[senco-forum] [SENco-forum] Death of Handwriting

It is not just the prettiness of one's script that is under discussion but
the whole impact that writing by hand has on exam grades. For this reason
alone schools need to take note - if they are bothered by league tables.

The undergraduates mentioned were tested on an essay written in class and
under exam conditions.  Under exam conditions they deteriorated to the speed
and legibility of 11 year olds.

It is great when ICT works and if you are an able child with OT diagnosed
DCD or similar there is every likelihood that you can use ICT, use it
effectively and use it in exams.

If however if you are a slow or poor handwriter due to hyper mobile joints
or dysgraphia (poor processing & poor writing) you are extremely unlikely to
be diagnosed by a professional and thus left to flounder come exam time.

Those with dyslexia rarely get to use ICT in class as their normal way of
working and as I have pointed out before have to turn off all functionality
except the typewriter element, which only solves half of their writing speed
or legibility issues.

As the school using PE to support better fine/gross motor skills does have
an impact on the children's handwriting. It is important to support
acquisition of this skill as writing is proving to be a precursor to
learning to read effectively. Yes there are studies before anyone asks -
Google Scholar   Assessing Handwriting.

Automaticity in handwriting frees up processing for higher level
compositional skills.  Cursive writers write at the same speed as printers
but in exams can write more and for longer and thus score higher marks.

Examiners and teachers used to be biased and award better marks to better
writing - by up to 2 grades - or 1 grade for cursive versus print - although
recent studies show this effect is diminishing.  Conversely studies of typed
versus handwritten show that typed essays are marked more harshly.  Teacher
expectations for typed essays now being one of better spelling /layout!

SpLD tutors encourage cursive for an alternate route to spelling, to remove
letter reversals and because acquisition of this skill sometimes puts them
ahead of peers in one area of the curriculum, building self confidence.
Handwriting has to be taught in a more kinaesthetic way for some as
non-visual routes i.e. muscle memory (close your eyes + scratch your nose)
lead to better writing, but are harder to train for those with
dyspraxia/dyslexia. it is that lack of automaticity again.

I use a big element of blind writing for those children in Year 4 who have
not managed to learn to cursive write or whose print is different sizes and
all over the page and it is very effective, as is a fine/gross motor
programmes "Speed Up" by Lois Addy.

Sharon Tringham

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