By Ruthie Swibel, Director of Translational Research

If you’ve worked with a struggling reader before, then you probably know that handwriting practice is usually a less-than-joyful experience. It can be tempting to just let it go, especially since we know how prevalent digital text is. But if we let handwriting go, we are actually taking away a valuable opportunity for students to improve their reading and spelling skills. 

Reading and writing are skills that are based on language, and guess what—so is handwriting! When we understand handwriting as a language skill and not just a motor skill, we can begin to understand how critical it is. The act of handwriting engages and integrates the visual, motor, and oral language systems and is directly related to language and literacy development. Explicit instruction in handwriting directly impacts reading and spelling skills (Beringer and Wolf 2012, 2106, 2018). An interesting study in 2016 looked at two groups of low-achieving first grade students. One group received handwriting instruction embedded into a multi-sensory, Orton-Gillingham-based instructional curriculum, while others received the same instruction without explicit handwriting instruction. The handwriting group showed more growth in both reading and spelling than those who received remediation in Orton-Gillingham-based instruction without an explicit focus on handwriting. Students with and without learning disabilities benefit from this instruction and it doesn’t have to be super time-intensive or laborious. Research shows that just 15 minutes of daily handwriting practice is all you need!

If handwriting instruction has been relegated to old-school-instruction-status, then cursive writing probably seems like an ancient relic of a time when our ancestors dipped quills in ink to write. Before you dismiss cursive as an ancient art, consider that there is a solid research basis that demonstrates the benefit of cursive over print for struggling readers. Cursive allows for a continuous flow of letter formation that can benefit students who struggle to retain all of the letters and sounds in a word. Cursive also activates motor memory which is useful for struggling spellers, reduces letter reversals, and simplifies connecting the letters to form words. 

While handwriting instruction doesn’t need to take a big chunk out of your daily instructional time, continuity is key. Students need 2 years of instruction to automatize the handwriting process (Beringer, Wolf, & Abbott, 2016). If you introduce cursive for a period of 3 months and see that your students revert to print, remember it takes 2 years of instruction! There is also no baseline level skill required in print before introducing cursive, so get started! Because handwriting is a motor-language skill that impacts reading and spelling, it is super helpful to have students verbalize the sounds of the letters (or letter combinations) as they write. Research does not support having students recite the formation of the strokes as some programs require. But it is very clear that if students say the sounds of the letters AS they write they are solidifying foundational skills of phonemic awareness and letter-sound correspondence. Stay strong in your insistence that students practice handwriting while saying the sounds of the letters aloud and you will see the results in student writing, spelling, and reading skills.