First, I know of research to determine the effect of handwriting instruction on the cognition of young children, the difference between learning keyboarding only, and learning handwriting as well. Some of this research has been noted in my earlier blogs.

Second, I know of no research that proves one program is better that others. If you know of such, please let me know. A reason why it may not exist is that it would require following a large number of students who learned to write with each of many programs from Kindergarten at least into high school. At least 9 years!

The best a school or individual can do in choosing a program is to select one that appears to have easy letters and numerals, ones that incorporate the natural movement of hands, and that appears to yield legibility.

She believed that a  model alphabet is needed for beginners. Hers was simple and designed to fit the most natural movements of the hand. She believed that once learned, children should move on from the model to develop personal hands. This is something Sassoon, as mentor, impressed upon me, and which I try to follow in my own instruction.

The norm among handwriting programs is to provide initial letterforms, and to continue with exemplars, grade-by-grade, with larger characters for beginners to copy, followed by increasingly smaller ones to imitate.

Sassoon’s book includes this says-it-all quote from Richardson.

‘As I watched I gradually realised the supreme importance of natural movement and saw that the gestures made were those, and only those, of which the hand was most easily capable.By scribbling they were teaching themselves both to write and draw…I saw that in scribble the same patterns occurred over and over again, and reduced themselves to six that were separate and essential; that in shape every letter of our alphabet was but a variation of these themes.’

Two things are missing in most handwriting programs, attention to natural movement within the design of the letterforms, and allowance for students to develop personal hands.

Be patient as you observe and find clues to handwriting. Make no verbal remarks about the images. You might suggest starting the image over on the left, or at the top, especially if the child says he or she is “writing.” Remember the child may be imitating you when you have pen in hand, apparently doing something important. Resist the temptation to say, Oh, that looks like an “a,” a “B” or….

Academic Success

As parents we are eager that our children progress as rapidly as possible toward academic success. The general tendency in many countries is to teach “readin’, writin’ and ‘rithmatic” too early. Consider Finland where fifteen year-olds lead the world in all subjects. Children start school at seven. It is enlightening to Google Finland’s education to see their approach to schooling.

Finns believe children should have ample time to learn through play, both independent, and through interaction with other children.

I recently visited my grandchild’s family. I watched the one year-old as she explored and examined her surroundings. She has learned that the food in the cat’s bowl is not her food, and that she can drag a laundry hamper around to make a chair for herself. So many discoveries every day! I have not seen her with a marker, but plenty of time for that!

I Digressed

If marks a child makes are simply imaginary images, the lines are apt to flow freely with few sharp turns and straight lines.

However if the child is pretending to write, lines may be stiff, straight or roundish. He or she may be emulating the letter shapes in books. Letters that make up the words in children’s books are close to the print-script or manuscript usually taught to beginners. The theory is that it is easier to learn to read and write if all the letters are similar.

Strokes that make up a print-script alphabet have little relationship to the natural movements of the hand. The lines in those imaginary images have the rhythm and flow that we need to encourage for fluency in handwriting.

The problem is that the strokes that make up the print-script models have little relationship to natural movements of hands. The lines in the child’s imaginary images have the rhythm and flow that we should encourage for fluency in handwriting.

The first attempts to form letters, even those composed of the easiest strokes, may be more slowly drawn than written, but for the long haul simple, rhythmic strokes will win the day for development of age-appropriate speed and legibility.

Rhythmic movement is important; equally important to the goal of good handwriting is posture. You can help with the early scribbles without intruding on a child’s creative play. Provide broken chalk, broken crayons and short pencils. Why broken, and not brand new? It’s how you train a young hand to hold a writing tool in a relaxed manner, so lines will flow with ease, not with tension. The short object fits a small hand best. It encourages the hold to be with index finger and thumb, and with some support by the third finger, while the palm of the hand is open. A full length pencil fits a small hand poorly.

Lots of positive pre-writing play can lead to the fun of learning to communicate handwritten thoughts in which the child can take pride.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/letters-make-words/id478304226?ls=1&mt=8

“Thanks,  I’ve been wanting to retrain myself in handwriting for a while,
and got back to cursive, but I wish had known about your method earlier.”

Of course, the Barchowsky Fluent Handwriting method in Fix It…Write is cursive, as it flows easily from letter to letter, but most define the method with loops and swirls as cursive.

My name is Atula, and I am thrilled to send you an e-mail. I love your writing method and it is helping me a lot in school. I am in 5th grade. I go to [school name deleted for the student's protection]. I had a couple of questions about your handwriting manual, and I hope you can answer them. I am confused on how to connect the letter x to any other letter. The letter itself is shown very clearly in the manual, but there are no word examples and  whenever I join x, it interrupts my fluency and I have to slow down. In conventional cursive, the x is very curvy, so it is easy to write quickly, but it is rather hard to read in my opinion. I know x is one of those tricky letters out there, like k. Speaking of k, whenever I am in a hurry and I write a BFH k, it looks almost like a too-long capital R. Could you help me with these problems, please? Thank you!

Of course I responded!