Handwriting practice makes perfect

Handwriting practice in schools has recently been criticised for being inconsistent and insufficient. We take a look at how you can help your child's handwriting practice and why it is so important.

According to a survey by the Institute of Education handwriting practice across and inside schools is inconsistent. A quarter of schools have no policy on teaching handwriting and over half of the teachers surveyed felt that they had not received sufficient training in the teaching of handwriting.

‘Unless children learn to write legibly and at speed their educational achievements may be reduced and their self-esteem affected,’ commented Professor Rhona Stainthorp, one of the researchers who carried out the survey. ‘Handwriting is an essential skill for everyone, even in this age of computer technology.’

Government research shows that a child who achieves a Level 4 at age 11 rather than a Level 3 will have the literacy skills crucial for their progress at secondary school. This includes the ability to write legibly, fluently and quickly in order to cope with tasks such as essay writing and note taking.

Why is handwriting practice so important?

At the start of the last academic year five per cent of 11 year olds in England moved on to secondary school with below average literacy skills – that means that almost 30,000 children will find it difficult to keep up with the demands of language learning of which writing plays a key part.

As Professor Stainthorp points out the impact is long term too. Figures show that of the pupils who reached Level 4 or above in English at Key Stage 2 in 2001, nearly 70 per cent went on to get five good A*-C grades at GCSE last summer, compared with only 11 per cent of those who didn’t reach Level 4.

The Institute of Education says that poor handwriting also impacts a child’s chances in further and higher education and may be just as much a handicap in the jobs market as poor reading and numeracy skills.

Some educationalists have even suggested there may be a link between behaviour and handwriting – a child who finds it difficult to keep up in class is more likely to look for other things to keep his or herself occupied.

Handwriting speed plays an important role too. The Institute of Education study found that only one fifth of schools taught children ways of increasing their speed.

Speed handwriting

Research carried out by psychologists at Columbia University shows that handwriting speed is important to the quantity and quality of children's written work. Obviously, the quicker a child is able to form his or her words the more words the child is able to produce. The Columbia research suggests that this ‘in turn lessens the burden on working memory and enables writers to use the limited capacity of working memory for the metacognitive processes needed to create good reader-friendly prose’.

In other words the child is able to concentrate on thinking through his or her ideas and arguments rather than on the effort to write. This pays dividends in term of concentration and maintaining healthy interest in learning.

So what do we mean when we talk about handwriting? Teacher Carl Dixon says there is a common misconception about the term ‘writing’ and teachers use the term loosely, too.

‘A teacher may say to a parent: “Your child will be attending a writing club”. Parents and carers may interpret this as attending a club to improve handwriting, the type referred to as cursive, a style of writing that is flowing and the letters are joined, as opposed to writing genre, which is content, the organisational aspects, grammar and punctuation. In truth it is all of these.’

How can you help your child's handwriting practice?

There are lots of ways you can support your child's handwriting at home. Here are a few tips...

• Provide your child with a special handwriting book and pen. The book should be lined and kept neat at all times. The pen or pencil should only be used for handwriting practice, this way it will stay novel and exciting for your child.
• Encourage your child to write letters. Whether it's to a friend, family member, neighbour, or teacher, keeping the art of letter-writing alive is a lovely way to help your child practice handwriting skills.
• Give plenty of encouragement. Not every child will find handwriting an easy task to grasp so it's important to offer plenty of support and be very patient. Try to identify areas or 'joins' that your child has difficulties with, and provide plenty of practice activities. For example if you child struggles with the join between 's' and 't', try providing a handwriting activity which uses plenty of words containing 'st'. The practice will help them feel comfortable with the join and they will begin to use it naturally.
• Do imaginary handwriting activities where your child's finger becomes the pen and they trace the words in the air. You could extend this to a tray of sand or a steamed up window. It will make the handwriting practice a lot more fun!
• Remember to think about posture - how your child sits when he or she writes, where they position the paper on the table, and whether his/her feet are flat on the floor. All these factors can affect a child's ability to write. Think straight backs, slightly slanted paper, and feet flat on the floor. No rocking back on the chair!
• If your child has difficulties gripping the pen, try a special easy-grip pen to begin with. You can buy these in stationery stores.