Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional NYT article on handwriting

Interesting article on the link between handwriting and broader educational development.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/03/science/whats-lost-as-handwriting-fades.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0

For my dysgraphic kid, learning cursive ended up being a good thing. She found cursive much easier than printing. Although she still lacks automaticity, we noticed an improvement in her writing and spelling when she learned cursive. I always assumed that it was a developmental coincidence. Maybe there was more of a link than I realized.

When I started my DD in the elementary school both my kids both attended for K there curriculum taught cursive in Kindergarten, it was one of the things that made the school unique. There was a theory that for many students cursive was easier to learn to write, but harder to learn to read. But by the time my son started this had been removed to make the school conform more to district standards and cursive wasn't taught till 3rd grade.

Interesting article Knute - not sure I agree with all it's trying to deduce, but thanks for posting it! The thing I'm skeptical of, having the experience of raising a dysgraphic child, is the implication that if handwriting is no longer emphasized something large will be lost in our "broader educational development". Why wouldn't our adaptable brains find other ways of developing? What might happen if we look a step further in time and brain development than the study did - isn't it possible that we'd not only find our brains compensated adequately in other ways, but perhaps something even more amazing in terms of development was able to unfold?

Having watched my ds' development, I suspect dysgraphia prevented him from development of *early* reading - but once he cracked the code, he learned to read almost overnight, and that happened in kindergarten. We'll probably never know if the reason he couldn't really identify an "F" or "P" clearly on his kindy entrance interview, or the reason he wouldn't play alphabet games like other preschool kids was due to dysgraphia-related challenges or simply his meant-to-be developmental curve, but by the end of first grade he was able to read college-level material. Likewise I just can't see that there's been an impact on his academics outside of skills directly impacted by dysgraphia.

Re cursive, I had heard early on that cursive is easier for many dysgraphics to learn than printing. Our neuropsych told us it is because the pencil isn't lifted off the paper as frequently as it is in printing. Our school didn't teach cursive until 4th grade, but ds was able to learn to write cursive with daily practice in the classroom and his cursive looked very neat and legible (compared to his printing), and cursive was his preferred method of handwriting for the two years (4th and 5th grade) that it was actively being taught in his classroom. Then the summer after 5th grade happened, and in the fall when he returned to the classroom, he'd lost all memory of how to form cursive letters. For a year or so he could still sign his name in cursive because he'd had to repeat that enough to remember how to do it each time, but today, just a few years later, he has difficulty even remembering how to sign his name in cursive and usually defaults to print.

polarbear

ps - our kids' preschool's philosophy was that children learn to write before they learn to read - I'm not sure if that's a typical Montessori approach or not, but it was definitely a different approach than other preschools in our area. My friends' kids in other preschools were learning letter-sound correspondence, our kids were tracing letters in sand, making "rainbow" letters etc and then writing out words etc.

My three kids attended a French immersion school and they learned cursive in kindergarten. I recall learning cursive in 2nd grade. I don't think they teach cursive in our public schools anymore.

I totally agree. I hate these type of articles, honestly... Now that I have a really really bright kid who simply can not write I find them painful and painfully myopic.

This has been our experience as well. Also my DS's reading and math is soaring ahead... He is grade levels above in both all of which happened mostly the year he does the very least amount of writing due to having a scribe and access to typing.

I haven't posted in awhile but was totally thinking of all of you, when I read the article! My DS had complete separation between reading and writing, totally gifted in reading and very behind in writing. We really saw what the article is talking about though, when they starting on cursive this year in 2nd. His school is wonderful about his IEP, he has great typing accommodations and his teacher is terrific - and yet still she doesn't automatically do the accommodations, was making him ask for it, etc, so he was still feeling the stress despite being supported. So then they introduce cursive and suddenly his letters are all the same size, there is spacing between the words, you can read his handwriting! He is now drawing! His printing is still mostly awful and math, he needs a lot of space (which drives me nuts that the teacher is still not giving him more space on the math tests) but something about doing cursive has really changed things, especially in terms of confidence. But it doesn't not carry over to printing where he makes every letter differently each time he does.

DeHe

Cool! I have tried to get OT at school to teach DS cursive to no avail (DS wants to learn it). Do you think I could private OT over the summer for it? I'd love to see if we have the same or similar good results!

Possibly.. DS does do it with his OT, the school OT always does what is going on in school. But is also very supportive generally, DS chose lace up sneakers after turning 8 I think he was the only one with Velcro and I was dying knowing that it was going to add forever to getting out of the house, but he was motivated and OT also worked with him.

We do work over the summer before camp, this year it will be 2 days typing, 1 day journal, 1 day drawing, 1 day math (we make him write it out but it breaks up the monotony) and I day with HWT. We bought this

HWT 4

He did this one in school:
HWT 3

He really likes the program. and is willing to work on it on his own

DeHe