Handwriting Review 1996

Handwriting in a multicultural society.
Sue Walker and Viv Edwards

Many schools in the UK have bilingual children writing not only in other languages but also in other scripts. The Multilingual Resources for Children Project 1995 was set up to look at the nature and use of multilingual resources for reading, speaking and listening and writing in UK schools. The five most widely used minority languages in the UK are Chinese, Gujarati, Bengali, Urdu and Panjabi all of these are different writing systems from latin based English. The authors describe the different scripts and contrast them with English script and with the different approaches to teaching handwriting in the mainstream school system and the community schools. They suggest that bilingual writing skills are a rich resource for both mono and bilingual children.
 

Learning a second writing system.
Rosemary Sassoon

The manuals and copybooks in the English speaking world seem to assume that the same approach to learning English script can be used by English speaking infants and those whose first writing system is a non Latin alphabet. This approach ignores  both the special skills of the experienced writers and such matters as retraining the hand and body where a new direction of writing is involved. By a method of questioning, observation and writing samples from children in a number of countries the author has evolved her own formula for teaching a second writing system by looking at the rules that govern our own writing system and comparing them with the alternative writing system rules. She also emphasizes the physiological aspects of learning a new writing system especially when altering hand positions and paper position are necessary.
 

Pure agraphia of kanji.
Motohide Miyahara

The two writing systems of Japanese are referred to a kana and kanji. Kana are simple syllabograms similar to the Finnish alphabet whereas kanji are more complex and can capture meaning visually. Knowledge of 1900 essential kanji is necessary for reading signs, filling in forms or writing notes.  Pure agraphia of kanji causes impairment in the writing of kanji but not in writing kana or in reading either system. It is suggested that writing of kanji and kana involves processing by different neurological mechanisms. The author proceeds to describe case studies of this condition and comparisons of lexical agraphias in other writing systems, and to report on the types of brain lesions that create this disorder.
 

Capital letters: Are they an alphabet of difficulties for young children?
Cicely Haines

In 1992 the author looked at the difficulties children were having with the capital letters P and D in a short sentences copied from the blackboard and found errors in a third of copies. Assuming that similar errors were likely to affect all capital letters the author looked at young children's difficulty with using capital letters in their own names. The capital letters assessment scheme also looked at whether children have difficulty with capital letters in the whole alphabet and the relative difficulty of individual capital letters. The ages of the children ranged from 6 years 10 months to 8 years and 10 months and the task consisted of copying a sentence from the blackboard and writing their name. The results showed errors of mixing conventional forms of capital and lower case letters and difficulties with the correct height of letters, however success in using correct personal initial followed through into correct use of the capital in a a running text. This suggest that greater emphasis on learning capital letters should help reduce errors.
 

The Handwriting Skills of young early readers: one year on.
Di Hughes

This interim paper presents further findings concerning the development of handwriting of a group of children identified as being able to read fluently prior entry into reception, and a matching group of children who were not reading fluently before entering school. The paper is part of  a three year longitudinal study in which all aspects of reading and writing are being monitored.
 

Why look at school furniture?
Shirley Martin

The author suggests that whilst schools are limited by the furniture available to them they need to be aware that to achieve legible and fluent handwriting, children need to sit comfortably and well. They need furniture at appropriate heights, that flat tables and desks are not the most suitable for writing and that teachers need to be aware of the possible benefits of sloping desk/boards. Whilst she recommends some chairs and equipment, she suggests that teachers, designers, therapists and manufacturers need to share their knowledge to ensure that furniture design best meets the needs of the student as writers.
 

An assessment scheme for young children's handwriting.
Cicely Haines

The  assessment scheme was devised to allow for the monitoring of 6, 7 and 8 year olds progress in handwriting. This was achieved by looking at such features as; legibility, corrections, spacing between and within words, consistency of letter size, alignment, slant of letters, capital letters errors and quality of joins. Each category contained descriptive grades which were assessed subjectively, although a ruler was used to assess slant and alignment on unlined paper.
 

Handwriting: Why won't teachers change. The influences affecting the attitudes, expectations and perceptions of teachers' judgements of handwriting.
Mary E. Bailey

A study of 64 teachers form 15 primary schools found that 78% of teachers had no recollection of any instruction for teaching handwriting skills during teacher training. 54% of teachers had in service training to correct this. The author's conclusion from the study was that lack of professional training had pressurized some teachers to evolve handwriting practice recalled from their personal experience without regard to proven success or otherwise. Whilst professional development was improving, in-service training and classroom based research is poor and needs support from government and education leaders to improve.

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