Most of us
have been writing for nearly all our lives, and we don’t really think about it
that much. But have you ever taught a child how to write? This is actually a
pretty difficult task. For instance, take the word ‘cub.’ Assuming that the
child already recognizes all their letters and is only in need of learning how
to write, there are still many obstacles to overcome. In print, or manuscript,
style writing you will have to tell your child that c’s start at the top right and
curve their way down, u’s start at the top left, not the right, and that b
starts even higher up on the top left. Every letter has a certain starting
place, and there is a certain distance needed to separate it from its cohorts,
and a different spacing is required between words. There are so many rules to
consider while writing sentences, most of which are not readily apparent to
children, that we just take for granted. It’s no wonder children have a hard
time learning to write!
See,
learning proper handwriting can be quite difficult. There are many different
points from which various letters start, and there is a seemingly random order
in which the pencil strokes are required to follow in order to make each
letter. Especially confusing are those letters that are mirror images of each
other, such as ‘b’ and ‘d’ and, ‘p’ and ‘q.’ Many a time
have I seen that classic mistake of writing one of these letters backwards! I
myself am guilty of having made that mistake in the past. In addition to these
troubles, there are even physical drawbacks with handwriting, such as your hand
and wrist becoming sore and cramped after several minutes of writing. Acquiring
all the various fine motor motions required for the different letters is quite
difficult for children, who will spend hours mastering them. Also, drawing
straight lines and perfectly round circles does not come naturally to children,
who will be frustrated with themselves when their lines aren’t perfect. Another
pitfall for young writers is proper, or rather, improper, spacing. They’ll have
to know and remember the proper spacing, and they’ll need to remember to write
their letters correctly, and they’ll need to remember to combine those two! There
is so much for green writers to remember, and that is what makes handwriting so
difficult, especially for children.
What might
be a good solution to many of these problems? Surprisingly enough, teaching our children to write in cursive
first! I’m not saying do away with manuscript, but simply to start with
cursive and then let the print come naturally afterward. We tend to think of
cursive as being much more difficult than manuscript, and so starting there
seems very counterintuitive. Indeed, you can go through your whole life without
ever needing to use cursive, except for signatures, so why even bother? Some
people even wonder why cursive is still taught at all. However, once you look
at it deeper, you will see the benefits of cursive handwriting, especially when
children are just learning to write.
See, each
word is a solid unit, with all the letters connected to each other. This
cements the idea of words being made up by letters, and prevents confusion
regarding word and letter spacing. Every letter begins at the bottom left,
which totally removes the quandary of wondering where to start, and makes
connecting your letters quite efficient. Also, connected letters help children
learn to spell better, as they will recognize spelling patterns quickly as
certain letter patterns appear over and over again. These patterns will be
reinforced by script handwriting with the letters being directly connected.
Additionally, the motion of writing each letter comes much more naturally, and
if the curve of your letter is slightly off, it won’t be a big deal. This is
not the case in manuscript, where a crooked line an off-kilter circle stares up
menacingly at all future readers. Cursive excels even by means of long term benefits.
The speed of word writing is overall faster, making it more useful for note
taking and timed quizzes, and after several minutes of writing your wrist will
still be doing fairly well. When I did all my writing in print, after a few
minutes of writing my hand would cramp up, and I’d have to take a break and
rest my hand. When I switched to cursive, I could write for almost twice as
long before needing a break.
When I first
considered the cursive-first approach, I was skeptical. Maybe there are several
advantages to writing in cursive, but still, why would you choose a style that
is inherently harder to learn? Well, as I found out, it’s not. The curves and
loops of cursive come more naturally than straight lines and round circles.
Indeed, cursive has a surprisingly small number of ways to form letters. Samuel
Blumenfeld, who has spent much of his career investigating the decline in
American literacy, said, “…all of
cursive writing consists of only three movements: the undercurve, the
overcurve, and the up and down. That’s all there is to it.”[1] But what
about some of the other challenges. Perhaps children will become confused,
writing in cursive while at the same time reading books in manuscript. This
seemed like it could be a big problem, but once I looked into it, I found most
children actually don’t have much trouble with it. In fact, it’s quite the
opposite. Blumenfeld again, “All of us
who learned cursive-first had no problem learning to read printed words. In
fact, it helped us.”[2] He goes on
to talk about those mirror image letters, such as b’s, d’s, p’s, and q’s that
give lots of trouble to children nowadays that just don’t pose a problem for
cursive writers. Why? Because when you write those letters in script, they look
fundamentally different. You simply will never confuse an ‘f’ for a ‘t.’
So, teaching
our children cursive first is a great option. It will be easier to master, help
with learning how to spell correctly, and provide a fast pain-free mode of
writing. With so many benefits short and long term, teaching your child cursive
first is a smart move.
Bibliography
Blumenfeld, Samuel. How Should We Teach Our Children to Write?
June 13th, 2012. Accessed
October 2nd, 2016. http://www.thenewamerican.com/reviews/opinion/item/11707-
how-should-we-teach-our-children-to-write
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