Steve Graham, speaking at the the Division for Learning Disabilities conference in Charleston (SC; US). Explained how important it is for children with Learning Disabilities to become fluent in handwriting and spelling. The speed of students’ handwriting and the accuracy of their spelling accounts for substantial amounts of the variance in the quality of their narrative and expository compositions at both the primary and upper elementary grades. He went on to explain studies he and his colleagues have conducted about teaching spelling and handwriting as an integral part of their language arts instruction.
The picture here shows Steve and me preparing to make an audio recording of some of the highlights of his presentation. The audio recording along with some slides showing the data from their studies and examples of the teaching methods will be available at TeachingLD.org later this fall.
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So how do you get LD kids to become fluent handwriters? Many of the LD kids I know are danged fast keyboardists but laborious at handwritten work. How about the kids with various fine-motor issues that interfere with legibility?
Here’s a research suggestion: take kids with lousy handwriting. Get samples from relatives (sibs + parents + parents’ sibs). Compare. Is poor fine-motor heritable?
My daugher’s handwriting and her brother’s are very similar, even though they are 10 years apart in age and did not have the same spelling instruction.
What about studies on methodologies of teaching handwriting? Is cursive a waste of time?