Monday, July 30, 2012

Handwriting Skill takes time to develop

We are hardwired to learn how to speak.  Babies discover that they can make a sound and begin to consciously make more sounds beginning around five months. They then continue on to form individual words such as Mama or Dada, then put two words together, then more words are put together and finally around the age of three years old full sentences are being spoken. We  accept that oral language takes time to develop.  Not acquiring verbal language in a reasonably appropriate time can be an indicator of further developmental delays.
We are not hardwired to write by hand. This is a skill that needs to be acquired, that is, taught by someone who has mastered the skill and learned by the student. For thousands of years young children have been able to acquire this skill. One factor remains a constant: it takes practice.
Cursive writing was quietly eliminated in a very gradual process. The subject remained in the official curriculum. Once it was taught for a short period of time, schools did not give any attention to the practice component. In other words, they were not required/expected to write in cursive after they were taught how to form the letters. This was a fundamental step in the decline of cursive. Teaching cursive only requires part of one year's curriculum, after that it's simply a matter of getting enough practice for the writing to become automatic. Speed of writing also increases through practice.
One educator told me that he was requested to type all tests and homework assignments because the students who were having difficulty with writing cursive would not be able to read the tests and this would put them at a disadvantage.
Educators today will tell parents that children will be fine if they are able to print. Many teachers are led to believe that cursive handwriting is simply too difficult for children to master nowadays. Today's children are able to master cursive writing, private schools, tutoring centres and most home schooled children prove that they are still able to write in cursive.
More children's activities:
Take a medium size wicker bread basket and put 20 or so large buttons or large tubular pasta in the basket.  Another child (or adult) hits the bottom of the basket firmly so the items in the basket "jump up".  The child must see how many of the items he/she can gather before they drop down into the basket again.  This activity encourages reflex development as well as grasping skills.
Blow bubbles outside at an easy to reach height for the child and then see how many bubbles the child can burst using one hand and then the other hand.
Edda Manley


  1. The exercises you recommend work at least as well (in my experience and observation) for the other styles of writing as they work for cursive. Please explain to me why you (apparently) limit them to cursive.

    By the way, it would be interesting to see the signatures (and other handwriting) of the members of the "Campaign for Cursive." Would the campaign's organizers consider showing the world a few paragraphs of their own handwriting?

  2. Fans of this blog may also enjoy this handwriting skills blog by a teacher:

  3. I am wondering how you'd convince a fluent writer of any of the non-cursive styles to change to cursive.

  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

  5. While we can all appreciate divergent opinions which can spark intelligent, constructive discourse on whether or not cursive is as necessary as learning to print or type in today's world, I feel it is important to simply acknowledge that cursive is being quietly and systematically eliminated in much public school education and that this loss of a fundamental pillar of learning can have far-reaching consequences for literacy, creativity and social interaction.

    It's one thing to discontinue the mandatory study of a dead language such as Latin, but to limit the potential expansiveness of a child's mind due to the constraints of 'time' seems, to me, simply tragic.

  6. Nice Blog.Thanks for sharing with us. Infect handwriting analysis is something which attracts me lot. I also had graphotherapy classes and feel the positive difference in me.