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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