Righting Writing Wrongs

0 Comments | Insight on the News, August 14, 2000 | by Anne Veigle

Teachers are trying new ways of teaching the cursive style to correct illegible scrawls.

Handwriting often is a low priority in some schools. Children get coaching from kindergarten through third grade, but one-on-one instruction beyond that is rare, unless a child has significant difficulties. Youngsters quickly segue to computers, bypassing the struggle with pen and paper.

"Handwriting tends to be the least taught subject in school, other than lining up for gym," jokes Kate Gladstone, who runs Handwriting Repair in Albany, N.Y., a business that helps people improve their handwriting skills. "The amount of teaching varies widely from school to school, and there are about 50 different methods out there. Children get about 15 minutes of instruction once or twice a week. Then it is assumed that you know it."

Decades of limited emphasis on handwriting has produced a blight of poor penmanship that impedes communication -- sometimes with deadly consequences. Last year, a Texas jury awarded $450,000 to the family of a man who died after a pharmacist misread his doctor's handwritten prescription. The problem costs U.S. businesses $200 million annually, according to Zaner-Bloser, a Columbus, Ohio, publisher of handwriting textbooks for schools. Illegible handwriting on tax forms holds up delivery of nearly $100 million in refunds every year, the IRS estimates.

The decline in penmanship began in the 1930s, when educators began to shift emphasis from the elaborate handwriting styles popular in the 19th century. One hundred years ago, schoolchildren spent hours practicing the florid scripts popular at the time. "It was an era when so much more time was devoted to handwriting skills," says Nan Barchowsky, a handwriting expert who lives in Aberdeen, N.M.

Barchowsky has devised a method of writing based on her close study of the fine motor movements of elementary-school students. One of her core beliefs Children should not have to relearn a set of movements when they make the transition from print to cursive. She also says teachers and parents should make sure children develop a good posture and learn how to properly hold a pencil.

"Children should have their feet on the floor or on a stool for support, and their backs should not touch the chair," says Barchowsky. Desks and chairs should fit the child's body, an ideal that is often impossible in many schools. She recommends a slanted writing surface for beginners.

Lorette Konezny, an author of children's handwriting books, became interested in fine motor skills when her son, now 16, encountered difficulties learning to write. She took him to an occupational therapist, who determined that the boy had a problem with depth perception. After a summer of therapy, the boy's handwriting difficulties disappeared.

"I think that what is happening is that children are being required to write at much earlier ages than they were in the past," she says. "Many times, children become frustrated because they aren't really ready to write or they're not shown the proper patterns. I feel that it's important that we prepare them."

Karen Chase of Arlington, Va., recommends that parents relearn handwriting along with their children. "That way, the kids won't look at your writing and say, `That's not the way you make an H,'" she says. Like many adults, Chase has developed her own hybrid handwriting style that is half print and half cursive -- traditional cursive methods taught in schools are too cumbersome when people need to write quickly, handwriting experts note.

"It's been proven that most people can learn to write cursive and be reasonably neat -- if they write slowly," Gladstone says. "But can they keep it neat when they need to write fast? Usually not."

Ten-year-old Lauren Spaans of Grand Rapids, Mich., this year's winner of a penmanship contest sponsored by Zaner-Bloser, agrees. "Go slow," Spaans advises. She adds: "Practice. And have a pencil that you really like. Sharp pencils can make for neater handwriting."

Practice Makes Perfect

Computers are not an option as a replacement for learning handwriting, experts stress. Still, parents can find useful information about penmanship on the Internet. For an interesting collection of articles on the history of penmanship, see Parker Pen Products' Website (www.parkerpen.co.uk/history/index.html). Kathryn Stout, author of the Design-A-Study guides, has a Website (www.designastudy.com/teaching/tips-1198.html) with suggestions on helping children learn handwriting skills.

There are plenty of books on the subject, of course. Georges Jean gives some interesting background on the development of different writing styles in Writing: The Story of Alphabets and Scripts (Harry N. Abrams Discoveries Series, $12.95,208 pp). Rudolf Flesch offers practical suggestions on ways to improve penmanship, and delves into psychological reasons why some people have poor handwriting, in Art of Readable Writing (IDG Books Worldwide, $6, 256 pp). Handwriting Without Tears (Handwriting Without Tears, $6.50, 81 pp) by Janice Z. Olsen is a long-standing favorite of many occupational therapists who work with children struggling with handwriting. It offers a set of exercises and writing samples for practice.