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So for a long time, people have thought my obsession with my children’s lousy handwriting, and that of my husband, for that matter, seemed quirky. Yet, in recent research out of Vanderbilt University by Dr. Steve Graham, we’ve found out that the ability to handwrite is tied to our ability to express ourselves fluently.

In the article that appeared in Newsweek Magazine, many teachers haven’t been trained to teach handwriting, nor have parents been told it’s a building block of learning, and something to spend time on at home. It turns out, handwriting fluency is not just a quaint old-fashioned skill, but is a building block to expressive language skills. Through handwriting, kids learn to take what they hear and read, and learn how to mentally manipulate it, transpose it, and then re-encode all this information into original thought and writing.

So for all of you who read GNM Parents, take the time to make sure your children work on handwriting. Workbooks that are fun and easy are available at very low cost- under $5.00 through Handwriting Without Tears- in five minutes a day you can make a significant impact on your child’s handwriting and on their education. Take it from someone who has children struggling with this issue now. Middle school is a little late to be re-training a child’s penmanship. And since schools are not devoting any time to it, you will need to work on this at home to improve it.

-Note- Both of my children are good typists, and the oldest now has an Alphasmart to use in school every day. However, knowing how to type has not “saved” them as everyone assumes. Too many worksheets and spelling tests require handwriting; standardized tests require handwritten essays- even colleges require students to handwrite in bluebooks.

Moreover, the delays in their written expression skills has been directly related to the difficulty they have in handwriting. They have become minimalists, writing as little as possible to get them by. Once this becomes a habit, asking them to express themselves in longer, more eloquent ways, is quite difficult.

Please, everyone- take handwriting, good band and indifferent seriously, and make sure your kids feel comfortable handwriting. Make sure they can do so speedily and automatically. You won’t be sorry.
Here’s an excerpt from the Newsweek article:

All this matters, educators say, because evidence is growing that handwriting fluency is a fundamental building block of learning. Emily Knapton, director of program development at Handwriting Without Tears, believes that “when kids struggle with handwriting, it filters into all their academics. Spelling becomes a problem; math becomes a problem because they reverse their numbers. All of these subjects would be much easier for these kids to learn if handwriting was an automatic process.” That concern, in part, prompted the addition of a written essay to the SAT, which is graded for content, though not legibility. “If you put something like a writing test on the SAT, children’s skill level will begin to be addressed,” says Ed Hardin, a senior content specialist at the College Board. The trickle-down effect to middle schools should eventually reach third grade, where the trouble so often begins.

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No one is predicting, or even recommending, a return to the days when children obsessively practiced the curlicues on their Palmer Method capitals. Beauty seems to be less important than fluidity and speed. Graham’s work, and others’, has shown that from kindergarten through fourth grade, kids think and write at the same time. (Only later is mental composition divorced from the physical process of handwriting.) If they have to struggle to remember how to make their letters, their ability to express themselves will suffer. The motions have to be automatic, both for expressive writing and for another skill that students will need later in life, note-taking. “Measures of speed among elementary-school students are good predictors of the quality and quantity of their writing in middle school,” says Stephen Peverly, a professor of psychology and education at Columbia University’s Teachers College. “I don’t care about legibility.”