 21/2/2022 - 1/4/2022 |
OCCT 2254 |
Beginning Professional Practice Occupational Therapy College of Health, Medicine & Wellbeing - The University of Newcastle |
Course Coordinator | 19/7/2021 - 19/11/2021 |
Publications
For publications that are currently unpublished or in-press, details are shown in italics.
Journal article (5 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link | ||||||||
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2024 |
Bailey B, Ray K, 'Spelling and Autism: a Narrative Review of Recent Developments and Directions for New Research Priorities', CURRENT DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS REPORTS, [C1]
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Nova | |||||||||
2022 |
Ray K, Dally K, Rowlandson L, Tam KI, Lane AE, 'The relationship of handwriting ability and literacy in kindergarten: a systematic review', READING AND WRITING, 35 1119-1155 (2022) [C1]
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Nova | |||||||||
2022 |
Ray K, Dally K, Lane AE, 'Impact of A Co-taught Handwriting Intervention for Kindergarten Children in A School Setting: A Pilot, Single Cohort Study', Journal of Occupational Therapy, Schools, and Early Intervention, 15 244-264 (2022) [C1] Write Start is a co-taught, whole of class approach to handwriting instruction developed for students in grade one and delivered collaboratively by teachers and occupational thera... [more] Write Start is a co-taught, whole of class approach to handwriting instruction developed for students in grade one and delivered collaboratively by teachers and occupational therapists. Write Start emphasizes the development of handwriting fluency utilizing evidence-based cognitive and perceptual motor strategies within a station-based teaching approach. This pilot study assessed the impact of a modified Write Start on handwriting fluency in Australian kindergarten students (first year of formal schooling), and investigated the effects of early literacy on intervention outcomes using a retrospective analysis of existing clinical data. Participants were kindergarten students (n¿=¿81; mean age¿=¿65.9¿months) attending a large independent primary school in a regional metropolitan center. Participants received the modified Write Start, over one school term, in two x 45 minute sessions per week for 8 weeks. Handwriting fluency was measured pre- and post-intervention using a researcher-designed tool, the Letter Form Assessment (LFA), based on and extending commonly used measures. LFA scores for the whole cohort were significantly higher post-intervention, indicating improved handwriting after the intervention (Z¿=¿-4.457, p <¿.0001). In order to determine if school entry ability impacted responsiveness to the intervention, students were assigned to a high or low performing tier based on scores from three early literacy skills measured by teachers as part of routine assessment at school entry (n¿=¿70). There was no effect of Low or High Tier literacy skills groupings on change to LFA score for phonics (f (19, 50)¿=¿1.11, p =¿.36), phonemic awareness (f (19,50)¿=¿1.32, p =¿.21) or writing (f (19,50)¿=¿0.59, p =¿.89). The modified Write Start shows promise as an effective intervention for kindergarten handwriting, however further revisions and testing should address the potential impact of literacy and the interrelationship of perceptual motor and cognitive skills on outcomes.
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Nova | |||||||||
2021 |
Ray K, Dally K, Colyvas K, Lane AE, 'The Effects of a Whole-Class Kindergarten Handwriting Intervention on Early Reading Skills', Reading Research Quarterly, 56 S193-S207 (2021) [C1] The ultimate goal of reading is to comprehend written text, and this goal can only be attained if the reader can decode written words and understand their meanings. The science of... [more] The ultimate goal of reading is to comprehend written text, and this goal can only be attained if the reader can decode written words and understand their meanings. The science of reading has provided compelling evidence for the subskills that form the foundation of decoding. Decoding words requires understanding of the alphabetic principle and letter¿sound, or grapheme¿phoneme, correspondence. In the first year of formal schooling (kindergarten), this same understanding is also required for young learners who are learning to write the letters of the alphabet. In this article, we examine the effectiveness of a handwriting intervention, Write Start¿K, that emphasizes the recall, retrieval, reproduction, and repetition (the 4Rs model) of grapheme¿phoneme relations. We conducted a two-group, pre/posttest study at two Australian schools across four kindergarten classes (n = 77 students). One school received the intervention, and the other continued with standard teaching. Participants (mean age¿= 5 years 8.45 months, standard deviation = 4.18 months) at both schools were assessed at baseline, immediately after the eight-week intervention period, and at 12 weeks following the end of the intervention (follow-up). We used linear mixed models to determine the statistical significance of effects over three time intervals. We identified statistically significant Group × Time effects for letter name knowledge and word reading, whereas changes in letter sound knowledge and nonsense word¿reading fluency approached statistical significance. These results indicate that a handwriting intervention, incorporating repeated practice in recalling and reproducing letter forms, had a statistically significant impact on early reading skills.
