Handwriting is a very personal thing, and some argue that it can reveal a great deal about the writer. Whether or not this is true, handwriting does have certain important functions, which may help to distinguish between a “good” style and poorer one.
Writing That is Easy to Read
The main purpose of writing is to convey information or ideas clearly (legibly). Learning to write is a very involved process – not only do children have to grapple with a three-finger pencil grip, but they also have to learn letter shapes, correct formation (starting place and direction), letter-sound correspondences, word order, sentence construction and so on.
In some respects, learning to write is rather like learning to drive a car: each activity involves a set of distinct skills which each contribute to the overall outcome. In the case of driving, it would be difficult (and very ill-advised!) to forgo any particular element, for example, steering, changing gear, negotiating traffic, controlling speed etc.
Focusing on Handwriting Skills
Although it is important for children to develop a balance of skills, there are times when they should be allowed to concentrate on one particular aspect of the writing process, to relieve the pressure of trying to cope with everything all at once. Children should know what is expected of them, and practitioners should have a clear idea of what they are focusing on and assessing. If an activity is predominantly concerned with handwriting, then practitioners should not be distracted by children’s spelling (or misspelling).
Children need to develop a handwriting style that produces clearly formed, easily recognisable letters. Practitioners and families should encourage children to develop a style that is regular and flowing in order to help minimise the effort required to form letters, and avoid undue tension which might lead to fatigue.
Cursive Writing
A handwriting style could, therefore, be considered neat if it is regular and well formed. Schools usually have very clear guidelines about their “house” style – most prefer a cursive script with an exit stroke on letters such as “a” and “d”; some like both an in-stroke and an exit stroke.
These in- and out-strokes lay the foundation for joined-up writing and get children into good habits early on (correctly formed letters will be easy to join at a later stage, but incorrect ones may cause subsequent problems). However, they can be very tricky to master, initially – particularly anti-clockwise letters such as “a” and “g”, and those that involve re-tracing (“m” and “n”).
There are several important things to remember when learning to write letters:
- Where to put the pencil to start forming a letter
- Trying to keep the pencil on the paper throughout the letter (with the possible exception of letter “x”, dotting “i” and crossing “t”)
- Stopping at the appropriate place (for example, not repeatedly going round and round a letter “a”)
Reducing Letter Confusion
One of the advantages of learning a cursive handwriting script is that it helps to distinguish between similar letter shapes. Children often confuse “b”, “p” and “d” in a regular “ball and stick” kind of font, but these letters look quite different from one another when written in a cursive style with in-strokes and exit-strokes. This helps to avoid spelling mistakes arising from “secretarial” errors (as opposed to those stemming from a genuine lack of understanding about correct letter-sound correspondences).
Cursive writing may reduce common letter reversals – where children write certain letters back-to-front (although this is natural tendency in young children and decreases as children mature). It has also been argued that cursive writing helps to anchor letters onto the page (because ascenders and descenders look distinctively different), which may be of particular benefit to children with dyslexia.
As well as helping children’s writing to flow, cursive handwriting enables children to learn letter strings (a sequence of letters which form a spelling pattern) and even whole words, with relative ease. This is because the job of learning becomes a feat of muscular memory (rather like learning to write a signature) and relies less on the child having to sound-out each individual word from scratch.
Neat handwriting is worth the effort if it produces a more legible, flowing writing style, and families would be advised to follow the script recommended by the school or setting that their children attend. Having said this, however, a word of caution may also be wise – do not not forsake individuality for the sake of uniformity and conformity.
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