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Nova | |||||||||
2021 |
Sheedy AJ, Brent J, Dally K, Ray K, Lane AE, 'Handwriting Readiness among Digital Native Kindergarten Students', Physical and Occupational Therapy in Pediatrics, 41 655-669 (2021) [C1] Aims: Handwriting is an essential life skill, impacted by proficiency in visual-motor integration and fine motor control. The increase in the use of digital technology has changed... [more] Aims: Handwriting is an essential life skill, impacted by proficiency in visual-motor integration and fine motor control. The increase in the use of digital technology has changed the way children interact with their environments, and potentially, the development of the important requisite skills for handwriting. This study examined the ¿handwriting readiness¿ skills of children born in the digital age. Methods: 219 children in their first year of formal schooling (mean age = 5 years, 10 months), completed the Beery Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration (Beery-VMI) and the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, Second Edition (BOT-2) Short Form to assess visual motor integration, overall motor proficiency, and fine motor proficiency. Pencil grasp was also observed. Data analysis consisted of descriptive statistics and comparison to established normative data using summary t-tests. Results: Participants met the expected performance level on the Beery-VMI and the manual dexterity subtest of the BOT-2. However, overall motor proficiency on the BOT-2 for our sample was lower than published normative data. Further, 60.3% of participants used static pencil grasps. Conclusions: The findings prompt us to question the potential contribution of digital technology to changes in motor performance among children in the digital age.
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Nova | |||||||||
Show 2 more journal articles |
Creative Work (1 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link |
---|---|---|---|
2023 | Ray K, Letter Form Assessment Version 2 (LFA), Callaghan, NSW (2023) |
Other (1 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2021 |
Ray K, Lane AE, Dally K, 'Learning to read the write way', Learning to read the write way. Callaghan, New South Wales: The University of Newcastle (2021)
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Grants and Funding
Summary
Number of grants | 3 |
---|---|
Total funding | $6,838 |
Click on a grant title below to expand the full details for that specific grant.
20231 grants / $875
Conference Support Grant$875
Funding body: School of Health Sciences, College of Health Medicine and Wellbeing, University of Newcastle
Funding body | School of Health Sciences, College of Health Medicine and Wellbeing, University of Newcastle |
---|---|
Project Team | Karen Ray |
Scheme | Conference Support Grant |
Role | Lead |
Funding Start | 2023 |
Funding Finish | 2024 |
GNo | |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | N |
20221 grants / $2,489
Letter Form Assessment training module development$2,489
Funding body: School of Health Science, Faculty of Health & Medicine, The University of Newcastle
Funding body | School of Health Science, Faculty of Health & Medicine, The University of Newcastle |
---|---|
Project Team | Karen Ray, Tennille Johnson |
Scheme | Start-Up Funds |
Role | Lead |
Funding Start | 2022 |
Funding Finish | 2022 |
GNo | |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | N |
20211 grants / $3,474
Impacting kindergarten literacy through handwriting: Effective assessment to evaluate intervention. $3,474
Funding body: School of Health Sciences
Funding body | School of Health Sciences |
---|---|
Project Team | Karen Ray, Alison Lane, Kerry Dally, Kim Colyvas, Dianne Blackwell |
Scheme | Research Support Grant Scheme |
Role | Lead |
Funding Start | 2021 |
Funding Finish | 2021 |
GNo | |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | N |
Dr Karen Ray
Position
Lecturer
School of Health Sciences
College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing
Contact Details
karen.ray@newcastle.edu.au | |
Phone | 02 49854262 |
Link |
Office
Room | HE24 |
---|---|
Building | Hunter Building |
Location | Callaghan University Drive Callaghan, NSW 2308 Australia |